Easter in Valletta

Easter morning started as all Durney vacations start- EARLY! Luckily there was a beautiful sunrise and the excitement of the Easter bunny visiting our apartment. Can we say sugar high by 7AM?!
The hunt was adorable and I can only imagine how fun it will be when we can do a proper outdoors one in future years.

We are staying in the town of Sliema where there were good AirBnB options and away from the neighboring party town of St. Julian. The capitol, Valletta is one harbor away. Armed with the 2016 "36 hours in Valletta," we decided to visit this medieval fortress town on Easter in hopes of catching some of the festive pageantry. Malta is a very Catholic country with elaborate somber Good Friday parades. There was supposed to be more lively celebrations on Sunday. Was it wrong to tell our 3-year old that we would probably see the Easter bunny in a parade? We had to entice him with something as he just wanted to spend the day at the playground!

Off to find the Easter bunny

The island has extensive bus coverage, but we opted for the scenic approach to Valletta, via the ferry from the Sliema piers. 

Walled fortress city of Valetta 

This sugar high was no joke. Doing every thing in our power to keep him from bouncing into the ocean! 

We didn't have an agenda for our visit (apart from finding the Easter bunny of course). Lots of walking, wandering, taking pictures. The kids are on alternating nap schedules so there only seems to be small windows where they are both awake before one drifts off in the stroller.

Every new place we visit, we try to compare it to others. This one was difficult. The proud flags flying reminded us of Tuscan hill towns, especially Sienna. The buildings were colored like those in Dubrovnik with a similar seaside setting, while the streets and lanes reminded me of those in French cities.

Jude is heavy to carry and without a double stroller, we improvise. I lasted about 15 minutes like this. Pete wins the award for carrying him around all the time!

More yummy food for lunch in the square outside the library. We met a British couple at the table next to ours and they were pretty impressed with our kids' ability to eat. That and the bibs we put them in :) 

The closest thing we had to a family portrait

Maeve's turn to be awake while Jude slept.

We found our way to the picturesque Lower Barrakka Gardens. I was pretty bummed to not see Obama there. I read he was vacationing with Oprah and Tom Hanks instead... From the Gardens, you look out and see the "three cities," the three fortified cities of Birgu, Senglea and Cospicua which were the first homes of the Knights of St. John who ruled the island for a really long time (sorry I can't drop more history knowledge on you!).

My Easter bunny

We wandered all the way to the Upper Barrakka Gardens, with more views of the three cities. Jude woke up and it started to rain, so we caught the bus back to Silema and sought shelter in a donut shop until the rain cleared.

This is how Maeve tells me she's tired or wants milk. Her third tooth has erupted this trip and more are coming soon so we'll see how much longer I let her do this!

The day had already seemed SO LONG, but it was just getting started for family back home. We did some Facetimimg and dyed our Easter eggs to pass the time until dinner.

The whole day in Valletta, we didn't see any signs of a parade. We heard that there would be something starting in the late afternoon, but we were home in Sliema by then. As I was putting Maeve to bed, I started to hear music coming from the street. I settled Maeve in her crib and then rushed to get Jude and run outside to try to find the parade. We were both so giddy and so happy when we found the very short parade. Men were carrying and swaying a large (and very heavy) statue of Jesus on their shoulders. There was a band and a flag bearer. We followed behind Second Line style and enjoyed the festive scene for a few blocks. An awesome way to end the day. He is Risen. Hallelujah!