While we were staying in Bugibba recently we caught a bus through to Valletta and had a wonderful time exploring this beautiful city, mainly on foot, though did ride the Noddy train too. From the beautiful Upper Barraka Gardens and Terrace I was fascinated by the extremely tall lift that links the Harbour with these gardens. It carried 21 people at a time and is free to go down in, but costs to ride up. I read that its passengers in the glazed carriages are shielded from the sun by an aluminium mesh skin.
However, we didn’t use it as we’d decided to leave Valletta by the ferry over to Sliema, so walked back through the city and down the steep streets towards the water that side. There were arrows pointing the way to the ferry, until we reached the bottom. Then we couldn’t see which way to turn, so followed a couple in front of us who were obviously looking for it too. We kept peering over the wall down to the obvious boarding s[pot and eventually we caught up with the others and decided to turn through what looked a private area behind some sheds. Eventually we reached our destination and found we had nearly half an hour to wait as a ferry had just left, so I sat down while my husband went to explore.
He discovered that when we’d reached the bottom of the hill down from the cathedral, instead of going left as we’d done, a little way ahead on the right was the entrance to a tunnel which led under the road. Also, when he went to look at the list of ferry charges he noticed that people over 60 could travel for 50 cents instead of the regular €1.50 so when the catamaran arrived I showed the copy of our passports that I always carry with me aboard – and sure enough we both got the reduced rate for the scenic short trip over to Sliema – so future Silver Travellers, please note!
