Malta Bus Pro's!

While in Valletta we wondered over to the east-side to have a look at the Grand Harbour which was quite scenic;

Valletta Grand Harbour

We originally wanted to see the Hypogeum which is a 5,000 year old underground temple but it turns out tickets are in very short supply (only 20 a day) and you can book them only 1 day in advance on a first come first serve basis (from The Museum of Fine Art in Valletta, which is a pain!) – so we will try out luck later in the week!

As a consolation we went over to Rabat to see two famous Catacombs they have there (we had our hearts set on some sort of underground attraction so figured this would suffice!)- St Paul’s & St Agatha’s- the two are within walking distance of each other.

Watch your head! The Ceilings are reeeally low!

Tash peeks cheekily through the window of a GRAVE! Lovly Stuff.

St Paul’s was first, and the size is quite staggering- it’s a real under ground lair, worthy of doctor evil- masses of tunnels which lead on to masses of other tunnels- there’s nothing by way of decoration or artefacts remaining past the architecture, but its worth a look just to have an explore.

St Agetha’s was smaller but in much better condition with original “frescoes” some dating back to the 12th and 15th centuries. Out of the two, St Agatha’s was much more interesting, and you get a guided tour by a real life archaeologist who’s been charged with looking after that site. Sadly you’ll have to take my word for it though as you’re not allowed to take pictures in St Agatha’s

Finally we went on a train ride (think, bognor sea front train– so a car which looks like a train and pulls around little “train cars” so it kind of looks like a train, but everyone on the train, knows it’s not a train…) which was actually quite good. Took us around all of Rabat and neighbouring Mdina and a tiny neighbouring village called Mtarfa. There was also a little talking guide which explained to you Malta’s action packed history (that’s not sarcasm, Malta has had quite an interesting and turbulent history)