Exploring Malta – Valletta

We had to visit the capital for one reason only and that’s because @bingbabe wanted to go shopping. Shopping... boring!

Me? I would rather continue hunting down strange places and exploring such as the Villa Sans Souci in Marsaxlokk.

A long-abandoned mansion in Marsaxlokk that is known for its paranormal activity. Weird noises are constantly heard from inside the villa, and many who trespass have problems getting good shots of the inside the house. Those who have entered complain of a constant feeling of dread and paranoia following them everywhere they stepped.

In fact I’m a little pissed that we missed it and drove through the damn town on the way to the Blue Grotto. While the Grotto was quite cool there’s nothing like a creepy villa to explore.

We found Valletta very hard to find! Strange the capital should be like this but honestly Malta has worse signposts than Crete and that’s saying something.

If I hadn’t previously downloaded some offline maps for my phone we would have struggled to find it. This island is incredibly busy, full of cars, traffic and you can miss junctions easily.

Our bottom of the range rent-a-car did not have a built in SatNav and so my phone had to work hard for me.

@bingbabe is also a terrible navigator (I’m going to get a clout around the ears for that), so my driving and craning my neck over to my phone in her hands was not terribly successful.

Parking was going to be somewhat of an issue in the capital but I found a multi-story close to the central area with some ease, once we have found our way to the city itself.

This city is very grand, historic and oozes history. Yet at the same time it’s oh so British. You see a lot of the chain stores you would see in the UK and banks too.

The Early Learning Centre and HSBC are two I snapped while strolling about, but all housed in these buildings that look like they from Kings Landing. That’s one of the cities from Game of Throne’s for the non-educated.

We spotted a Burger King and visited a McDonalds too while there. Trust me when I say this. ‘Don’t bother with the McDonalds’. It was packed to the brim, full of screaming kids and the food was terrible. I mean more terrible than a standard McDonalds which is adequate at best.

This grand looking building had a plaque boasting that one Napoleon Bonaparte once visited. He didn’t stick around too long though.

There’s no shortage of huge important looking buildings in this city. Most seem to originate in the 1600’s and with the language not being English I have no idea what this one was or what it stands for.

Some had guards posted and considering it was very hot they we very focused. I mean to the point of no eye wavering. I looked at one for a while and he did not return my look, intent on staring ahead.

These guys must be dripping in sweat under those hats. Rather them than me.

Is Valletta worth a visit? I think there’s a lot more to it than we saw. Two or three hours can’t possibly do it justice and if you love old architecture you will revel in all the history that’s right next to you.

ALL photographs were taken by myself.

Disclosure: Posts on TravelFeed may contain affiliate links. See affiliate disclosure.