The Battlements of Valletta
Malta
Distance 8.5km Climb 125m
Friday 22 September 2017
Malta - What a brilliant place, made all the better as I had a copy of a booklet titled Malta 10 Great Walks and I used this as our guide. If you are interested in obtaining a copy please follow the link Malta 10 Great Walks. Today we would be doing a walk close to Walk 1, The Battlements of Valletta. What a find, although small the booklet gives a good description of routes and points out loads of interesting information. I feel it would be wrong of me to include all the historical and interesting information from the booklet on my blog so I am only writing of the walk we took. I would recommend this booklet to anyone interested in doing this walk.
We took the number 42 bus to Valletta from the hotel and started the walk from the bus concourse. We could see that a lot of work was going on as we moved towards the City. I took loads of photos, too many to include here, so I have had to unfortunately leave a load of good photos out.
We saw Freedom Square.
Where we stopped for an iced coffee at the Cafe Royale, before turning left down Ordnance Street.
Turning left again up into Hastings Gardens. We could see many of the points mentioned in the booklet. Walking right through the Gardens.
Turning right as we left the Gardens we passed what is left of a 70 foot column.
We saw a number of small chimneys, from small houses built on the side as the road drops down.
Dropping down we passed the jetty for the Sliema ferry and continued by the water.
I noticed a few weeks ago on my walk to Dunstanburgh Castle that the old castle and area around it was brought back into service as a defensive position, a lookout, during the Second World War. Valletta and many parts of Malta are the same. They may have been built by the Knight as strongholds, early warning systems in the 1500's, but the same places were reused as strongholds, places of early warning 300-400 years later. I think this is amazing, I will be honest for some reason I did not think these places would have been used in modern warfare.
As we followed the road round the coast we were following the high walls.
A quick look at the narrow streets through the Jew's Sally Port.
Then we returned back to the path round the outside of the walls.
Passing the iron bridge in front of the Fort of St Elmo, we were now on the side of the Grand Harbour.
The booklet now says this part of the walk becomes quite exciting, and it was, it was brilliant.
Reaching a quay we took the steps up to a walkway that led to steps that took us to the road.
Opposite the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
Following the coastal road we reached the World War Siege Memorial.
I got a little confused with the directions in the booklet, leaving the Memorial. So we had a little bit of up and down, before I read it properly and we walked back up the road to the Lower Barraka Garden. No space for the photo of the Greek style mausoleum. After a short break in the Lower Barraka Garden we continued along the wall of the upper coast road.
Over the Victoria Gate.
Passed the British Hotel and up the path into the Upper Barrakka Garden.
Looking across the Grand Harbour we could see the Three Cities and the Fort St Angelo, we would be walking here later in the holiday. After a short wait we caught the firing of the 4 o'clock gun.
Leaving the Upper Barrakka Gardens we were in the square near the Prime Minister's Office.
Turning right, we were now leaving Valletta and entering the town of Floriana, walking down the low road on our left, a turn right and climb up a street brought us to Triq Saint Anna (St Anne's Street).
We crossed the road and walked up to the Lion Fountain.
Turning right up passed the Methodist Church.
Continuing right, stopping to view the parish church of Flotiana, St Pablius.
We had a look at the square and the stone caps.
Crossing the square we walked into the Mall Garden.
Walking to the end of the park we saw the Independence Memorial with the Phoenicia Hotel in the distance.
Walking back into Valletta we passed the bus concourse where we caught the bus number 41 that would take us back to our hotel.
We had covered 8.5km with a climb of 125m. I would recommend anyone visiting Valletta to get one of these booklets and to visit all the interesting places it covers. I do not think for one minute this booklet covers everything we passed as there is so much history everywhere you look. It is wrote in an easy to read, informative but not boring, observational and humorous manner, I found it excellent.
As I said at the top, I feel it would be wrong to include the historical and interesting information from the booklet on my blog, so I have only wrote the route of our walk.
Although we were tired we were looking forward to do another walk from the Malta 10 Great Walks booklet.
More to follow
Boz North
Details correct at time of walking.
If you have enjoyed reading my walk or found it useful you may also like to read other walks I have done in Malta or other areas. Please check out the links on the right hand side.
Link to previous walk in Malta. St Agatha's Tower (The Red Tower) 20 Sept 2017
Link to next walk. Cirkewwa to Mellieha Bay 23 September 2017.
