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”.
Category: Malta
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Flights – Malta to London Gatwick South (British Airways)
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.
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Valletta – Do Not Count Your Chickens
I’m determined to find all of the thirteen sculptures which are part of the Maltese proverbs series, which are dotted around the city. I found another two today, of which this is one.
The text reads:
“Do not count your chickens before they hatch – don’t make future plans based on wishful thinking”.
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Malta – Heritage Malta Multisite Pass
I purchased the Heritage Malta Multisite Pass earlier in the week, which gives free entrance to tens of museums and sites of historic interest across the islands. I’m intending to visit all of them during my time in Malta, so I’ll add links to each site after I’ve visited.
The pass cost €50 and I’ll have to add how much I’ve saved (or haven’t saved) at the end of these visits. The pass is quite simple, as it’s just a receipt which is stapled to a guide of the sites. It is apparently acceptable to take a photo of the receipt, but I suspect some of the sites I’ve visited might not have been thrilled to see that.
They’ve split the sites into the below regions:
HARBOUR AREA
VALLETTA AREA
National Museum of Archaeology
Palace State Rooms
Fort St. Elmo + National War Museum
RABAT / MDINA
National Museum of Natural History
SOUTH AREA
GOZO
Gran Castello Historic House
And, finally, there’s also free access to the Malta National Aquarium, which is neither run by Heritage Malta (unlike the other sites) and doesn’t seem to have much to do with history, but I’ll go anyway as I like aquariums…..
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Birgu – Fort St. Angelo
There has been a stronghold on the peninsula now occupied by Fort St. Angelo for so long that historians can’t pick out a particular date, but it is back in antiquity. There was a castle here by the thirteenth century, but it was the Knights of St. John who expanded it in the 1530s and made it their base on Malta. The site was used to defend the islands from Ottoman attack during the Great Siege, with one of the cannonballs fired at the site having been found recently.
Fort St. Angelo was further expanded in the 1690s and it wasn’t until the British took over in the early nineteenth century that it started to be redeveloped again. Damaged in the Second World War, the building was repaired and continued to be used by the British armed forces until they left Malta in the 1979. From 1906 it was also the home of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet, although they irritated the locals by renaming it HMS Egmont in 1912. Fortunately the British saw the error of their ways and the original name was restored in 1933 when it was called HMS St. Angelo.
It’s only in the last two years that Fort St. Angelo has been turned into a museum, so, despite the rain, I felt that a visit to see the efforts of Heritage Malta would be in order. The site is also now the home of the Knights of St. John once again, something that feels like history falling back into place. In the above photo is the entrance into the museum, anyone getting into here would have already had to gain access through one gatehouse.
The site is large, but there are a lot of buildings which are empty and it’d be exciting if in the future there was more information about the history of the site. There are though three interpretation rooms in what were formerly dormitories used by the British, and the sally port which runs to them is accessible. However, the former recreation rooms and war shelter tunnel aren’t yet accessible, but perhaps might be in the future.
After getting a ticket, this is the entrance up into the main part of the fort. It’s hard to see how anyone could successfully attack this fort unless they heavily out-numbered the defenders.
This is D’Homedes Bastion which was built between 1536 and 1542, and the above photo shows just how wide the defensive wall was.
The rain meant that there were nearly no other visitors at the site, although the rain did make the floor just a little slippery as well. But it was immaculately clean and well kept, clearly some money has been spent on this restoration project.
There were a few of these watchtowers on the edges of the fort.
Inside these watchtowers there were extensive views over the local water.
There are several of these intriguing sets of steps, going where exactly I don’t know….
Part of the early defences.
Painted signs from when the building was used by the British military. There’s another old British sign in the shifting lobby.
This would have been an area where supplies were brought into the fort.
What is known as the Siege Bell, which was rung when the Great Siege was over. The present bell is a little more modern, dating to the nineteenth century.
This tunnel leads down to what was once the largest water cistern on the fort, with a capacity of 1,500 tonnes. It was damaged during the Second World War, and never fully repaired.
There was a relatively large amount of damage caused during the war which was never properly restored, it was just patched up by the British. Some of that patching up, and more modern repairs, can be seen along the wall.
This is the area where the cannonballs would have once been stored.
View over Birgu.
This was a rather pleasant visit, with much more to see than I thought, but still a great deal more potential for the future. The staff were friendly, particularly the man in the cafe who was full of enthusiasm, and a delight to speak to. Part of the funding from the EU came because of the cultural events which would be held here, I can imagine it’d be an impressive backdrop to many different performances.
There were plans to turn this site into a hotel in the 1990s, which was part of the reason the site fell behind with its maintenance. Although I’m sure that it would have made a grand five star hotel, that would seem a rather unbecoming way for the site to have been used, a museum and cultural centre is a much better idea. There was a decision, which seems logical, to demolish anything which had been built after the British army left, as it was felt that it wouldn’t be an authentic part of the site’s heritage.
This is one of those places I look forwards to coming back to in around fifty years, unless I get fed up with travelling by then. Although I could just watch it on the future equivalent of Youtube I suppose….
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Birgu – Fort St. Angelo (War Shelter)
The enormity of Fort St. Angelo, and the hundreds of years of history, mean that there are tunnels and passageways going off in nearly every conceivable direction. Unfortunately, visitors can only go down a few of the tunnels, corridors and arches, with the rest being something of a mystery as to just where exactly they lead.
This is a war shelter that was created during the Second World War, with it turning corners to help avoid any damage caused from blasts. It was though never fully completed, as other larger shelters were created across the fort.
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Birgu – Fort St. Angelo (Entertainment Block)
This is the entertainment block built in the 1920s for the troops to use, consisting primarily of a large cinema and billiard room. A TV room and bar was added in the 1960s at the rear of the building. It’s currently empty inside, although the former bar area is still visibly there, but there’s not much else present. Hopefully in years to come this will all become part of the museum, it must be exciting for Heritage Malta to have so many buildings to play with on this site.
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Birgu – Fort St. Angelo (Ottoman Cannonball)
The Great Siege of Malta took place in 1565 and it was the defences of Fort St. Angelo which helped the Knights of St. John to hold off against the attack of the Ottoman Empire. After the siege the Knights constructed their new capital city, Valletta, which is just over the water from this fort.
In one of the exhibition rooms is this granite cannonball, from that attack on the fort by the forces of the Ottoman Empire. A rather fascinating piece of history, as if the Ottomans had been victorious than the course of history for Christians across Europe could have been very different.
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Birgu – Fort St. Angelo (Dormitories)
This building now holds three interpretation rooms covering the subjects of (i) the centre of the Mediterranean, (ii) the Key to Malta and (iii) a National Icon. But, until relatively recently, these were dormitories for the British military.
Inside the second interpretation room. I’m not sure how the military made a dormitory out of this, it might be historic, but it’s not exactly beautifully lit. Incidentally, I’m aware of the current meaning of the word lit by the nation’s younger generation, but I just mean that’s it not very bright (the former dormitory, not the nation’s younger generation).
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Malta (South Eastern Region) – Birgu – Fort St. Angelo (Shifting Lobby)
This is the room where the British stored gunpowder. Unsurprisingly, the British military didn’t want any little incidents involving gunpowder, so they kept it nice and safely in this room. Next to this room is a little lobby area where those men dealing with the gunpowder would have to change clothing as their uniform and boots might be “contaminated”. They would change into white clothing and canvas shoes, with absolutely no metal present, before they could play about with the gunpowder. The boxes in the storage room would be made of zinc and there was a glass and brass panel between this room and the shifting lobby.
I have no idea what this means, since I’m not an expert in gunpowder (or indeed an expert in anything to do with the military if I’m being honest), but this is an original British sign painted onto the wall.
