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Super late writing these blogs, so here’s a short version.

I woke up later than in a long long while, at 9:30 AM. Started the day with a walk along the coast in Tas-Sliema [Sliema] and its beach. This city is a relatively modern resort, so it’s all built-up in awful high-rises. Instead, I quickly take the ferry to the capital city, Valletta. Getting closer to this mighty old single-color town was pretty magical. Every old buildings there is made up of limestone, with its characteristical light brown/whitish color.

I walk a bit around the lovely town until I get back to the ferry. There I buy a 4-day bus pass, that I intend to use as much as possible. Well, at least as much as I want to see around the country.

My first trip is to Bikirkara, to the rail museum. I was not expecting that! Besides an old railway station, they have a singular carriage on display. I was thinking to take a few pictures of it and be done. But actually, the museum was open today (it has quite limited opening hours), and it turned out to be free. Because it’s not a museum in the common definition of the word, it’s an exhibit maintained by passionates. And I mean passionates. I had my own private tour through all the artifacts and miniatures they had, and ended up staying two hours. They knew all the history of the Maltese railway perfectly.

A short summary for you: Malta used to have one railway, from Valletta to L-Imtarfa [Mtarfa], from 1883 to 1931, as well as a tram going to the docks where everybody worked, from 1905 to 1929. It stopped because of some businessmen introducing buses to the island, which were much more convenient, at the time. Nowadays, when you see the congestion on the island, it’s sad to see those rails having disappeared nearly a century ago.

The masterpiece of the collection was obviously the carriage. It is the only one that has survived. People took the others to build huts, then progressively dismantled them, but this one was used as a changing room on a tennis court, and survived this way! Paul, who gave me the tour, was kind enough to open the glass casing and made me come aboard the carriage. Thank you! It was a privilege to be inside such a piece of history! I may not be able to take a rail transport in Malta, but this was pretty freaking cool enough! (You hear that Vatican City?)

You can learn everything about the Malta Railway Museum here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/maltarailway/?ref=share

Later, I waited a bus in L-Imsida [Msida] for a while, and the next two that I could have taken back to Tas-Sliema were so full that the drivers simply didn’t let anybody in. So I walked a bit, ate, and finally got a bus back.