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Big 50 birthday trip- Day 5 Tues Sept 22nd 2015

Woke up late and had an excellent smoked salmon breakfast in the same restaurant as we had eaten dinner the night before. This time it was outside in the shade with fabulous views overlooking Malta.

Having looked around Mdina the night before, we decided we needed to get some exercise and go for a long walk. This involved getting a local bus to Dingli- this was an adventure in itself as we were not exactly sure where we were going!  The driver dropped us off about a mile away from where the walk was supposed to start but we ended up seeing more of the coastline than we expected. We walked along cliffs and saw Mary Magdalene's tiny church sitting very close to the huge modern radar tower which turned out to be the highest spot on the island of Malta-even higher than the town of Mdina.

The route was then a circular one along the cliff edge, past vineyards and tiny homesteads. It was vey picturesque, a little warm but we ended up walking about six miles. That was not the end of the adventure as we decided to get a bus going in the opposite direction to the airport to pick up a 7 day bus pass. These passes are only available in two places so we thought we'd save time by going there that day. Hmm, not so much! Even though the bus driver drove like she was in a rally down narrow streets and over taking lorries around blind corners, it still took us almost an hour to get there. We saw a lot more of Malta than we intended! Including going past the famous blue grotto.

Finally at the airport, getting the pass was really easy but then we had to wait another 45 minutes for the next bus back which got stuck in crazy traffic too. All in all our bus ride home took about 2 hours and we still hadn't had lunch!

Therefore we decided that high tea was in order at the famous Fontanella tea room in Mdina. Walking through the old city again was very pretty and there were less crowds. We ended up having tea and big pieces of chocolate cake overlooking the part of Malta where I was born- Mtarfa.

Back at the room and a long soak in the bath and some relaxation, we  had dinner at the Trattoria also attached to the hotel

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