Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • London Gatwick Airport South – No.1 Lounge

    There are two priority pass options at Gatwick Airport South, one is the Grain Store and the other is No. 1 Lounge, which I hadn’t visited until today. There seemed to be an undue haste from a small number of other visitors to get into the lounge, perhaps with a fear of missing out, and they were merrily barging people out of the way. I’m not entirely that they benefited from their extra 15 seconds of time in the lounge, but I hope that they did.

    The lounge was turning people away who had flights more than three hours after they were trying to enter, although I had pro-actively mentioned I was only staying for an hour (which was true) and the staff member didn’t mention that my flight didn’t meet the three hour rule requirement either.

    Visitors get handed this menu when they enter and they can order one item free of charge as part of the lounge entry. The staff members in the lounge all seemed quite helpful and everything seemed clean and organised. I had arrived too early to try it, but the pear and blue cheese salad seemed interesting. For anyone who wants another meal, then there’s a £4 charge for additional items ordered from the menu.

    I opted for the fish finger wrap, which was presented with a heap of crisps, of which I approved of. The wrap wasn’t exactly large in size, but it tasted fine and the tartare sauce added some taste and texture. It’s basic, but of a perfectly reasonable quality.

    There are also some pastries and muffins available, as well as some cereals and porridge at another counter.

    The coffee was particularly decent, and there were also self-serve sodas and fresh juices available.

    The library area of the lounge, some considerable effort has gone into the design of the interiors. It’s not an enormous lounge, so I can understand the capacity issues, although it was inevitably rather empty at the time of my visit, which was 4am…..

    I’m aware from reviews that there are often capacity restrictions which limit visitors from lounge entry schemes such as Priority Pass. The lounge does guarantee that they’ll let individuals in from such schemes if they pay a £5 reservation fee in advance, something which I’m really not sure is in the spirit of the scheme.

    Comfortable as the lounge was, I’m not sure that I’d pay the standard entrance fee to the lounge, which is £32 in advance or £40 for those paying the walk-up rate. Actually, I definitely wouldn’t pay those sort of sums, but for those who want to binge drink alcohol, that does represent reasonable value for money over other dining options at the airport. Although that brings the lounge all manner of reputational issues that it probably doesn’t need.

  • Malta – The Moon Rock

    The Richard Nixon administration in the United States gave away 270 pieces of moon rock to countries around the world. A staggering 180 of them have gone missing, and one of the two which Malta owns has been stolen.

    The National Museum of Natural History in Mdina housed one of the two Maltese moon rocks, but it was stolen in a raid in May 2004. It’s still not known where it is and an amnesty was held to try and recover it, as the item itself is impossible to sell on the open market. It’s an unfortunate loss, and it was also the most valuable item in the museum’s collection.

    The other piece of moon rock in Malta is still safe and is located at the Gozo Museum of Natural Science.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mdina – National Museum of Natural History

    This was the first building that I saw when entering the ancient walled city of Mdina, and it looked a fascinating building. It was included in my Heritage Malta pass, so I went in without really being aware of what it was. The whole visit was rather surreal, a fascinating building clearly packed with history, and a museum which was, to be honest, in the way of seeing the historic interiors. The building is the Vilhena Palace, originally built between 1726 and 1728, built as a grand residence, but later used as a hospital before it was converted into a museum.

    One of the supporting columns under the floor in front of the museum entrance. I liked how this history was revealed, although it wasn’t a theme of the rest of the visit. The nearby toilets were located in an old cellar part of the complex, although there was no explanation of what all the rooms used to be.

    Some of the building is sealed off, I’m not sure what the non-museum part is used for.

    The view out of one of the upper windows, although visitors couldn’t access this.

    I must take Dylan and Leon to another museum of dead animals. Anyway, this is a jaguar.

    And an owl, another of Dylan’s favourites. Although I think he prefers living ones.

    More owls.

    A dead snake, with a dead giant lizard behind it.

    A mackerel shark.

    A turtle of some kind, but the descriptive plaque has fallen off and bits of the skeleton have also fallen off. It’s a little bit symbolic of the whole museum.

    A bat.

    An early Homo Sapiens skull which was found in Kenya.

    Glassware which was found from when the building was used as a hospital, which was between 1909 and 1956.

    A piece of lead shot which was likely fired in battle that was found in the south facing walls of the building. These small displays were some of the more interesting to me, as they had a relevance to the building itself. The collection of dead animals and rocks was no doubt of some importance, but it could have really been housed anywhere.

    Perhaps in the future much more could be done with this historic palace building itself, rather than just using it as a location to house a museum which has no relation to it.

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Thalassalejn (Then and Now)

    A photo taken in the 1940s in front of what it looks like now, it hasn’t really changed very much.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mdina – City Walls

    Mdina is the former capital city of Malta, but the Knights of the Order of St. John moved it away when they constructed Valletta, which was designed to be easier to defend. Above is the main gateway into the city, which is also known as Città Vecchia and Città Notabile. This isn’t the original entrance way into Mdina as it was re-constructed in 1724 with a Baroque design and it was also designed to be easier to defend.

    The map at the entrance to the walled part of the city shows just how many buildings were located within it.

    The city was never as well defended as Birgu, which was where the bulk of the action took place during the Great Siege, but the defences are still formidable. During the Great Siege the Ottomans did come to try and seize Mdina, but the local governor was able to fool them into thinking there were more troops than there actually were, so they decided not to attack. There’s a story that I’ve read in a few books that the governor also got the females in the city to dress up as troops, as part of the plan to pretend it was better defended than it actually was.

  • Malta – Gozo – Cassata

    I will say in advance that this isn’t Greggs standard, it’s just the cafe which is located inside the ferry terminal at Gozo. But as I had some time before the next ferry, I thought that I would try one of their cakes.

    I’m entirely confident that this probably isn’t the best example of a cassata, and it’s probably not meant to be served with a dent in the middle. I’d never actually heard of a cassata, but Wikipedia informs me that it’s “from Sicily, Italy and consists of round sponge cake moistened with fruit juices or liqueur and layered with ricotta cheese and candied fruit”.

    I find that foods that are coloured green usually taste like mud, but this was a pleasant exception. Lots of healthy sugar, a moist sponge filling and some candied fruit on the top. All very acceptable before the ferry journey.

  • Malta – Gozo – Ta’ Kola Windmill

    Located just a few metres from the entrance to the Ġgantija Temples, this windmill was first constructed in 1725. Unfortunately it wasn’t built very well, some dodgy use of stone and mortar was to blame, so they had to rebuild it in the 1780s.

    Bread is very important to the people of Malta, and they make it very well from what I’ve experienced, and the miller would have lived and worked here.

    The staff member at the front desk was enthusiastic and gave me a comprehensive introduction to the building and what there was to see in it. There are a lot of milling related items on display, some of which are from the last miller to have worked here.

    The recreated bedroom of the miller.

    Some kind of machine.

    And then the climb to the top of the windmill, up some fairly narrow steps at times. Fortunately I was the only visitor at the site, so I didn’t have to worry about passing people on the way up or down.

    This was what was at the top of the steps, the two stones which would have ground up the cereals into flour. There was also a lot less space than I had been expecting when I reached the top. I think I had expected some kind of viewing deck, rather than a functional windmill, but only two or three people could be up here at a time.

    Incidentally, one TripAdvisor review noted the below, and I certainly agree with them….. I was very brave though and struggled up.

    “There are very steep and narrow stairs to the top so if you have trouble walking or are nervous with heights it probably isn’t a good idea to go up.”

    I was using my Heritage Malta pass, but I think visitors who went to the temples next door also got free entrance into this mill. That has probably realistically boosted visitor numbers to a level which the mill might not otherwise have got, but it’s still an interesting site.

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Steps

    Of very little importance, but I just quite liked this photo of some steps which go from the harbour area up to the main road. I’m fairly sure that these were wider, but a new frontage has been added to the old harbour walls which are centuries old, with the steps now being much narrower….

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – McDonald’s

    It’s important for me to visit a McDonald’s in a country that I haven’t been to before just in case Dylan and Leon ask me about it. It’s definitely essential to be able to answer any critical questions about the various features of non-UK McDonald’s…..

    A Big Mac meal, which I’m delighted to say tastes exactly the same as the ones throughout the rest of Europe. Isn’t globalisation marvellous…..

    Of note though in this McDonald’s is the charming view over the local bay and I can’t recall visiting a better terrace in any other restaurant in this chain.

    And another photo from the terrace, although it was unfortunately raining at the time. There’s not much else to say about McDonald’s, the service was efficient, the restaurant was clean, there was working wi-fi, power points for customers and the food tasted as it should. A meal worked out at around £5.50, so marginally more expensive than in the UK.

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Then and Now

    A photo of American troops on the island during the Second World War who defended the Italian fleet which were brought into St. Paul’s Bay after Italy surrendered in September 1943. As the sign points out, there’s a baseball bat in the middle of the photo showing how the troops could amuse themselves between air raids.

    My photo taken from the same spot.