Three Islands

Shameless box ticking ahoy. Let's squeeze in another country to make it up to a nice-ish round-ish number before a hiatus. 

Valletta is about the only thing I knew about Malta and even then it turns out I didn't know much. I knew about a beige (there's probably a better description), fortified waterfront, but didn't really appreciate it was a tiny nub in the middle of a harbour. 

We're staying in Mellieha, which is about as far from Valletta as it's possible to be without leaving the island (which let's be fair isn't that far). So we have ajad a bit of an explore of non-Valletta Malta. It appears to be a mix of small villages with big churches and towns filled with names that evoke the 5000 years of Maltese history, like Churchills and Diana's Bar. (Thanks Bugibba).

The other advantage of staying in the north of the island is that you are a hop and a skip away from the two other (major) islands in the archipelago. 

First stop Comino, an island where everyone is a tourist. And what a lot of tourists there are, all drawn in by the blue lagoon and its Caribbean waters (copyright everything written about Malta). The island is just about deserted and full of crags and lizards.  

Then Gozo, bigger, just as craggy and a lot less deserted than Comino. A bit more like the Malta that we had hoped for rather than the England on a rock of the mainland. 

Anyway, Malta, you craggy little monkey, welcome to the gang, you are country number 90.