Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Malta

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – Air Raid Shelters

    Located under the Cittadella is this 32-room complex constructed during the Second World War to be used as an air raid shelter. The complex fell into disuse recently, but a €50,000 renewal was announced in early 2018 to open them back up again. Unfortunately, the plan to re-open them towards the end of 2018 doesn’t seem to have worked out. I’m basing that on the fact that it’s 2019 and they’re still shut…. Anyway, at least work is on-going.

    An information panel by the entrance. If I can get back to Gozo in a few years to see the new museum, I can hopefully come here as well.

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – HOG

    This medium-sized cafe had an inviting selection of cakes and it also had a welcoming environment. It seemed quite popular in terms of the number of customers and it served a wider selection of hot meals as well. They don’t accept card payments which is a little unusual for Malta, although perhaps just a little less so for Gozo, and I noted someone tried to pay by card and got refused.

    A latte and slice of cake, all well presented. The cake was dark chocolate orange, with a suitably rich flavour as could be expected. The price wasn’t too bad, a little over £4 for both the coffee and cake. The service was efficient, if not particularly engaging, but it was a clean and comfortable environment.

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – New Museum

    I visited all of the museums in the Cittadella and it did seem that some were old-fashioned and a little out of place. The buildings that they were located in were often more interesting than the contents and I wondered why they didn’t just build one single museum.

    However, it seems that the city is doing just that, with this €5 million new building which will bring together the collections that Heritage Malta have, as well as give space for new exhibits and themes. It won’t be finished for another three years, but work is underway and it looks like a constructive project which will make the museum more accessible and engaging for visitors. The European Union provided the remaining funding for the project which will be the first time that Gozo has had a single museum of this type.

    The museum is being built on the site of a boys’ school which recently closed, although they’ve maintaining some of this 1950s modernist structure into the new building. Hopefully I’ll get to come back in a few years to see how it looks.

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – Old Prison

    This prison was first established in Victoria, inside the Cittadella, by the Knights of the Order of St. John in the mid-sixteenth century. One of the early inmates was Jean Parisot de La Valette, who went on to become an inspirational leader when as Grand Master he resisted an attack on the islands from the Ottomans.

    There’s a larger common cell, which is now the museum’s ticket office, and then six smaller cells in the older part of the prison. It was all once connected to the Courts, which are still located next door. Above is a recreation of a prisoner sitting in one of the smaller cells.

    The cells remained in use until 1962, although they had been used in conjunction with another prison from the late nineteenth century. There was also another floor of cells located above the original block which were added at a later date, and towards the end this prison was primarily just used for those awaiting trial.

    Visitors can go in two of the prison cells, the others are visible only through the little windows on the doors. The sanitary conditions in the prison were actually of a decent standard, especially given the period in which they were in use, with inmates allowed to shower frequently and they also had access to a doctor.

         

    Above are images of the graffiti which are visible all around the cells, etched into the limestone. This must have been a frustrating situation for the prison guards, who would have found it difficult to stop the graffiti given how soft the rock is. There is today a large sign telling visitors not to add any graffiti to the walls, something which the Cittadella itself is suffering from.

    However, the graffiti made by the prisoners is interesting, especially when it’s dated. Above are photos with some examples of the graffiti, such as hand prints, ships and also lines which indicate how long a prisoner has been incarcerated. The graffiti lasted so long as there was a thick layer of lime whitewash pasted over the top of it, which has only recently been removed.

    I visited with my Heritage Malta pass which I obtained on my first trip to the islands, but the entrance fee is relatively cheap, costing €5 for all the museums in the Cittadella. I was suitably amused by some reviews of the site on-line complaining that the museum isn’t very big. Quite how some people expect the museum to magic up more space in a nearly 500-year old prison is a mystery to me, but such is the delight of reading these reviews….

  • Gozo – Victoria – Maze of Streets

    Victoria, also known as Rabat, is the capital of Gozo and is a delightful little town which has plenty of character. There is somewhat of a maze of streets in the central area of the main town, that is to say away from the Cittadella, which is the fortified area of Victoria.

    Numerous photos, which I admit do look a little similar, below….

  • Malta – Greggs

    I’m now rueing that I don’t have access to an oven in Malta having discovered that the Iceland shops on the islands stock the Greggs range. Including chicken bakes. Priced at €2.59 for two, what a bargain. I could live in Malta knowing this…. (well, during the winter, it’s too hot in spring, summer and the autumn).

  • Gozo – Victoria – Stone Cross

    This stone cross is similar to many other located across the island and it marks the perimeter of the church grounds. This one is thought to have been particularly important as it belonged to the Gozo Matrice, which is now the city’s cathedral. It has been sited in this square for some time, although was moved in the 1960s (or 1970s depending on the source, and I have no obvious way of checking which it is) when the road was widened. When they restored it recently they discovered another level of stones at the base that they hadn’t realised were there.

  • Gozo – Victoria – Stanley’s Chippy

    After visiting five museums and two cafes during the day, a fine dining experience awaited. Well, what I call fine dining, which was a very British fish and chip shop in the middle of Victoria. The restaurant (I’ll call it a restaurant, although it was something between a cafe, chip shop and restaurant) is in a beautiful location, situated in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption. It’s quite a small restaurant, just a handful of tables and a small kitchen area, but it was clean and comfortable.

    The drinks menu, very reasonably priced.

    The drink, a refreshing Fanta  🙂

    The large fish and chips, which is the restaurant’s signature dish, and which was well presented with everything at the appropriate temperature. The portion size was generous and it was well drained, so wasn’t at all greasy. The batter on the fish had a light and pleasant taste, with an rich flavour. The fish was light and it didn’t taste like cod, although I have no reason to suspect that it wasn’t. The chips were firm on the exterior and fluffy on the interior, with the mushy peas actually having a decent taste. It was all well above average, with the batter on the fish and the mushy peas being of a notable high standard.

    The service was near perfect, a rare level of friendliness and engagement from a staff member who seemed proud of what the restaurant offered. The whole service style was informal and down to earth, and I got the impression that a regular group of customers come here and that there’s a little community going on.

    This isn’t the restaurant that I would have expected in the location in which it’s sited, but I’m glad that it’s there. It had a welcoming feel to it, with the staff being pro-active and helpful. I felt comfortable whilst eating here and got the impression that the food would of been of a high standard across the entire menu. The restaurant doesn’t seem to want to pretend it’s something that it’s not, and the menu was compact and manageable. All rather lovely.

  • Malta – Ferry Back From Gozo

    And since I got the ferry to Gozo, I had to come back again… There was a friendly chap on the bus to the ferry who was a Rambler from Wales, in his 70s, and he had been exploring Gozo on foot for the day. Lovely man, he was really enjoying his stay on Malta but is going home via Manchester tomorrow.

    The boarding process was efficient and professional, as it had been earlier in the day. Customers can buy tickets at the desks using either cash or card, with another staff member offering assistance at the ticket barriers.

    View from the ferry.

    I really should have brought my camera with me on this trip, my phone struggled with this one. It was a memorable view though during the ferry journey.

  • Malta – Ferry to Gozo

    I didn’t go to Gozo in my first week in Malta, so today I went to the north of the main island to take the short 25 minute or so journey across on the ferry. It’s free to get the ferry when going to Gozo, the charge is only applied when returning to the mainland (€4.65 which seems reasonable to me for a return fare).

    Setting off. It was a much larger ferry than I had expected, it has a capacity in the hundreds and there’s a cafe on board and lots of space to sit or stand. The organisation of the whole ferry was professional and although the bus timetables don’t entirely coincide with the ferries, there are sufficient buses to mean that delays aren’t excessive.

    Leaving the main island….

    There’s Gozo…..

    And the harbour town of Mġarr in Gozo, where there have been ferry services of some kind since 1241. In the background is Fort Chambray, which was designed to be the Gozo equivalent of Valletta. This meant that it would have been a new city and would have replaced Cittadella as Gozo’s capital, being well fortified and designed to a modern standard. However, despite work starting on this project in the eighteenth century, the threat of attack started to fall and so it was never completed to the scale that had originally been planned.

    There’s talk, even this month, of building a tunnel  between the main island and Gozo, but that would come at an enormous expense and for visitors at least, the ferry is an interesting little adventure. I imagine for the locals, they’re probably fed up of it though….