Valletta again for things we missed

A nice easy morning where we have breakfast in the “resort” and then head out when we feel like it at 10am.  I’m thinking we’re

going to miss Maltese rush hour this way, but it still takes almost an hour to get to Valleta.  We are going back to see the Caravaggio’s, see the gun salute and ride the ferry across the Grand Harbor.  We head to the café in the Upper Bakkara gardens and have another bite to eat before finding a place at the railing for the guns.  There

 are soldiers in Victorian uniform, handing out pamphlets and you can tell that there is a different feel today because there is an actual show today.  Lots of school groups too, Oscar hears the soldiers talk about going down to tour the battery and I decide to take him. It’s only 3 euros and we’ll get close to the guns, see how they operate, then find out when we walk down that Oscar is free.  So,

 only 3 euros period and we get to see the guns, have a tour of the battery, Oscar gets the chance to pull the trigger, but not with the gunpowder in and we get to stand about 20 ft away when the gun fires.  Now, it’s a cannon people.  But Oscar is so shocked by the noise when the gun fires that he wants to leave immediately.  I have to explain that it was only once and nothing more is going to happen for him to stay down there and finish the tour with Julian,

our soldier that was leading us around.  Oscar would march behind him when he moved around the battery and it was so cute.  When we get back up to John, he reports that he almost dropped the camera because of the noise it startled him so badly.  Again, we’re at a show with cannons, so I’m not sure what they were expecting.  We head in to town to get to the church and find out that it is 10

euros to go in.  I like Caravaggio, but can handle the disappoint, I tell John to go and Oscar and I go to the body shop where he can get more mango lotion that he actually brought on the trip because he likes it so much.  Then we head to McDonalds again, but he eats his whole happy meal and has now gotten every little game that Hasbro ever made in this happy meals this trip.  On our way to 

  McDonald’s, there are news cameras and people taking pictures with some man that feels vaguely familiar, but we move on.  I tell John about this when he gets out of the church and he asks who it was.  I wanted to say that it was the prime minister of Malta that we just looked up the other day, but wasn’t sure and when we go back

by we find out that it is the prime minister.  He’s just walking around, taking pictures with people, and being very loosely guarded on the streets of Valleta.  We head out to the lift to go down the battlements to take the ferry across the water.  It’s a great little trip and we get to watch the gun go off from across the harbor after a long, late lunch.  We finally find a bus and are able to get off in 

Fgura, catch our bus going our way in minutes flat and feel like we might finally have a handle on the Maltese bus system.  Usually when we start to feel this way in a place, it’s because it’s time to leave.  Only one more full day here and then on to Athens and after being extremely disappointed in our little place when we arrived, it’s really grown on all 3 of us because we’re a little sad about having to leave now that we feel so a part of it.