Valletta

Valletta is the capital city of the island of Malta. It's a very small city with not a large population. You can see on the map below that is situated on a natural habour and that is why it has been an important port for ages.

There have been people living on Malta since 5,900 BC.

We actually spent two nights in Valletta - we arrived from the pervious island - Gozo - in the early evening.

Some shots of the harbour during our entrance into it.

Check out the yacht left of centre. More on it later.

A huge liner is already here - the MS Oosterdam. A Holland America Line ship. It looks enormous but it holds less than 2,000 passengers which isn't anywhere close to the large liners of today. The Symphony of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship, holds almost 7,000 passengers and 2,200 crew. It is 16 decks high and would dwarf this ship.

A shot of the back. They're partying like mad on the top deck.

This is the yacht from before - The Indian Empress - and it's for sale via an auction - hurry though - the auction is going to be held on September 19, 2018. Read about it here.

Today's tour is just a bus trip around the island.  Mostly boring.

Some sort of blue grotto.

Some shots from inside the city of Valletta.

In the evening the dack are beside our ship comes alive. Many restaurants and bars. I'm sure the staff from our ship like to get down there and enjoy themselves after all us old fogees have gone to bed.