"I yam what I yam and that's all what I yam." ~ Popeye

 This morning we were venturing out away from Birgu and Valletta with Graham to see other parts of the island. Thomas and I were up early and we got things ready and had some breakfast. Around 10:30am Graham showed up at the apartment and we all headed to Birgu Center to catch the bus to head out for our day of adventure.

From Birgu we have to take a bus to Valletta and then go out to other parts of the island from there. We boarded a bus and headed toward Bidnija. The ride took a while and we enjoyed seeing the island from the bus. We stepped off the bus at the Rihana stop just outside of Bidnija. From the bus stop we walked along a dirt road for about 20 minutes. The walk was nice - no cars and great views, lots of wildflowers along the way. We eventually left the road and took a trail for another 10 minutes. Then we left the trail and walked through some grass and ended up at a grove or 2000 year old olive trees. These are the Bidni olive trees and they still produce fruit. The trees are spectacular - they are big and have intricately designed trunks. It was an amazing little journey to see these trees and will probably prove to be one of the highlights of this trip. After about 30 minutes admiring the trees we retraced our steps back to the bus stop.

We left the Bidnija area and headed for Mellieha. Once in Mellieha we decided to get something for lunch. We ended up at Belleview Bistro-Café-Pizzeria. The food was really good and we had a nice relaxing meal. From the restaurant we took a bus to Ghadira Bay. The beach here is the largest sandy beach in Malta (There are only five sandy beaches in Malta, all the others are rocky.). We walked around for a bit and then took a van to our next stop.

That stop being Popeye Village. The Popeye Village is actually the old set from the 1980 movie Popeye. It is an actually village built for the movie and it sits on the side of a cliff near the water. I loved walking through the buildings that I saw in the movie and thought it was amazing that the place was still there. Malta has turned it into an attraction - you can explore the buildings and see some shows. It is a little hokey but I loved it. We were there for an hour and with out admission fee we got a photo in front of one of the buildings, some popcorn and a postcard. You could also attend any of the shows. We spent a little time in the gift shop and then headed back to the bus stop for our trip back to Birgu.

Once back in Birgu, Thomas and I decided to let Dave and Deanne spend some time alone with Graham and Jessica (give the family some time together), so we headed back to the apartment. So, they went to dinner and we had leftovers at the apartment. I was glad for that because it had been a long day and we were both tired - so a quick meal at the apartment was perfect. We had a wonderful day and saw some beautiful areas of Malta.