Day 317 & 318: 27th and 28th April 2018 - Sliema and Explora!

Friday 27th April 2018

The usual school in the morning then we decided to go for a walk (or scoot) along the waterfront into Sliema before catching the bus back. It was a good couple of km but we encouraged the kids by telling them we were going to find 2 playgrounds!

In the end it was a lovely walk, the first playground not so great but AJ found an excellent tree to climb with only a little adult assistance.

As we walked on we passed numerous stalls trying to sell us harbour tours or trips to the Blue Lagoon. Aside from the fact that we had already done both in our own boat it was a crazy sell as all boats even on moorings in the harbour were rocking and rolling something chronic. There was no way I would have liked to be out on a boat that day. Not sure if it was the poor sailing conditions or the fact that it is still technically off season here but many of the stalls were unoccupied and Esmé in particular took great delight in trying to sell us various trips from each and every one of them.

The moorings were closely packed together and Patrick commented that the Maltese didn't worry too much about looks when it came to tenders... I suppose they only need to get them a few metres so no need to splash out!

Once we found the second playground I left Patrick with my smartphone and took his brick shopping while he watched the kids. It was lovely to have an hour to myself before heading back to my lovely family to catch the bus back.

As we were waiting for the bus we looked out to sea and saw the day trip boats pitching and rocking and rolling out on the waves and were glad we were safely tucked up in Msida Marina well inside the harbour.

Saturday 28th April 2018

An early start for a Saturday as there was an engineering workshop on at the science museum, Esplora. After making a packed lunch and paying for another week at the marina we took the bus into Valletta and then changed onto the number 3 bus out to the museum. For a grand total of 36 Euros we had an amazing day.






First up was a planetarium show about the history of flight which we all thoroughly enjoyed. Then we got to spend a little while in their space exhibit which the kids loved.

There were many hands on activities and AJ particularly liked the one where you used an air blower to try to get a beach ball through some Quidditch type hoops. He did persevere and eventually get it through one of the hoops but of course I wasn't videoing that time. See here to get an idea. The kids also enjoyed experimenting to see how the amount of effort required to pull themselves up changed with the number of pulleys.

We ate our lunch in the amazing gardens after taking a look at the university student's race car and then went to watch the first of a couple of shows. This one was a theatrical dance show depicting Newton's 3 laws which was both hilarious and informative.








Next up Esmé went with Patrick to build a tower out of kebab skewers and plasticine while AJ played on tricycles with a new Maltese playmate and built a dam!

 They also worked as a team to build a model of a heart and Esmé investigated a vortex.

We then watched another science show about electricity, particularly static electricity.

AJ making a drinks can move using static electricity to repel it.

Learning about how an object becomes statically charged.

Esmé modelling how Gold conducts electricity by allowing electrons to pass through easily (see the gold hats!)

And showing how wood finds it harder to allow electrons to pass through so is an insulator (brown hats).

They also created a circuit by all linking hands to light up a bar and make a sound.

More time for exploring the exhibits and then Esmé learned about gliders and got a chance to make her own before we were all exhausted and had to battle our way home in what seemed like rush hour traffic and extremely busy buses.

It was a great day and I'm sure we'll be back as there was still much we didn't get to see.