(originally posted on Facebook, 3rd April 2023)
The next day, Saturday 7th April, I bought my first copy of The Times of Malta in a small shop on Tower Road. I wonder if it is still there. We had to make ourselves familiar with the recently introduced Malta pound or lira (Lm), which was divided into 100 cents, each of 10 mils. We found these mil coins quite peculiar. I was amazed to hear Maltese mothers shouting to their children in English.
In the afternoon we drove to Valletta. We parked the car in Floriana, another town but quite close. We saw a beautiful fountain and an ugly City Gate. We were impressed by the main street, Kingsway, with its many shops. Among them Sapienza’s Bookshop, which I was going to visit many times in the forthcoming years.
We had a glimpse at the impressing St. John’s Co-cathedral, where we saw two thrones near the altar and enjoyed ourselves in the Upper Baracca Gardens. Overwhelmed with impressions we drove back to Sliema and ate dendici (another first time) at the Meadowbank Hotel, quite near to ‘our’ apartment.
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