Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Malta – Southern Region – Sciuta Tower

    Malta – Southern Region – Sciuta Tower

    This is one of the ten Lascaris Towers which were built 1637 and 1652, with nine of the towers still standing today. Sciuta Tower is located near to the Blue Grotto, making it one of the most visible of the towers given the number of passing visitors. This particular tower was built in 1638 and one of the De Redin Towers was later built relatively nearby to this one. It was used until the Knights of St. John were forced to leave Malta, with the British using it until 1873 when it then fell out of use as a military defence post other than for a brief period during the Second World War. It has since been used as a police station and storage tower, but has recently been renovated and restored.

    The tower can now be accessed by the public, but it was closed when we walked by. It’s one of the last sights to see on the heritage walk which starts at Dingli Cliffs and anyone walking by it along the coast will see some excellent views of the Blue Grotto.

  • British Airways (Malta to Gatwick South) – Fourth Time

    British Airways (Malta to Gatwick South) – Fourth Time

    Above is the BA aircraft G-MIDT after we had arrived back into Gatwick on service BA2645. I haven’t flown on this particular aircraft before, it was brought into service in 2001 for use by bmi British Midland and then was taken over by BA in August 2012.

    Boarding was smooth and without any delays, they called Groups 1 to 3 in one go and then Groups 4 and 5 went separately. There were sufficient seats in the boarding area for customers this time, something which isn’t always the case at Malta’s airport.

    As seems usual in Malta, there’s a short walk to the aircraft and then customers use steps to board.

    We had the aisle and middle exit row seats, with no-one sitting at the window, so Liam moved there. The cabin crew noted how sun-burnt Liam was to add to the occasion, with the crew always being efficient and pro-active during the flight. The loads were light, I’m not sure that the aircraft was even half-full in terms of the Euro Traveller cabin, a result perhaps of the current coronavirus situation. That did though mean that there was no shortage of space in the overheads and boarding wasn’t delayed whilst bags were shuffled around.

    Boarding was though delayed as a result of French air traffic control, an element of which was on strike, which meant that we departed around twenty minutes later than expected. However, the pilots kept us informed and nearly all of this delay was made up en route back to Gatwick, a flight which took just under three hours. The flight itself was uneventful, all calm and comfortable, with the cabin crew making appropriate announcements, although the pilot seemed to get distracted when making her announcements, but I admit that it is rather more important to fly the plane.

    Another perfectly acceptable flight from British Airways, with Gatwick South being well staffed so we had no delays getting through border control and then back to the long-stay car park.

  • Malta – Gozo – Nadur

    Malta – Gozo – Nadur

    Nadur is a quiet town in Gozo and we had opportunity to spend one night there this week in some farm accommodation. A handbook from 1839 noted that Nadur is:

    “Nadur, on a hill, is cultivated to near its summit, here the finest fruits of the island are produced. Most people visit this fine hill, from its beautiful and extensive view of the island and its vicinity, and from the females being the handsomest on the island”.

    The last line is hardly one that Lonely Planet or the Rough Guides would use today, but the rest of the information provided is true, the views from the town are certainly beautiful and extensive. Around 4,500 people live in the town today, which takes its name from the old Maltese word meaning ‘lookout’. It’s just a short walk from Nadur to Ġgantija, one of the oldest temple sites which is over 5,500 years old, suggesting that there’s been human occupation around this area for at least that long.

    Here are the views.

    The Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, which was unfortunately not open when we were there. It’s beautifully lit at night though and it is the centrepiece of the town.

    Life feels relaxed on Nadur, there’s something quite timeless about the town.

    A empty property in the town square, next to a bank and there are several bars and a couple of shops in the town. Our dining option in the evening, of which more in a separate post, was at the excellent Fat Rabbit.

    These steps are in the main town square and I’m unsure what they led to, perhaps an air raid shelter.

    A religious statue.

    A street in the town.

    A small park, located between the town and San Blas Beach.

    There’s a road down from the town to Mgarr, which is Gozo’s harbour and gateway to the ferry service which goes to the main island. Unfortunately some of the road is missing at the moment, although there’s a makeshift path that pedestrians can use. If they like mud that is.

  • Malta – Gozo – Mgarr Harbour

    Malta – Gozo – Mgarr Harbour

    Visitors today disembark the ferry from the main island of Malta at Mgarr Harbour, at the south of Gozo. Although the new ferry terminal is relatively new, dating from the early part of the 21st century, there has been a ferry operating here since at least the early thirteenth century.

    When a ferry comes into the harbour today, there’s quite a queue for buses, although in our case we just waited for the third bus which was much quieter. For the sake of a short wait, it made for a more comfortable ride. Anyway, what I liked was a guide book written by Thomas MacGill in 1839, who describes the scene back then in what he referred to as Migiarra.

    “Migiarra offers no convenience to people landing, except a dirty coffee shop, the houses or huts on the beach are for the reception of fishermen and those attending the boats. But there are always in waiting an abundance of asses, to transport visitors into the interior and there are now also some calesses [carts] of a very ordinary description for those who do not choose to ride.”

    Things have improved somewhat since then, but I can imagine the scene, the hustle and bustle of excitement of the incoming ferry and then the need to shuttle people to the centre of Gozo. In many ways, not much has changed, although I’m sure that the coffee shop situation is now much better.

  • Malta – Southern Region – Blue Grotto

    Malta – Southern Region – Blue Grotto

    The Blue Grotto was at the end of our walk along the southern part of Malta, starting from the Dingli Cliffs. Taking its name from the bright blue water, something achieved by the sun and local flora, these caves are a popular destination. We didn’t have time to take a little boat ride around the caves, although I’d investigate that possibility on future visits, to get nearer to them.

    The caves have been featured in numerous television and film productions, as well as being the backdrop for one of the Cadbury’s Milk Tray ads. I can’t find any mention to the Blue Grotto in the nineteenth century, with all the references being post-war, but the site has long since been a popular tourist attraction. There are some cafes and bars on site, as well as regular buses with run to Rabat and Valletta. It has all perhaps become a bit over-popular, but it’s still an impressive sight and there weren’t too many crowds during March at least.

  • Malta – Southern Region – Fawwara Aqueduct

    Malta – Southern Region – Fawwara Aqueduct

    The Fawwara Aqueduct was the country’s second and was designed to transport water between Fawwara and locations such as Luqa, Tarxien, the Three Cities and Zabbar. It was commissioned during the period of Henry Bouverie’s governorship of Malta, a military man who held the role between 1836 and 1843. The aqueduct came into use in 1845 to try and allow water to reach as much of the island as possible.

    The aqueduct could transport over 80,000 gallons of water every hour.

    The aqueduct and Liam, with the route of the original stone structure being difficult to follow on an overhead map as much of it seems to have been destroyed without trace.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Bugibba – Cheeky Monkey

    Malta – Northern Region – Bugibba – Cheeky Monkey

    I visited the Cheeky Monkey in Valletta last year and rather liked it, but they also have a second venue in Bugibba which I thought that we’d visit.

    There’s a pleasant view from the terrace at the rear of the bar, as well as plenty of seating inside.

    The craft beer selection is at least there, so that’s great, but much of it was out of stock and the staff member who served us returned to tell us that the drink I ordered wasn’t available. The bars pride themselves on their informality, but it all felt a bit scripted and forced, I’d have rather had a laid-back environment where the staff members wanted to engage and were proud of their beers.

    The Golden Bay from Lord Chambray, the brewer on Gozo. It’s OK, not exceptional, but it was refreshing and served at the appropriate temperature.

    An interesting concept, swings in the bar.

    I’ve never seen any bar advertise a beer sampler of lagers like this, and, to be honest, I hope I never do again. The bar advertises that they give customers the chance to “try the many kinds of high-end beers”.

    This bar was nowhere near as good as their other one in Valletta as the service was a little distance and I got the impression that the staff didn’t want to be there. The server asked if we wanted our change or were going to leave a tip of nearly 35%, but I decided that we’d have our change and didn’t mention the difficulty we’d had in actually getting the bill and paying. There’s a concept of cheekiness at the venue, hence the name, so it didn’t feel entirely out of place, but it sort of has to follow a similarly engaging service.

    The bar was all a bit dated in its style for my liking, but having written that, the reviews aren’t poor (indeed, they’re actually very good) so they must be doing something right. Given how much others like the bar, I suspect that if we’d had food and had a different server then the whole experience would have been much better.

  • Malta – Malta Day Seven

    Malta – Malta Day Seven

    Back to the UK today, but we had a few hours before needing to get to the airport. Above incidentally are some of the yachts in the harbour that we saw at Birgu, with some costing €100,000 a week to hire, although that bargain price does include 12 staff. Where’s Gordon when you need him?

    Anyway, back to the start of the day. Our second breakfast in the Slimiza Suites Sliema, all rather lovely.

    Liam rummaging around the breakfast options and faffing about with the toaster. There was a sign telling people not to put cheese in the toaster, so I dread to think what has happened here before. I don’t use toasters in hotels anyway, in case I set some alarm off, these things just sort of happen to me.

    For our last few hours in Malta, we got a bus from Sliema to Valletta, then a second from Valletta to Kalkara. I hadn’t visited this section of coastline during my previous visits to Malta, today it’s mostly former forts which have either fallen out of use or which have been repurposed.

    Just a small part of Fort Ricasoli that we could explore.

    We walked from Kalkara to Birgu, going by this building, the Villa Bighi.

    One of the former entrances to Birgu, now part of the Malta War Museum complex of buildings.

    We walked to the entrance of Fort St. Angelo, more of which here from my visit last year, from where it connects to the settlement of Birgu.

    I had forgotten how many steps there were in Birgu. They are everywhere.

    The bus back from Birgu to Valletta, one of the quieter ones which we’ve taken. The bus network has worked really well for us this week, but there have been a couple of journeys which have been packed. But, I’ve already moaned slightly about that situation.

    Back in Valletta, this is a rather decadent liquid chocolate drink in the Chocolate District coffee shop, a mixture of white and dark chocolate which are poured directly from the taps.

    Liam went for a cinnamon hot chocolate, not quite as decadent, but still rather middle class.

    One little treat before the return to the airport. It’s important to be well fed before the longer 25-minute bus journey.

    Liam in the bus back to the airport.

    The sun shining over Malta on the bus journey to the airport. There was no queue for airport security, so we were through in only a few minutes. I sailed through unhindered by the airport staff, who were incidentally very helpful, whilst Liam got stopped again. They can see aviation amateurs……

    Some of the lounge food selection, more on this in a separate post, but I’ll notice that the beef skewers (which tasted rather like McRibs) were very moreish indeed. And I got chance to have another Kinnie, which I discovered in this airport lounge last year.

    And that, as they say, is that. Goodbye Malta….. Our flight isn’t for a couple of hours, but that’s the end of this little series of daily summary posts. But it’s just the start of my shorter posts from this week, I can just sense how excited everyone must be…. Or maybe not.

  • Malta – Malta Day Six

    Malta – Malta Day Six

    And, it’s now Friday and day six of our little Malta adventure…..

    We have the moderate luxury (ie, don’t have to carry any bags) of staying two nights in the same accommodation for our final part of our visit to Malta, which is at Slimiza Suites Sliema. This proved to be better than I expected, both in terms of the accommodation and also the breakfast which was included in the room rate. After a lovely breakfast of yoghurts, cold meats, olives and gherkins (which reminded me of the month I’ve just spent in Poland) I was ready for the day.

    So, on our last full day in Malta we thought we’d make the most of the decent weather (by decent, I mean too bloody hot) and go for a walk on the southern coast of the island.

    A quick and moderately plain photo of Ħad-Dingli, which is where our walk of the Dingli Cliffs to the Blue Grotto began.

    A little sculpture just outside of Ħad-Dingli. The walk that we were following was on a leaflet that we had picked up from our accommodation, which saved us planning our own effort and also made sure that we saw some highlights. We also picked up a windmills walk that we were going to complete in the late afternoon, but we didn’t bother. It was too hot.

     

    I have a lot of photos of this walk on my camera, but I haven’t downloaded them yet to my phone. So, here are a couple of the walk that I took with my phone (that’s poor English, I mean that I took the photos on my phone, rather than I went on a walk with my phone), which rather set the scene of the walk. It was a moderately long walk, at just under ten miles, which encompassed some beautiful scenery and some busy and soulless roads. It was worth it to walk along the cliffs though, and I can forget the bit traipsing along tarmac whilst lorries for the quarry trundled by. And they trundled by regularly.

     

    The cafes at the Blue Grotto seemed to be of a mixed quality, some looked quite appalling to be honest and they had reviews to match, whilst others weren’t open when we visited. There was though an ice cream kiosk open and this proved to be sufficient refreshment for us. Due to circumstances beyond our control, namely the sun, we had become a little sun burnt, so this also helped cool us down. The last thing I want is to go through an airport all hot and bothered with the temperature checks that are going on for the coronavirus.

    Liam is much more decadent than I am, he wanted a waffle cone, whereas I was content with my ice cream being dumped into a tub. There was just one more part of our walk left after this stop, the short walk to see the Blue Grotto.

    Again, I have a lot more photos of this on my camera, I’ll excite my huge readership of three people with these in a separate blog post when I’m back in the UK. Or indeed before then if I get a little surge of excitement and creativity. But, I will say, these views were tremendous and it was a peaceful environment. Liam was able to get his selfies and I pondered what was happening to the ant that I flicked to a slightly lower rock in case it bit me. I had a slight panic that I had separated him from his other flock of ants (I don’t know what the collective term for ants is) but I was pleased to check on Google that he’d make his way back as he hadn’t gone far. I was pleased by this, as otherwise I would have had to find him and put him back where he was.

    Just before we caught the bus back to Valletta, and then Sliema, we realised that there was another viewpoint to see the Blue Grotto. We rushed down there before the hourly bus came and were pleased that we did, as the views were even more spectacular, but they’re on my camera, so they won’t appear for a day or two. We got a seat on the bus, but it was a busy service and it was standing room only by the next stop and then positively full for the next section. We’ve done well with the buses this week, but I dread to think how busy they must get in the summer months.

    Back in Sliema, Friday night means fish and chips (well any night actually means fish and chips to me, but that’s a different matter) so we decided to be moderately thrifty and get a takeaway from the well reviewed Sea Salt fish & chips shop. Above are the raw fish ingredients in the shop, some of which were taken out for cooking when we were there. This is a takeaway only outlet (other than for two little seats which are I think are designed for waiting customers rather than dining) and it was busy when we collected the food. The service did seem disorganised, and they forgot one of our sauces, but it was always friendly and although it wasn’t very cheap, it was cheaper than eating the same meal in some of the restaurants in the area.

    Back to the main event, the food itself was excellent, the batter was full of flavour and had herbs sprinkled throughout it, the fish had a rich and deep taste, with the skin-on chips being crispy on the exterior and sufficiently fluffy on the interior. There was sea salt sprinkled over it, so we were entirely delighted with our choice.

    This is our last night in Malta, so boarding passes downloaded for tomorrow’s flight and the trip back to the UK…. It’s all been very lovely as someone keeps saying on Facebook. But, it’s been too hot today, although I’m sure I won’t mention that again.

  • Malta – Malta Day Five

    Malta – Malta Day Five

    There was no breakfast included with our bargain room rate at the Hotel Europa, so after checking out of our luxurious, or at least functional, room it was time to have a little meander around Sliema.

    I appointed myself as the head selector of food and drink venues for this week, given my obvious expertise in this field. The option I went for was Pastry Park, a quiet little cafe with a rather lovely view over the sea. The lemon cake was moist and lemony, which is always good for a lemon cake, and the coffee was way above par. Reasonably priced and another one of my excellent selections.

    We then walked from the centre of Sliema to Fort Manoel, a fort which is closed to the public at the moment, but hopefully it’ll reopen in future years. When I walked this route last year there were tens of cats, but they seem to have disappeared this year, hopefully they were all just having a little sleep.

    This is the area behind Fort Manoel which has some extensive views over Valletta.

    And a little look at Duck Island on the way back to Sliema.

    As the morning had been another busy exercise in walking, the lunch was at the Crew Cafe Bar, where Liam had an omelette which had cheese melted into it (a combination I hate) whereas I had the Bailey’s cheesecake (a combination I love). Not the cheapest, but a comfortable lunch-stop with the staff being friendly and helpful.

    The Point Shopping Mall, a medium sized shopping centre which was of no great excitement, although it has some not unpleasant views out to the sea. We then went to check into the accommodation that we’ve booked for two nights, a rather keenly priced room at the Slimiza Suites which includes breakfast. More on that in tomorrow’s post.

    After dropping off the bags, there was a long bus journey (as in time wise, the bus wasn’t particularly long) to Mdina, via Mosta.

    The Mosta Rotunda, which I visited last year.

    Before leaving Mosta, we went to Cafe Olavi. The lady who worked there was lovely, although commented on how fast Liam spoke when we queried where half the order was. This doughnut was full of cream and some jam as well, a rather decadent little treat. But one that I of course deserved after a morning of exploration. Liam’s latte was hotter than the centre of the sun, but all was well in terms of the taste.

    A phone box in front of Mosta rotunda. We had a longer wait than expected here as the bus was delayed by around 25 minutes, but there are worse places in the world to have to wait. I’d add that we waited near to the phone box, not in it, obviously.

     

    St. Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina, which was reconstructed during the late seventeenth century when the 1693 Sicily earthquake damaged the earlier building.

    The cathedral’s dome.

    Inside the grand cathedral, rebuilt in a baroque style.

    A street on Mdina.

    Liam exploring.

    The view from the top of the defences of the fortified city of Mdina.

    The city’s substantial defences.

    The evening meal was at Bottegin Palazzo Xara, an Italian restaurant which was located in a grand former residential building which was constructed during the first few years of the eighteenth century. The restaurant had a small craft beer menu, but the options were entirely acceptable, with Brewdog’s Zombie Cake available.

    More on this in another post, but the sausage pasta with goat’s cheese was one of the best dishes of its kind that I’ve had. Freshly prepared, there was a richness to the sauce, the pasta retained some bite, the cheese crumbled into the sauce and the sausage was full of flavour.

    Then it was back to our accommodation in Sliema, fortunately on a bus that arrived on time and that wasn’t too busy.