These salt pans have, according to the historical information board next to them, been here for “a very long time”, with other sources suggesting that they’re probably Roman. They were rediscovered recently having been covered by the sand, once used by the locals to extract salt from the water. The sign also notes that the workmanship is much better than in other salt pans across the islands, with a level of professionalism to the set-up. Unfortunately, these salt pans were vandalised with paint a few years ago, but were swiftly repaired.
Tag: Malta (Northern Region)
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Malta – Northern Region – Dine West Restaurant
There are several dining options in Mgarr and this restaurant specialises in local dishes, pizzas and food from the grill. The branding is a little confusing from the exterior and if I hadn’t already looked it up on-line, I’d have been unsure what style of food it was offering.
The restaurant was fully booked when I went in, but the manager mentioned that a few tables weren’t booked until 13:00, so I could have one if I would be finished by then. Since it was only 12:00, I was hopeful of achieving that target, although I did drop my plan to have the octopus starter (I haven’t had octopus in a long time).
The wine menu was prohibitively expensive, and seemed out of all proportion to the food menu pricing, so I went for an orange juice, which was very affordable at just over €1.
The meat pizza, which had a deluge of toppings on and was not insubstantial in terms of its size. I like the leopard spotting on the pizza, although it might have been slightly over-done for some people. The toppings were generally of a high quality, especially the Maltese sausage which was packed with flavour. The beef was less impressive, but the chicken was tender and moist. The tomato on the base was quite sweet, but the base was a little too wet and was probably inevitable given how the toppings had been quite generous. The portion size was large and the pizza base wasn’t too heavy, but the volume of toppings certainly made it a challenge to finish it. However, I battled on and finished it all successfully.
I would have ordered another drink but no-one asked. It’s obviously a popular restaurant given their reviews and how busy it was on a Sunday, although the atmosphere was just a little over formal for me. Overall the pricing was reasonable though, just under £10 for the pizza and drink.
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Malta – Northern Region – Countryside Walk
Just photos in this post, my walk from the hotel at St. Paul’s Bay to the Skorba Temples. It’s warm without being too hot and fortunately there’s also a breeze, which helped me not overheat on the hilly bits of the walk.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Bathing Pools
These stone constructions are bathing pools which are around 1.5 to 2 metres tall. They’re also an archaeological mystery, as no-one knows how old they are. The sign near to them states that they might date to the Roman period, others suggest that they were owned by wealthy families in a later period of history. They don’t give a time estimate for this latter option, but I assume that they mean in the sixteenth to eighteenth century time period as it’s also mentioned that locals believe they’re been there for “time immemorial”.
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Malta – Northern Region – Mosta – Cannon
I can’t find out what period this cannon dates to, but it takes pride of place outside of Mosta Rotunda.
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Malta – Northern Region – Mdina – Old Signage
An old sign on one of the streets in Mdina.
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Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Milestone
Although milestones dated back to the Roman period, it was the British who installed a large number of them around the Maltese islands. A hard wearing rock was used, but many have inevitably worn away over the years and many of them were defaced over time. This one is in Paul’s Bay and I can’t unfortunately read what it used to say.
