After a homely breakfast we set off from Kinlochleven around 9:30am. The morning views from our room were pretty impressive.

It was quite sunny when we left but the day would bring showers too. There was an interesting gnome garden on the way out of town.

The initial bit of the walk was quite a steep climb through birch woodland.

We had a good view back to Kinlochleven and you could see the pipelines from the hydro-electric system. And Loch Leven itself.

After a long uphill walk we started to pass through Lairigmore, known as the great pass. We had sunshine and rain during this time, but when the sun was out it all looked amazing.

We continued on this path for many miles. After a while we came across the ruins of an old cottage in the area of Tigh-na-sleubhaich.

There were some other ruins a bit further down, but not so well preserved.

We continued walking along the old military road, through the Mamore mountains.

We found a comfortable spot to have some lunch, it had a pretty good view too.

We continued on the path and eventually got our first glimpse of Ben Nevis.

As we continued on walking the views got better.

The last one and a half miles of the route were along a road so there wasn’t much to see. We passed the former end of the West Highland Way.

In 2010 the end of the route was changed so you now walk through the town of Fort William to the statue of the rambling man.

It was so nice to reach the end – and with no blisters or injuries for either of us.

We wandered back through the town, passing a couple of churches, to our b&b for the night.

After a lovely hot shower we headed into town for a delicious dinner which included venison lasagne.

And after meeting another new friend, Meg, and a couple of beers, we headed to bed.

Today we walked 27.68km.

The breakfast this morning was brilliant, lots of variety, so we made sure we had plenty to eat before setting off.

The weather was not kind to us, it was raining quite heavily and very windy as well.

For the first 3 miles it was pretty bleak and remote.

After a while we started to climb the Devil’s staircase and you could look back over Glen Coe.

The Devil’s Staircase was initially given its name by the soldiers who were part of the road building programme of General Wade. The carrying of building materials up that stretch of the road was not popular! The name came into being when some of the workers building the Blackwater Dam chose to travel to the nearest pub after their wages had been paid out. For the workers at Kinlochleven the journey to the Kingshouse Hotel proved to be more difficult than many realised. The journey back was even worse as unsteady legs meant that many were unable to manage the return trip and, on a cold winter’s night, the devil often ”claimed his own“.

After around a 550m climb we made it to the top, the highest point of the WHW. Despite the weather the views were still pretty amazing.

As we continued walking you could see the Blackwater Reservoir.

This reservoir was built to drive the generators of the hydro-electric plant for what used to be the aluminium smelter at Kinlochleven.

As we continued walking the sun actually made an appearance, even though the wind was pretty relentless.

We walked past the hydro-electric plant and headed down into Kinlochleven through some woodlands.

We could see the dam and the pipeline as we headed into the village.

We made it to our destination around lunchtime so we couldn’t check in straight away. But we had a couple of toasties and some coffee to warm up.

The walk today was our shortest day, just 9 miles but the weather wasn’t the best. I have now managed to perfect my technique with the she wee!

After a bit of a rest we wandered through the village to the church.

We the decided to visit all of the pubs in Kinlochleven. The first one was the Tailrace Inn where we sampled local beers and met Smudge.

We met a guy called Shane in this pub, he was a bit of a Scottish hippie and had some interesting views on life. He showed us where the next pub was – the Bothy Bar – and the views from here were stunning.

After trying another local beer we went back to our place for a delicious dinner.

We moved upstairs to the balcony bar to take in some more of the amazing views before heading to bed.

Today was the longest stretch of the WHW for us – 19 miles in total.

So we set off early and after a quick breakfast at the Real Food Cafe we were on our way.

It was a cloudy and drizzly start to the day and it stayed like that pretty much the whole day. This is the view as we left Tyndrum.

We passed a house that had some interesting carvings in its front garden.

Despite the weather the views were pretty stunning.

After a short while we passed through a tunnel under the railway line and then headed on past a sign to Loch Tioraidh.

We passed through more green mountains and past cascades of water.

We came across some beautiful and majestic highland cows.

And also some oystercatchers on the shore of the river.

We then made our way into Bridge of Orchy which is a tiny village.

We stopped at the Hotel here for a quick coffee which was served with some delicious shortbread.

After our refreshments we headed over the Bridge of Orchy and continued on our way. The bridge was built by the British Army following the Battle of Culloden in 1746.

Had the weather been a bit kinder we would have seen more of the mountains, but even in the clouds the mountains and lochlans were amazing.

Our plan was to have lunch at the Inveroran Hotel but it was closed when we arrived and didn’t open until 12:30pm – which would have meant an hours wait.

Luckily we had packed lots of snacks and had plenty of water so we continued on.

Shortly afterwards we came to a Forest Lodge which actually looked a bit neglected.

From here the path is the remains of an old 1930s motor road.

For several miles we walked through Rannoch Moor, a huge expanse of moorland which is quite boggy.  The view was quite similar along most of this route.

After a while we came to Ba Bridge.

The whole of this section is quite bleak and remote and for long periods of time we didn’t see anyone else on the trail.

At one point we came across a small cairn so I decided to go and investigate.

The views from the top were beautiful, even if a bit cloudy.

As we came close to Kingshouse we could see Glencoe mountain. Glencoe mountain is 1,108m tall and is the site of an infamous massacre in 1692 where around 30 of the MacDonald clan were killed by Scottish government forces. The name Glencoe is supposed to mean Glen of weeping.

We had to pass over a small roundabout before heading to our hotel.

It took us about 6 hours and 45 minutes today, including a 20 minute stop for coffee, and I thought it would take a lot longer.

When we got to the Kingshouse Hotel we were too early to check in so went to the bar for a beer.

Once we got into our room we had time to relax before heading down to dinner.

The views of Glencoe and Buachallue Etive Mor from the hotel were amazing.

We had a delicious dinner and then headed back to the bar.

I tried some Scottish smokey whisky, recommended to me by my brother in law, it was really nice.

Another bowl of porridge and coffee set us up for the day and it was then a short walk back to Beinglas Farm to pick up the trail.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and the scenery was amazing.

We followed the River Falloch, through the Glen, for a few miles. The trail was undulating and we were surrounded by gorgeous green mountains

As we walked along the river we caught glimpses of the cascades of the Falls of Falloch.

The hills looked so much nicer in the sunshine

It was quite an easy trail to follow so we had a good pace today.

At one point we saw a train go past and we also had to go through a tiny tunnel under the railway.

These are the markers for the WHW trail, most of them are quite well placed so far but there are a couple we have missed, or nearly missed.

We then had to go under another tunnel to pass under the main road.

We followed the path up to Crianlarich which was around the halfway point for today.

After a short stop to eat our packed lunch we continued into the pine forest of Bogle Glen Wood.

The walk through the pine forest was really nice and there were some lovely views.

I learnt later that a Bogle is an irritating spirit which lurks just past the borders of visibility, and takes delight in hiding things that split second before you want them. Signs of Bogle infestation can be distinguished from normal losing by the following signs: If you lose something to a Bogle, you are most likely to find it while looking for the next thing you’ve lost, some time later. By this time the bogle has a new toy and is bored with the original lost item, which you almost certainly don’t need anymore. Also, if you spend ages looking for something, sit down in frustration for a cup of tea, and then the item will often be found somewhere in full view nearby. Bogles are mischievous but not wicked, if they sense you are worn out and upset they usually give things back. For this reason it is possible to get things back by asking for them in a firm tone of voice … making it clear that you know what’s going on and are not impressed. Apparently, this presence can be alleviated by leaving a hair from your head or a small thread of cotton or wool at the east most corner of every bridge you come to on The Way.

We didn’t do this so I am expecting to loose things!

At the end of the forest we had to cross the main road again after passing an old aqueduct.

We then had to cross over the River Fillan.

And make our way past lots of field with sheep to St. Fillian’s Priory.

St. Fillan was a traveller who came to spread the teachings of the Christian way of life to the Scots. He had travelled from Ireland with his mother and uncle and stopped here while they carried on to other parts of the country. The priory was built in recognition of Fillan’s teachings and he was made a saint after his death.

Opposite the priory ruins is Kirkton burial ground which is a circular mound within a square enclosure. The gravestones date from the 18th to the early 20th century. The burial ground also contains four early medieval cross slabs believed to be from 7th to 8th century.

We walked on and crossed the River Cononish through a path with a few trees to reach Tyndrum. On the way we saw some very chilled out sheep.

At Tyndrum we stayed at Tyndrum lodges which were basic but ok.

We went yo the Tyndrum Inn for dinner where we made another new friend called Vera!

Today we walked 22.81km. The weather was perfect for walking today, quite a lot of sunshine but a nice breeze too. Most of the other days it has been cloudier and a bit drizzly.

We packed our cases and headed down to breakfast. I had a vegetarian Scottish breakfast as I wanted to try vegan haggis but it wasn’t that great.

After taking a quick photos of Loch Lomond from our hotel, we headed off.

Just as we left Rowardennan I spotted this sign

We walked through some gorgeous woodland.

At a fork in the path we decided to take the high route over Ben Lomond rather than the low route, as we had been told it was slightly shorter. We had some good views of the Loch again.

Loch Lomond has a surface area of 73km2 and has 24 islands. It is 36.4km long and around 1.8km wide and is the largest lake in Great Britain.

Eventually our high path joined up again with the low path.

The woods we walked through varied between pine forests and deciduous woodland.

Around half way into our walk we reached Inversnaid which has a lovely waterfall that you walk across.

We stopped here to eat our lunch and try some more local beer.

It was actually really comfortable and we had to force ourselves to leave and continue walking.

From Inversnaid you could look across the lake and see the Loch Sloy Hydro Electric Scheme which is the largest hydro electric power station in the UK. It is generally in standby mode,ready to generate electricity if there is a surge in demand.

After a short while wecame across Rob Roy’s cave. Rob McGregor was an outlaw in the 1700s and this cave is where he hid.

We wandered through more woodlands before reaching Doune Bothy. The paths were not that easy to navigate as they were full of slippery stones and mud.

Doune Bothy is a little hut that is open to walkers and has areas to sleep and rest. However. When we tried to open the door to have a look inside it was locked.

From the Bothy we followed the path down to the Loch.

We then climbed up again to the col (a path between two mountain ridges) and got our last views looking back over Loch Lomond.

We walked through Beinglas Farm and actualky caught some sunshine on one of the mountains.

From here it was just a short walk to the Drovers Inn where we were staying for the night.

This is quite a unique hotel, restaurant and bar, lots of different rooms and lots of stuffed animals.

After a quick shower and change we went to the bar for dinner, a delicious venison casserole with some local beer.

Today we walked just over 28km.

After a hearty breakfast of Scottish porridge and coffee for me we set off on the next stage of the WHW.

From our bnb we took a little detour down The Rob Roy Way.

This led us to the official WHW path at Garadbhan Forest which has been significantly felled and replanted in the last few years.

We came out of the forest into open moorland and in the distance we could see the infamous Conic Hill, as well as Loch Lomond in the distance.

It was a long walk up Conic Hill but the scenery was gorgeous.

At one point we stopped to let a couple of sheep cross the path.

Conic Hill is on the Highland Boundary fault, literally the boundary between the lowlands and Highlands of Scotland, and has an elevation of 361m. To get right to the top you have to take a little detour off the WHW, but the views across Loch Lomond are worth it.

We then walked down the hill, which was quite steep in places, through a lovely pine forest and over rambling streams.

Once we reached the village of Balmaha we stopped off at the Oak Tree Inn for a beer and cheese sandwich.

After this short rest we set off again, passing by the memorial to Tom Wier, Scotland’s most loved mountain man.

The path took us up Craigie Fort where, again, you got some good views over the Loch.

We continued walking along the shores of Loch Lomond, at one point by some fields where we saw some highland cows and also through woodland.

We made a short stop at Sallochy Bay where there were unfortunately a lot of midges.

The walk continued through Ross Wood and Rowardennan forest. There were some quite steep ascents which was not good news for our tired legs.

One of the trees we passed has some interesting looking funghi growing on – we think it was elephant funghi.

After a further 27.72 km we made it yo our accommodation for the night – the Rowardennan Hotel.

After a quick shower we found our own private staircase to the ground floor. We had a delicious dinner and sampled some of the local beer.

We were up at a reasonable hour, packed – only just about fitting everything into the small cases – and off to Glasgow Central station by 9am. At the station we grabbed a quick coffee before boarding the train to Milngavie.

At Milngavie station we met a guy from the Travelite company who took our cases from us so we were just left with our day bags.

My friend Laura, who lives in Milngavie met us at the station and we headed to Gavies for a delicious breakfast. After getting fuelled up we walked to the start of the West Highland Way and set off on our 96 mile journey

We passed through some beautiful trails and came across several Scholars Rocks.

Scholars rocks are located across rural sites and these hand built ceramic rocks make connections back to East Dunbartonshire geology and industries that previously utilised resources provided by the landscape.

IThe scenery was beautiful and there were some interesting houses along the way.

We passed through Mugdock Wood and Mugdock Country Park after taking a wrong turn, but being directed back onto the right path by a friendly local! There were some beautiful cottages on the way.

We could see Dumgoyne, the hill in the photo below.

We continued walking past Craigallian Loch.

The walk continued on past Dumroyach and Dumgoyne, passing through lots of fields and lovely scenery.

The walk is alongside an old railway line to Gartness. The Blane Valley Railway was opened to passengers in 1867 but it was never very popular and passenger services were withdrawn in 1951 and the line closed completely in 1959.

We passed over Blane Water and continued towards Drymen through semi-urban surroundings.

After around 4 and a half hours we reached Drymen and went to our accommodation for the night – Braeside B&B.

They were really welcoming and showed us to our room as soon as we got there. After settling we headed out for dinner and decided to go the Clachan Inn. This the oldest licensed pub in Scotland and was licensed in 1734.

We made a new friend, Bailey the St Bernard who was 2 years old and weighed 66kg!

Once we got a table we had a delicious dinner of haggis balls and fish and chips with some cider!

And then we headed back to the bnb for an early night. In total we walked 23.45km. We were lucky with the weather too – just a couple of showers, and no midges as it was quite windy!

The sun was shining when I left Heathrow but it was a bit cloudy on arrival in Glasgow

I got the express bus – which wasn’t very express as I had to wait at least 40 minutes for it to arrive – into the city centre. And from Queen Street Station it was just a 10 minute walk to the hotel where Faye was already waiting for me.

After a change of clothes we headed out into the city. Our first stop was at Waxy O’Connors, a lovely bar that was a bit of a maze.

From there we headed to the Italian Caffè for food and wine, both of which were delicious! We had oysters to start and then a pasta dish.

On the way home we made a stop at O’Neils for a g&t before heading home.

The next morning the weather wasn’t looking great but we decided to head off to see the cathedral. Unfortunately it was closed but we had a good wander around the outside of it.

From the cathedral we walked over to the necropolis, an old victoriana cemetery.

Around 50,000 people have been buried in the cemetery but a lot of the graves and monuments don’t have any names.

The views from the top of the necropolis back into the city were really lovely.

Back in the city we came across a tardis and a funny shaped tree.

As we walked around the street art was pretty impressive.

We visited a little art gallery as we walked through the city.

We decided to go and visit the lighthouse in the city centre but unfortunately it was closed so we popped into the bar next door for a couple of chocolate orange espresso martinis.

Next stop was the Hidden lanes where we stopped for a late Mexican lunch.

And then we headed down to the Clyde to see the arc and the Finnieston crane.

The crane is no longer functional but is a symbol of Glasgow’s engineering heritage.

Near the crane was a building that looked a bit like the Sydney opera house.

After quite a long walk back to the hotel we showered and changed before heading out again.

We stopped for a quick drink in Hard Rock Cafe.

We went to Chaophyra, a lovely Thai restaurant, for dinner. The food was amazing but quite large portions.

The restaurant is the largest Thai restaurant in Europe and is housed in what once was the Royal Academy of music and dramatic art.

On the way back to the hotel we made a quick stop at the Horseshoe Bar which has the longest bar in Europe.

Another rainy start to the day and the fast ferry to Gozo was still not running. We thought this might be the case so had made alternative plans to catch the bus to Mdina.

Mdina used to be the capital of Malta until Valletta was built and it is an impressive walled city. It is an old medieval city built on Arab and Roman foundations. Mdina is now known as the ‘Silent City’

As we got off the bus we could see Domvs Romana which is a museum that houses the remains of an opulent Roman town house.

The remains of this Roman house were discovered in 1881 and is believed to have been built at the beginning of the 1st century BC. The most impressive part was the mosaic in the central courtyard.

The central part of the mosaic has a motif of ‘the drinking doves of Sosos’ which is a design copied from a painting by Sosos and used in a lot of rich and noble Roman houses.

There was also a statue of Claudius but he was missing his nose.

From here we walked to the main gate of Mdina. The current main gate was built in the 1720s and replaced an older medieval entrance which was walled up and can still be seen to the right of the main gateway.

The gate is actually impressive from the inside too. The three figures over the arch are St Publius (Malta’s first bishop), St Paul (Malta’s patron saint) and St Agatha (patron of Mdina).

Just by the gate is Palazzo Vilhena, a Baroque palace. This was used as a hospital at the beginning of the 20th century and is now the Natural history museum.

We popped into a little souvenir shop and next door was a lovely glassware shop.

We walked down some of the medieval streets past the church of St Agatha. This church was built in 1694 after an earthquake destroyed the original medieval church. Just by this church was the Monastry and Church of St Peter which was a Benedictine monastry for cloistered nuns.

And then we came to St Paul’s Cathedral. Its believed that a church had existed on this site since the 12th century and according to tradition it stands on the site where Roman governor Publius met St. Paul following his shipwreck on Malta.

We didn’t go inside as when we looked at the pictures of the cathedral online it looked very much like all the other cathedrals we had seen.

We walked past the Archbishops Palace which was where the Bishop of Mdina used to live.

And then on to the Seminary. This is a beautiful french baroque building where two atlas figures hold up the balcony and there is a statue of St Paul over the balcony doorway.

From here we passed Palazzo Falca, which was built following the 1693 earthquake. Originally the building was donated to the Jesuits to open a school in Mdina and later became a boarding school for girls.

After all of this walking around we decided to have a refreshment break at Fontanella tea gardens.

The cakes here are famous across Mdina and they were delicious. As the weather wasn’t so good we decided to sit inside and actually didn’t have to wait too long to be seated.

The views from the upper terrace were quite impressive.

We walked on to Palazzo Falson which was built as a residential townhouse for Maltese nobility.

From the city walls you could get some great views over Malta, including the dome of Mosta.

There are a lot of churches in Mdina and we walked past a few more. One was the church of the annunciation of our lady. This church and the surrounding area was given to the Carmelites in the 1650s. During the French occupation the church was ransacked by the French where valuables were stolen to fund Napoleon’s wars. However, it is said that on one particular occasion, as the French were on their way to steal the church’s damask, some rebels locked the church doors and a boy went up to the spire to sound the alarm. Consequently, this event gave birth to the resistance against the French.

Another church we passed was the church of St Roque which is a small Roman Catholic church.

Close by is Plazzo Santa Sofia which is a large medieval town house and is reported to be the oldest house in Mdina with a date of 1233.

Mdina is a very pretty city, with lots of medieval streets and buildings. It was really nice wondering around the streets.

On the way out of Mdina we walked through Howard Gardens.

On the way from Mdina to Rabat we passed yet another church, Ta Giezu church, otherwise known as the church of the nativity of our lady. This church was the first Franciscan friary in Malta and was built in the 1500s.

From here we walked past St Paul’s column. It is believed that St Paul stayed in Rabat for 3 months after he was shipwrecked in 60AD.

Next stop was the Basilica of St Paul. This is another stunning Roman Catholic church and has been visited by two popes in recent years- John Paul II in 1990 and Benedict XVI in 2010.

A visit to the catacombs in Rabat is a must so that was our next stop. The first set of catacombs we visited were the St Paul’s catacombs. These are some of the most prominent features of Malta’s early Christianity archaeology.

St. Paul’s catacombs are part of a large cemetery once located outside the walls of the ancient Roman city of Melite. The cemetery probably originated in the Phoenician-Punic period. As in Roman tradition, Phoenician and Punic burials were located outside city walls as the dead were never buried within the city walls. Its believed that the catacombs were, at one time,connected to St Paul’s Grotto.

The early tombs consisted of a deep rectangular shaft with one or two chambers dug from its sides. The chambers grew larger and more regular in shape over time. It is probable that this enlargement joined neighboring tombs and led to the creation of small catacombs, which became the norm by the fourth century AD. The catacombs were in use until the seventh, possibly eighth century. Some of the catacombs were used again during the re-Christianisation of Malta in the 13th century. There are over 30 hypogea in the complex which covers an area of over 2000 metres squared.

The catacombs encompass examples of all the different burial types in Maltese history and show that Christians, Jews and Pagans were all buried here side by side.

The catacombs did all look pretty similar after a while. Many of them had round tables carved out of the rocks which were most likely used to host commemorative meals

Some of the catacombs that were used for Jewish burials had a menorah carved into the rock above the entrance.

And a few of them had other decorative carvings or red paintings.

After our stroll around the catacombs we walked back into the centre and decided to treat ourselves to some Kannoli. These are pastries that are stuffed with a variety of different flavoured fillings. They were really nice.

We realised we were not too far from the Dingli cliffs in Rabat so we decided to catch a bus to the cliffs as they were supposed to have lovely views. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it was really windy and was raining a little bit. The views were pretty spectacular though.

We walked past a small church and took a bit of shelter from the wind behind it. The church was built in the 15th century and is a simple countryside church. The marble inscription on the wall is in Italian and warns people that they cannot seek ecclesiastical protection within the church if they have broken the law.

As we walked down the country roads we saw more evidence of how much the Maltese look after their stray cats, building them little shelters and homes.

We had heard about a place called Clapham Junction near the cliffs so decided we would try to find it. We went off the beaten track a bit and stumbled across Ghar il-Kbir, a cave in the middle of nowhere.

There were some people singing in the caves so we didn’t disturb them but we did explore a little bit before continuing on our journey to Clapham Junction.

Clapham Junction is basically a network of tracks or cart ruts. The age and purpose of the ruts is not known. They appear to be some sort of ancient roadways and they are quite big when you get up close to them. It is thought they were caused by wooden-wheeled carts eroding soft limestone.

In the distance we could see Verdala Palace which is the official summer residence of the President of Malta. Originally it was a hunting lodge and was so used as a military prison for French soldiers as well as a silk factory. This Palace is supposedly haunted by the “Blue Lady”. She was supposed to marry someone who she did not like and the only way to escape her fiancee’ was suicide, so she jumped off the balcany in her bedroom. Her ghost is reportedly seen roaming the palace, wearing the same blue dress she wore when she died; her wedding dress.

When we got home we had to quickly get ready to go out as we had booked a table at ‘The Harbour’, a Michelin star restaurant just over the road from our apartment.

The meal was delicious and amazingly presented. When we first arrived we were offered a cocktail.

The food really was amazing, it tasted so good and even though the amounts seemed small it did fill us up. Unfortunately the service wasn’t quite as good and we had to ask twice to see the wine menu before somebody came to offer us wine.

The restaurant itself was really nice. Normally we would have sat outside, but because of the bad weather we sat inside.

At the end of the meal we were offered a shot on the house so I had some limoncello which was very tasty.

It was a really lovely evening with great food and great company!

This morning we had planned to go to Gozo but when we arrived at the Fast Ferry terminal we were told that they were not going to Gozo because of the rough sea conditions. This flummoxed us a little bit so we had to think about what else we could do.

After some discussion we decided that as we had all our swimming stuff with us we may as well go and visit one of the beaches in the north of the island. After a bit of searching on google we decided to catch the bus to Ghajn Tuffieha.

This morning, rather than climb up the steps we decided to get the lift into the city centre. The lift is 58m tall and it takes about 23 seconds to make the journey.

We had to get the bus from Floriana this time and as we got to the bus stop our bus was just pulling away. The next bus was due in 20 minutes but for some reason that never turned up, so we ended up waiting around an hour for the bus.

We got off at the nearest bus stop which was around a 15 minute walk to the beach. The beach looked stunning.

We hired a couple of deck chairs and then went for a dip in the sea. The water was quite chilly but once you got swimming it felt good. We swam out to the far rocks at the side of the bay. The current was quite strong so it took a bit longer to swim back.

After a very unhealthy lunch of chips and beer we sunbathed for a bit longer before getting back into the water and swimming to the rocks on the other side of the bay. The weather was a bit changeable- one minute sunny and the next very cloudy and threatening rain.

Once it started to get too cloudy to sunbathe we decided to call it a day and go for a walk instead. It was a long climb back up all the steps.

At the top was another one of the coastal watch towers.

From where we were you could see down onto Golden Beach. This was a lot busier than the beach we had been on and it didn’t look as nice.

We took some posing photos anyway as the background was nice.

As it was still earlish afternoon we decided to get the bus and go and visit the Mosta Dome. There were road works on the bus route so we ended up going past the dome and we had to take a short walk back.

As we queued up to get in it started to rain, but luckily the queue was very short. The Mosta Dome is also known as the Basillica of the Assumption of Our Lady and is a Roman Catholic church The design of the church is based on the Pantheon in Rome and it has the third largest unsupported dome in the world.

Once we were inside we climbed up the winding stairs to the middle section of the church. From here you could see the two bell towers for which this church is known alongside the iconic columns making up the portico.

From this level you got some amazing views of the inside of the dome.

We made our way back down the stairs and just stood under the dome. The structure of the building is amazing. The base walls are around 8m thick so they can support the dome and the dome is around 59m high with an outside circumference of around 55m.

The present day church was actually built around an original smaller church, which remained in use throughout the construction of the dome. The church took around 28 years to build and many of the residents helped to build it on Sundays and public holidays. Once the stonework for the current church was completed the older church was dismantled within a week.

The main painting which shows Our Lady being taken to heaven was a painting that was in the original church. However, in 1860 the original rectangular painting was enlarged by extending the sky section upwards. The sides of the painting were slightly reduced meaning two of the apostles had part of their backs removed. This was done so it better fitted the new structure.

One of the most interest g stories about the Mosta Dome happened during WWI. On 9 April 1942 three bombs hit the church and two of these deflected without exploding. The third one penetrated the dome and landed in the middle of the church where around 300 people were gathered. The bomb did not explode and was defused and dumped into the sea. A replica of the bomb can be found in the church.

Because of its strategic location, Malta became one of the most bombed places on earth during WWII. 6,700 tons of bombs fell in just six weeks. Because of this.the people of Malta were awarded the George Cross in 1942.

After leaving the dome we visited the nearby WWII shelter. The shelter wasn’t particularly large but had displays from some of the local tradespeople who would have used the shelter.

By the evening the weather had improved a little bit so we ventured back out into Valletta to find somewhere to eat.

We ended back at D’Office restaurant, mainly because you could sit outside but were under cover. And it was lucky we had that protection as whilst we were eating it did rain.