Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Author: admin

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Valletta – Royal Opera House (Pjazza Teatru Rjal)

    The city’s royal opera house was built in 1866 and was designed by Edward Middleton Barry, who had also designed London’s Royal Opera House a few years before. The new opera house in Valletta pleased and delighted the people of the city until it burnt down in 1873. Not set back by this minor disaster work started again on the rebuild and it opened again in 1877.

    All was well with the building until it collapsed on 7 April 1942 after being bombed by the Germans during the Second World War. The British decided that they’d demolish what was left to avoid any further injury, although since Malta was the most bombed location during the Second World War I’d have thought that the ruins were the least of the concerns that the local population had to deal with.

    Anyway, the efficient and effective post-war government roared into action and managed to achieve precisely nothing in terms of rebuilding the opera house. Money was approved in 1955 to fund a new building, but it wasn’t spent and there were then decades of delays. It was decided that the locals could use the central area of the building as a car park, which didn’t seem a particularly useful way to utilise this prime piece of real estate.

    In the 1980s the architect Renzo Piano contacted the government and made some recommendations about how the site could be used. The government once again roared into action and twenty years later they had again achieved nothing. However, in 2008 a decision was made to renovate the site and by 2013 the new open theatre was unveiled. It had taken just 71 years to resolve the problem……

    One of the former entrance doors to the opera house.

    The new open air theatre structure has been placed inside the original walls without impacting on them. The new building has been controversial as there were numerous suggestions as to how the site could have been redeveloped, but it is now known as the Pjazza Teatru Rjal.

    The pillars show how large the original opera house was.

    And to make it even easier to imagine, here’s what it looked like in 1911.

    It’s positive that the site has been reused and Renzo Piano has done an excellent job, as he has with the city’s new gate and the Parliament building which is located next door. It’s just a shame that it took the government so long to actually do anything with the ruins of the building.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Valletta – Muza

    Muza is the new art museum in Valletta which relocated and opened in its current location at the end of 2018. My visit came just a couple of weeks after they opened, so everything seemed quite new and modern. Although I didn’t like the stairs inside the building, but I mentioned them elsewhere….

    The gallery has been opened in the Auberge d’Italie building which dates back to the late sixteenth century. Over the centuries the building has been used as a Post Office, a school of arts, a courthouse and a military headquarters.

    The signage in the museum isn’t really very good, although I’m sure that they’re planning to address this. I had a Heritage Malta pass so I didn’t go to the ticket office and instead headed to what I thought was the entrance so that they could scan my ticket. That worked, but the museum seemed very small, but it transpired that I had just visited the temporary exhibition which is on the ground floor. Fortunately a staff member told me as I was leaving…..

    Anyway, above is a plaster portrait of HRH the Prince of Wales, sculpted by Vincent Apap, one of the most famous Maltese sculptors in recent history.

    This is the last artwork by Victor Pasmore and it was found on his easel when he died in 1998. The information panel explains that “it is a synthesis of his style in Malta, featuring simple forms, dynamic lines and symbols”. I haven’t got the slightest clue what the artwork, which is titled Bla Titlu (this actually means ‘without title’ in Maltese, so I suppose it isn’t really titled), is about.

    This artwork is by the Maltese Emvin Cremona and is a mixed media piece created in 1969. I have absolutely no idea what this is supposed to be about, which was a theme I was discovering about this exhibition.

    St. Anthony the Abbot, a sculpture in plaster by Vincent Apap, one of his earlier works having been created in 1932.

    This is the design created in 1917 by the Maltese sculptor Antonio Sciortino for a project to mark the unknown soldier. Despite many years of work the structure was never built.

    Another work by Antonio Sciortino, this one is a model for a monument of Anton Chekhov, which was in this case constructed.

    I like medieval triptychs, but this is a contemporary interpretation which was created in 1945 by the Maltese artist Anton Inglott.

    Everything above was in the temporary exhibition, so I then made my way up the stairs to the main collection. The museum was surprisingly quiet, although it was also much larger than I had anticipated. There were gaps where signs and panels should be, but I assume that this is simply because the museum has just opened and they weren’t quite ready.

    An early map of Valletta.

    This is the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ which was painted in the late sixteenth century by the Italian artist Andrea Vicentino. Of note is that this is one of the few works which has survived which was once hung in the Grandmaster’s Palace.

    This painting of ‘Madonna and Child’ looks older to me, but is actually from the late nineteenth century, although the painter is unknown.

    One of my favourite works in the gallery, this is a view of the Grand Harbour’s entrance, painted in oils in the early nineteenth century by Thomas Lyde Hornbrook.

    An interesting cartoon from 1803 representing the evacuation of Malta.

    Overall, I liked this museum and the design felt contemporary and modern, befitting the new building. I also very much liked that there were numerous information panels relating to the history of the building itself, which has gone through numerous transformations over the centuries. The layout was though just a little confusing and I hope no visitors manage to miss the main part of the museum and instead just see the downstairs exhibition area.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Valletta – Muza (Stairs)

    Muza is Valletta’s new art museum, and more on which in a separate post. But I feel the need to comment on the internal steps inside the museum, which I noticed a couple of other people stumble on. I’m not sure how this design got through the planning process but perhaps it was just me who found it slightly difficult to identify the edges of the steps. Well, and the other people I saw stumbling.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Valletta – Palace Armoury

    The Palace Armoury is part of the huge collection of armour that the Knights of the Order of St. John once possessed. Unfortunately chunks of it were stolen by Napoleon’s troops during the Napoleonic Wars and the storage area has moved to two former stable blocks, but solely because the original room upstairs was taken over by the Parliament of Malta.

    Collection of cannons.

    There were a lot of the various pointy weapon things attached along the walls. I can quite imagine an invasion requiring the Knights to come into a warehouse like this full of weapons and armour, taking what was appropriate. This is incidentally one of the largest collections of weapons in the world which is still located in the original building.

    It’s thought that this suit of armour was designed for the Grand Commander Jean Jacques de Verdelain, who lived from 1595 until 1678 and he was the nephew of Grand Master Hugues Loubens de Verdalle. I suspect there’s an element of guess work here, but it makes the armour feel more relevant when there’s a connection to a particular person.

    Some of the wax figures were quite realistic…..

    These are morions, or open helmets, which were used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

    The collection, even in its depleted state, is still extensive in size. Originally the collection of weapons and armour would have been sufficient to arm thousands of soldiers.

    A decorative shield.

    Chain mail which was worn under the armour and which looks heavy and clunky.

    There was a free audio guide available but the staff member forgot to tell me that, and it only became apparent when I reached the state rooms which are in the same building. Not that it really mattered, I’m not that engaged with audio guides and there was plenty of descriptive information on the panels. There are a few negative reviews about this audio guide process and it is a bit clunky.

    Overall, it’s an interesting enough museum although weaponry doesn’t overly thrill me and I tend to glaze over displays of guns and armour. However, it was clearly laid out and the highlight was seeing the armour which they had tried to associate with particular military leaders and Grand Masters from the period. The new location of the former stable block is a bit run down though, and perhaps a little bit of modernisation might be useful to the whole arrangements.

  • United States – Nevada – Las Vegas – Paradise Buffet

    Located in the Fremont Casino is the all you can eat food option that is Paradise Buffet. These photos are from when I was there in January 2017, although the prices don’t seem to have changed much since then, it works out at around €8 not including the tip. This includes unlimited soft drinks, which are replaced at the table by the server at a formidable pace and always before I’d finished the previous one.

    There are eight counters of different foods of various kinds and the choices do seem a little endless…..

    And in no particular order, the photos of what I decided to eat during this visit. The tacos were one of my favourite elements, the desserts are slightly, well, unhealthy, but they looked so tempting. There’s technically a 90-minute limit in the restaurant, but during my two or three visits there they’ve never enforced that.

  • American Airlines (Las Vegas to Chicago)

    This flight was on 18 January 2017 and I flew with American Airlines from Las Vegas McCarran to Chicago O’Hare. I was randomly allocated a window seat, seat 23F and the above photo is of the aircraft when we had arrived into Chicago.

    Goodbye to Las Vegas…..

    As far as flights go, the view on this one was far better than I had expected because clouds weren’t in the way. Although there was some cloud cover towards the end of the flight, I was able to look out onto the varied terrain of the United States for most of the journey.

    There’s a free snack and drink, and I can rarely resist Dr. Pepper when in the United States…. Not sure why American Airlines selected such a European snack though.

    There was in-flight entertainment, which for some reason I hadn’t expected on this flight.

    Flying into Chicago and over Lake Michigan.

    This was a much better flight than I had expected and it was my first internal journey with American Airlines, as I’d only flown with them long-haul. Service was efficienct and polite, with the cabin being clean and comfortable. The views were also a highlight I hadn’t anticipated and the in-flight entertainment was another welcome distraction.

    The flight cost £65 which I didn’t think was too bad, although I’ve since realised that I can get better value by using my Avios balance. Using American Airlines also gives me the advantage of my Oneworld card, so I may as well as remain loyal to that scheme.

  • United States – Nevada – Las Vegas – White Castle

    When I visited White Castle in January 2017 they had been open for a couple of years in this prominent Las Vegas strip location. But their move here was significant, it’s not a west coast company and this was their first opening in a new state for nearly 60 years.

    I like White Castle and their products, they’re also one of the pioneering fast food companies in the United States and were crucial in the evolution of the hamburger. They sell sliders with customers getting four in a standard meal, along with the crinkle cut fries. Looking at the current prices across the United States, customers can get 20 sliders for $10, something which sounds tempting even as I type this….

    The usual United States policy of unlimited refills applies here to sodas.

    And the food, with everything being served in its own cardboard protective packaging, which isn’t perhaps ideal for the environment. The buns and burgers are quite soft, but the onion adds a little texture and the meat is flavoursome. The crinkle cut fries, which the restaurant proudly announces have been served like this for nearly 100 years, are crispy and appropriately salted (for my tastes anyway). The environment is clean and comfortable and there’s a reasonable amount of seating.

    The service was exceptional, with the staff members being engaging and friendly. I remember the server introducing herself, a ridiculous level of engagement for a fast food restaurant when compared even to mid level casual dining restaurants in the UK. Service was fast paced and I’m now making myself miss White Castle…..

  • United States – Los Angeles to Las Vegas – Megabus

    Earlier this week I booked a trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on Megabus which cost the grand sum of $1 for the journey, which takes just under six hours. It’s a trip I’ve taken a few times, and the photos in this post are from when I did the journey in January 2017.

    The journey starts at the Patsaouras Transit Plaza behind Union Station in Los Angeles and ends at the South Strip Transfer Terminal in Las Vegas. The coaches on this route are clean, modern, have power and are at an appropriate nicely chilled temperature. There is also wi-fi, although this inevitably starts to cut out in the more desert areas.

    Unfortunately the Megabus service in the UK is a distant second best to the service offered by the west coast US Megabus service. The staff operate a system where passengers can get there early and pick up a card with a number on it, which is the boarding order. This is an excellent idea as it means the passengers can go and find somewhere else to sit or get food rather than feeling the need to hover by the bus. There’s also the option on the web-site of buying a premium seat to board early (those passengers get a different card), but I didn’t feel the need to board that early.

    I do much prefer train journeys to bus journeys, but this is a glorious little bus trip, through the scenery of the California and Nevada deserts and mountains. For $1 it is of course exceptional value for money and it’s always a delight to arrive into Las Vegas.

  • United States – Missouri – St. Louis – One Day Three Nations

    Three Flags Day was when on 9 and 10 March 1804 Spain gave Louisiana to France, who then gave the entire territory to the United States. What became known as the Louisiana Purchase took place in St. Louis. The Spanish flag was taken down on 9 March, the French flag flew for one day and then the US flag was raised. Very symbolic.

    Above is the site of the ceremony to mark the near doubling of United States territory. It was certainly an incredible piece of negotiation, the intention had been to acquire New Orleans from the French for around $10 million and instead they got 530 million acres for $15 million. Bargain.

  • United States – Missouri – St. Louis – Gateway Arch

    I didn’t get chance to visit the observation deck as it was closed during the time that I was in St. Louis, but this is the tallest arch in the world and the structure with the most stainless steel. The arch was built between 1963 and 1965 but the whole structure looks much more modern to me, so there must have been a lot of innovation involved with the whole project.

    The arch is so large it isn’t the easiest to take photos off…. It stands 192 metres tall, which is only around 40 metres shorter than Canary Wharf. As well as being 192 metres tall, it’s also 192 metres wide, otherwise I guess it might fall down…..

    The arch and the Old Cathedral, the oldest building remaining on the waterfront.

    The arch in the morning as the sun was rising.