Last night we booked a trip to Comino and the Blue Lagoon. So we were up fairly early and following a light breakfast of croissant and coffee for me, and toast and tea for Nicola, we headed over to the Phoenica Hotel where the bus was picking us up.

On the way we walked past the statue of Christ the King. This statue commemorates the 24th International Eucharistic Congress where Roman Catholic cardinals, archbishops, clergy and lay people from around the world gather together for a series of ceremonies. This was held in Malta in 1913.

A little bit further down is the statue of Independence. The statue shows a lady stepping forward to freedom and holding the Maltese national flag.

Eventually our tour bus came to pick us up and drove us to the harbour in Sliema where we then boarded our cruise boat that would take us over to Camino.

I thought we had booked on a Catameran but that was a different trip so the boat we were on was bigger than expected and with quite a few people on board.

At Sliema you could look back to get a view of Valletta and also across to St Juliens which is the party area in Malta.

The boat stopped at Bugibba to pick up more passengers so we got to see the statue of St Paul on St Paul’s (Selmunett) island, from a distance. This island has been uninhabited since WWII. It is believed that St Paul was shipwrecked here on his way to face charges in Rome.

We passed by Comino as we went on to Gozo – which we weren’t expecting. Apparently some passengers were getting off at Gozo to do a bus tour around the island. We had a baguette for lunch on the boat and some soft drinks.

You could see the Comino tower on the island which is also known as St Mary’s tower and was used to protect the island from pirates. Now it is used used as a lookout to protect migratory birds.

We eventually ended up at the Blue Lagoon in Comino. Here we jumped on a speed boat that took us on a little journey around the caves of Santa Marija.

These shallow caves are a complex consisting of more than 10 caves and are a popular dive spot in Malta.

The speed boat tour took around 30 minutes and was exhilarating and fun. As we made our way back to the blue lagoon you could just see the elephant rock which is a natural formation of the rock.

It was quite busy when we got back to the blue lagoon but we managed to find a little area to sit down and where we could leave our things.

We decided to go for a swim and snorkel in the lovely crystal clear turquoise water. It was pretty chilly and as you headed out to the rocky areas you could see some fish.

We swam over to the smaller island of Cominotto. There was a small cave / tunnel that you can swim through to get to the other side of the small island. The water was really rough do we didn’t swim too far out.

I was getting a bit cold so swam back to Comino whilst Nicola did a bit more snorkelling. I saw some more fish swimming back

The Blue Lagoon is advertised as one of the must see places in Malta, but to be honest, whilst the waters were lovely and clear, I found it a bit underwhelming.

I took a couple of more photos looking out to Cominotto before we left.

We then headed back to the boat which was moored the other side of the lagoon and on the way we bought a cocktail.

As we headed back to Valletta the sun was setting behind us over the water which looked amazing.

It was also lovely to see Valletta all lit up at night.

When we arrived back in Valletta the Triton fountain was all lit up too, as was the bridge through the main city gates.

The opera house and cathedral were looking great too so I just had to take a photo of them as well. And Nicola took a great photo of one of the other buildings.

And lastly the lanterns were all alight down the side street.

We bought a large sausage roll by the bus station to eat on the way home.