After a busy schedule to date we decided not to set the alarms and just get up when we woke up. We were both awake around 830am so not a long lie in!

Our apartment is huge, loads of space but kind of a wierd layout in that there is just a curtain between the bedroom and bathroom. Also, because of the age and style of the building the walls and ceiling crumble a bit every day so the floor and furniture can get a bit dusty.

The stairs in the photo above are where you can climb out the window onto the fire escape stairs that lead up to the roof terrace.

We had heard that there was a boat race happening today and that the boats would be leaving from the Grand Harbour – right outside our apartment! With a bit of research we discovered it was the Rolex Middle Sea Race and there were around 114 boats taking part.

As we were having a relaxing morning we decided to cook ourselves an English Breakfast which we ate upstairs on the terrace. The Maltese sausages are called Wudys and are like hot dogs and they have cheese in the middle of them.

We prepared ourselves for front row seats for the race, balancing our chairs on top of pallets so we could see over the terrace wall, and arming ourselves with a bottle of fizz.

We could see all the sailing boats and a few catamarans gathering in the Harbour. The first wave was sent off with a blast from the cannon and it was the catamarans.

The next few waves all seemed to be similar style boats. You could see from their sails which country they were from.

The last race of the day was the larger racing boats and they were really impressive. As they headed out to the gap before the sea they all had to lean really hard one way.

I don’t know anything about sailing but it was exciting to watch the start of the race. Apparently the boats race for 2-3 days past the shadow of Mount Etna, through the Strait of Messina, around the active volcano of Stromboli, along the north and west coasts of Sicily down to the island of Lampedusa, off Tunisia, before returning to Malta.

As it was a relaxing day and the sun was shining we thought we would spend the afternoon on the beach. Having a quick look on google we settled for Fond Ghadir beach in Sliema.

It was quite a rocky beach and the sea was a bit choppy so it wasn’t that easy to get in and out. But we did go in and had a snorkel to see what we could find. There wasn’t a huge amount to see.

So we took some pictures of each other and ourselves instead.

It wasn’t the prettiest beach but it was close by and a nice spot to sunbathe.

Nicola went back in for a swim a bit later on but I stayed out in the sunshine! You can see some salt pans in the photo below. The shore around the beach is very rocky and wave action deposits water in the hollows in the rocks. When the water evaporates, salt crystals are left behind. At some point this natural hollows were made into salt pans to try and produce salt for commercial purposes. Salt was known as ‘White Gold’ during the medieval times as it was used to preserve food.

This is a view looking back over the beach.

We walked along the coast line for a bit to St Julian’s Tower. This is the 5th of 13 towers that were constructed to defend the coastline of Malta. Each of the 13 towers were built so that they were within sight of the next tower. Therefore, when one tower saw a raiding party approach from the sea, a signal would be passed from one tower to another and started a chain alert. During the day signals were passed by means of smoke signals and during the night it was bonfires.

As we carried on walking we saw a massive blue cat on someone’s roof.

After getting the bus back to Valletta we made a reservation at one of the restaurants for that evening. As we walked home we noticed a little shrine in the wall in the tunnel we walked through.

The photos below are our flat from the outside and the roundabout just at the end of our road.

Our meal at Il Ristoranto Italiano was delicious and we had a lovely bottle of white wine to go with it.

After dinner we wandered around and then made a stop down one of the small side streets for a cocktail as they had a singer there too.

It was a nice relaxing day.