Now closed off, this is an original part of Valletta’s defences, as constructed by the Knights of the Order of St. John. It’s not particularly interesting in itself, but in its unrepaired state it feels like a little bit of a connection with the Valletta of the sixteenth century. Well, I say sixteenth century, it might be slightly later, but I don’t want to ruin the magical idea that I had given myself that it was sixteenth century….
This is the ‘Flame Which Never Dies’ sculpture which looks over the city of Valletta which was unveiled on 7 July 2017. It was designed to mark the country’s Presidency of the European Council and was designed by Valerio Schembri.
The sculpture is designed to “reflect the enthusiasm and continuous work of the Maltese to decide their own future while improving their standard of living”, so a recognition of those who contributed to ensure that Malta could determine its own future.
Borġ in-Nadur is a temple arrangement dating back to 2,500BC located near to the town of Birżebbuġa. The site was then turned from a religious site into a Bronze Age village and numerous buildings were constructed around it. I thought it was interesting that they also fortified their settlement, a forerunner to the later efforts of the Knights of St. John which were on a much larger scale.
The villagers were concerned about an attack from the land, rather than the sea, and this site is the oldest fortification in Malta. The complex was discovered again in the sixteenth century, with numerous digs taking place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
I didn’t expect this site to be open, but was I told at another Heritage Malta site that they were opening it up for the day, so I trekked off down here. There was a lady at the entrance who was friendly and gave me an A4 laminated sheet to help me understand the site. I was the only person at the site and she did say that it hadn’t been very busy.
This is the A4 sheet explaining the site. I didn’t understand any of it as I couldn’t work out what rocks on the ground related to this plan. I think I vaguely worked it out towards the end, after tramping about the publicly accessible part of the site, but I didn’t exactly feel like I knew what I was doing.
Entrance was free with the Malta Heritage Pass and although I didn’t really understand the site in its entirety, it was pleasant to see something which was so old and was still standing.
Just working through the photos that I didn’t upload during the week, here are some of the city defences. This is also the main entrance point into Valletta, the Knights of St. John certainly made their capital city look imposing.
For reasons I don’t entirely understand, but won’t complain about, the National Aquarium is on the list of locations that I can visit free of charge with my Malta Heritage Pass. But, aquariums are exciting (not as exciting as zoos though), so given that it was free to go in, I went.
Jellyfish!
This very much discriminated against tall people, as children and short adults could walk through this mini-tunnel. This reminds me, this is another place that Dylan and Leon would like. Not because they’re short, which they obviously are because they’re young, but because they’re children.
Urgh.
Horrible.
A walk through tunnel, this one was suitable for people of all heights and ages.
A happy little octopus. I admit that I don’t know if he was happy, but he didn’t look unhappy, and I like to think that he was having a lovely time.
A frog thing.
A chameleon.
And lots more fish and other associated items.
It’s quite an expensive aquarium to get in, and irritatingly for some visitors, they might go to the on-site cafe afterwards and then be given a discount voucher. Not a great deal of use at that point…. I got in free with my heritage card, but I’m not sure that I would have paid the full price.
There was also one of those photographers standing by the entrance, who I had to rush by whilst not looking rude, with some exorbitant price charged at the end for those who wanted to keep their photo. I thought that attractions were doing away with this now, or letting visitors have the photo for free. It doesn’t give a great welcome in my view, for what that’s worth…
It’s not that big an attraction either, I think I was in there for under an hour, although I was distracted reading something in the Guardian for some of that time. It was busier than I thought it’d be, although by no means packed, but it is perhaps rather more busy during the summer months.
Malta’s international airport only has one lounge in departures (there is another in arrivals, which I’ll go to next week) and it’s a clean and organised set-up. It’s one of those airport lounges which is easy to find, sometimes they seem to be like the toilets at Wetherspoons, at the back of beyond somewhere.
The staff member was friendly at reception although she asked if I had visited before and I said “no” and she then didn’t tell me anything about the lounge anyway, which seemed slightly bizarre. Anyway, there wasn’t much to really say about the lounge, it’s quite spacious and the food and drink options are pretty obvious. I didn’t opt for any alcohol, since it was before mid-day, but it was all self-pour and there were named brands available. The coffee was good too, and I didn’t break the coffee machine.
This photo is a bit washed out as the sun was shining in, but there’s a decent view over the tarmac.
There’s an area for those who wanted to recline, and there’s also an outside terrace for smokers, which I didn’t investigate for obvious reasons.
This is what I want to see, some cold meats and cheese. I didn’t bother with the fruit, but I’m sure that it was lovely.
The pea cakes on the left were very moreish, as can be evidenced with the knowledge that I had seven of them.
Muffins and cakes, which were perfectly acceptable.
All in all, a perfectly nice lounge, and I look forwards to another visit there. Everything was clean, the staff were polite and the food and drink met my expectations.
Situated next to Burger King (which I had to resist) is this little cafe, which is located opposite to the modern Maltese parliament building. There’s an internal seating area, but I decided to sit outside amongst the 50 pigeons who were flapping about. Malta needs to do something with all these pigeons, move them to Sicily or something, they are a bit of a nuisance.
Quite a murky presentation of the latte, but it tasted fine with a decent flavour. Service was very efficient, indeed it was a bit quick, as the server came over with the menu, handed me it and then asked straight away what I wanted to eat. So given that I was panicked at what seemed to be an undue haste, I didn’t order anything from the printed menu (which had been my intention). However, I had already seem a lemon meringue pie in their display counter, so I thought I’d have that.
And I was happy with my choice, nicely presented and a lemon flavour, although it would have been tragic if it hadn’t…. All with a dollop of whipped cream, what more could anyone want? Well, a hot meal like I had planned, but the lemon meringue sufficed.
It’s a decent little location with affordable prices, especially given its central location near to the Parliament building and the central bus station. They’ve picked up some negative reviews recently, but I couldn’t find much negative about it. Other than the pigeons, but that’s not really their fault.
The first week is over…. I’m back next week though 🙂
I got a relatively early bus to the airport from my hotel, the bay was looking rather colourful this morning…. Looking forwards to going back.
And another in the Maltese proverbs series….
This one reads:
“Those who go to sleep hungry dream of bread – people who are suffering from some privation tend to think constantly of what they are missing”.
Here’s Speedbird on the tarmac of Malta airport, looking rather elegant in the morning sun. It was my first time departing from Malta airport and it’s a small, but well managed, operation. Actually, that’s with the exception of when I got to the airport and my flight wasn’t listed on the departures board. Which led to a very quick check of if there were two airports or if the flight had been cancelled. It didn’t appear on the boards for another two hours, by which time I was already in the airport lounge.
The boarding process was the usual slightly confused little arrangement, where the staff called boarding groups one to three, but not many people seemed to either hear or listen. And those who did listen didn’t seem to understand what the staff member was talking about.
So the upshot of that arrangement is that the staff member had to start turning people away who tried to board before they should, with this mini walk of shame hardly a great way to treat passengers. Anyway, I was in boarding group one and I wanted to board promptly for a change as I needed to put my bag in the overhead lockers.
I commented on seat 1C a few days ago on my flight from Gatwick South to Malta, it’s fine other than it’s where the wardrobe once was. So, the aircraft wasn’t designed to have a seat where they’ve now put one, so it’s important for the occupant of seat 1C to be careful to avoid anyone’s bag coming towards them when they board. On this, I fortunately succeeded at keeping my knees from other bags as I was in seated in 1C.
I’m not a big fan of these front row seats, as my bag has to go in the overhead lockers, and it’s just easy to have it at my feet. The layout of the aircraft means that my bag has to go back three rows, always a challenge to recover at the end of the flight. Fortunately the helpful passenger in the row behind me rescued my bag, and also the bag belonging to the occupant of 1A.
Here’s a photo of an aircraft door.
The menus and hot towels were handed out before take-off, although the crew member apologised that they were cold (the towels, not the menus). I liked the sound of all three of the meal choices, and was very pleased with the starter, dessert and cheeses.
The pre-meal snack and drink. My second alcoholic drink of the year, a gin and tonic. It came with ice and lemon, and it tasted like I expected gin to taste. Unfortunately, I have no special knowledge of gin to even be able to try to explain it.
The meal, which was roasted chicken with morel mushroom and spring onion casserole with thyme roasted potatoes. The advantage of sitting in seat 1C is that I know that I can get my first choice of meal (unless something really bad has gone wrong with the catering).
The meal was well presented and all of the elements were at the appropriate temperature. I’m not a fan of chicken skin which isn’t crispy, it just tastes of fat, so I peeled that off. The rest of the chicken was tender and moist, with the sauce having a decent flavour. I’m not that big on mushrooms either, but they weren’t really an important part of the dish. The vegetables were about as good as vegetables get, but the potatoes were moreish.
The cheddar cheeses was excellent, and the olives, tomatoes and feta cheese added to the whole proceedings. As there was a bowlful of bread rolls left I was able to get a couple of them, with the butter actually having some taste and not the generic rubbish that is served in some places. The dessert was rich, a chocolate and cherry torte which was like a Black Forest Gateau.
The whole cabin service was efficient and pleasant, with the cabin crew being pro-active in offering extra drinks. They were so pro-active with me they asked if I wanted a second champagne and I hadn’t had a first, but it seemed rude to decline at least one glass. BA have switched from serving champagne in mini bottles to using full size bottles and it was Champagne de Castelnau (I didn’t know this from just the taste obviously, it’s printed on the menu).
The flight apparently arrived in a few minutes late, although I only know this because the pilot explained that there were strong headwinds which slowed down progress. There was also a fair amount of turbulence towards the beginning of the flight, but fortunately the cabin crew had already got to row two and so I had my drink.
Overall, I felt that this was a pretty strong performance from BA given their historic achievement of inconsistency. The crew member was saying that she was called in and hadn’t expected to be working today, but she seemed on top of the service. All in all, rather lovely.
