The Cannon Went Off And Malta Turned Magical

I’ve just arrived back from a holiday of two weeks in Malta – it was great, but might not have been! When we arrived at the hotel I had pre-booked I wasn’t happy with the receptionist, it certainly wasn’t the expected ‘warm Malta welcome‘ I had envisaged. We were also disappointed with the restaurant service, so not a good start.

Then I started to get my thinking right. I’m always on about how we get back what we give out – so perhaps it was my fault. I was scribbling something in a notebook I carry with me, flicked the pages and came across the affirmation above. I put it into practise and it was magical! Everything started to fall into place.

At breakfast the following day Karin and I were laughing about something and  a German couple at the next table started to smile. The man said something to his wife about us, which Karin heard. As she speaks fluent German she replied to them, which they didn’t expect. We ended up chatting together and they told us that they visit this particular hotel twice a year but they said, they hoped their next holiday would be in Cornwall, England – which by coincidence is where we live! They wanted to visit Lands End, so we exchanged email addresses.

The same morning we decided to take a local bus ride to the capital of Malta, Valletta. When the bus arrived it was packed and people were pushing to get on – it seems only the English queue! Somehow we got on the bus and the driver turned everyone waiting after us, away. Our luck had changed.

We decided to wander around Valletta without looking at any map or info leaflets and wandered where we felt like going. At about ten minutes before 12 o’clock we arrived at what we later found out was the Upper Barrakka Gardens where many people had gathered to look at something that was about to happen below a raised balcony.

There were lots of people so we didn’t think we would be able to see what was going on but we went right to the middle and there seemed to be a gap which Karin squeezed into. Then the people seemed to part and there was room for me as well – so we were ‘bang’ in the middle.

And ‘bang’ is the right word as at 12 o’clock every day a cannon is fired from the Saluting Battery – and there are amazing views over the water as well.

The Malta Heritage Trust explains the reason for the gun being fired, which is a tradition that goes back hundreds of years:

Following this our holiday continued to flow nicely. The next day, for example, we talked to a fisherman who told me he’d been to heaven and, unexpectedly, we saw one of the most expensive private boats in the world – but more about this another day.

Photos: © Mike Perry