Winston Churchill, Britain’s former Prime Minister, is still held in high regard in Malta from what I can tell. This sculpture of Churchill is located in Upper Barrakka Gardens and was sculpted by Vincent Apap, a Maltese artist. It was paid for by the people of Malta and Gozo and I think that it looks rather dignified and elegant.
Photos of Valletta taken from Sliema, which is a strip of land just to the north of the country’s capital. Sliema is where the Ottomans attacked the Knights of St. John from, and is where Dragut was killed. It was a fishing village for some centuries, although there was a military garrison located here until the British left in 1979.
These photos would have looked rather better if it hadn’t been raining for most of the morning…..
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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”.
These steps are several hundred years old, which is evident from the heavy usage that they have had. The steps don’t lead anywhere now, as in 1854 Lascaris Battery was plonked down right on top of them, but they were once the steps that led down to the sea. Modern development has seen some land reclaimed and the road level raised, so now they’re just a little piece of Maltese history….
I still have a few more of these to find in Valletta, the sculptures of Maltese proverbs. The text for this one reads:
“Time ripens the prickly pears – people acquire experience and wisdom with the passage of time”.
