Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Malta

  • Malta – Northern Region – Ta’ Ħaġrat Temples

    This is another UNESCO World Heritage site, dating back to around 3,600BC. As with the Skorba Temples and Ġgantija, it’s genuinely difficult to grasp just how long these sites have been here. For these sites to be nearly 4,000 years old when the Romans were building Hadrian’s Wall is not insubstantial.

    It’s a relatively compact site, although there’s much more still standing than at the nearby Skorba Temples. As with other similar sites on Malta, there was a village here before the temple elements were added.

    Certainly not a bad location and it’s possible to see the sea from the temple complex. The site itself has been badly damaged by being repurposed for farming use over the centuries, although the first archaeological dig didn’t take place until the 1920s.

    A heap of stones at the rear of the temple site.

    The site hasn’t been particularly mauled about by archaeologists in an attempt to restore it, although this stone doorway has been recreated with what I understand are the original stones.

    Like Skorba, there aren’t any facilities at the site, but there is better signage at this location which gives an understanding of the history of the temples. A visit isn’t going to last particularly long given the relative small scale of the site, but it’s the importance of the history which makes this worth seeing.

     

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mgarr – Monsinjur Orazju Vella

    In my occasional series about people represented on statues, I had hoped to find out more about this individual. All I know is that he lived from 1912 to 1980 (that bit was easy to work out) and he came to serve the church in Mgarr in 1954. Beyond that, I couldn’t establish much, but I’m guessing that he was a popular local member of the Catholic Church.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mgarr – Bohini

    Located behind the church is Bohini, a cafe which opened last year in the town of Mgarr (the one on the main island, not in Gozo).

    Appetising cakes, which were all well presented.

    In an attempt to come across as a millennial, I ordered the avocado and egg bagel. The bagel was crispy, but I like a bit of texture to them, and the egg was freshly made. The avocado was smooth and had a richness of flavour and the tomatoes actually had some taste to them.

    The latte was served at a temperature something akin to the centre of the sun, I’d rather they didn’t serve it so hot. It also kills some of the taste to me, although it wasn’t an unpleasant or overly bitter flavour. I had finished the bagel well before the coffee was at a temperature that I could drink.

    I had a dilemma with the sugar. I had already used the spoon served with the coffee so I couldn’t dip the spoon into the sugar. Given that self-created problem, I decided that I needed to elegantly tip just a little bit of sugar out onto the plate, which I would then transport to the latte. To cut a long story short, I spent several minutes cleaning off the sugar which spread itself out over a wider area that I had anticipated.

    Service was friendly and attentive throughout, and the environment was comfortable. It was a bigger location than I expected from the outside, with around ten tables, and it stayed pretty busy during my stay. I wasn’t sure whether to order at the counter or at the table, so I faffed about a bit and guessed correctly that it was an order at the table situation. There’s also a small outside terrace which I’m sure is rather delightful during warmer months.

    This cafe has a more modern feel to it than some of the others in the locality, but the prices have remained reasonable. All rather lovely.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Car

    I think it’s broken, although I’m not a car expert.

  • 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.

  • Malta – South Eastern Region – Valletta – The Pub

    There aren’t a large number of bars in the centre of Valletta, it’s mostly cafes and restaurants rather than what might be called pubs. So, it’s not difficult for this location to just be called “The Pub” and still maintain its own identity.

    The pub is small inside, with just four tables and it’d be a push to get more than around twenty people in. Fortunately, there was one table free when I went in and although there were none of those craft beers that I like, there was Guinness, and that’s just fine.

    There are numerous photos and references to Oliver Reed, as he died in this pub. It’s perhaps not the best claim to fame to have, but the pub does rather play on it and even sells t-shirts relating to the event. For those who want to know Reed’s final alcohol consumption on the night in question, he had drunk 8 pints of lager, 12 double rums and 14 whiskeys.

    But the pub does have a lot of atmosphere, it’s welcoming, quirky and very traditional. It picks up negative reviews from not being clean or modern enough, but I quite like the slightly rickety nature of the interior.

    This was a popular haunt when British sailors were stationed on Malta, and there are numerous photos of ships as well as the badges on the walls.

    The service in the pub was entirely acceptable, it was efficient, sufficiently polite and made the location not feel unwelcoming. The prices are reasonable as well, with a pint of Guinness costing just under £4. Certainly a unique location….

  • Malta – Northern Region – St. Martin’s Cave

    I didn’t expect to find this cave, it wasn’t marked on my map and I was just walking by it. It was originally a Punic-Roman burial tomb, although it has also been used for human habitation. It was turned into a grotto in 1931 and remains in use for religious services. Fortunately there is a sign explaining this, otherwise I’d have found the site just a little confusing.

    The entrance to the cave, with a seating area.

    There was someone using the site for contemplation, so I didn’t disturb him by wandering around getting in the way as it wasn’t really large enough to do that. Such is the delight of Malta though, caves and religious sites such as this are commonplace. Apparently they set up a Christmas crib scene during the festive period, and I can see that the location is appropriate for that.

  • 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.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Skorba Temples

    I decided to walk to Skorba Temples from the hotel, which was just over an hour walk, as it’s one of the last historic sites I’ve yet to visit from my Heritage Malta pass. It’s a relative recent discovery, with the archaeological dig dating back only to the 1960s, but the site dates back to 4,850BC. For something that dates back 6,000 years that’s quite special and it was soon after listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

    There isn’t really much to see here in terms of the scale of the site, with nearly everything visible by just looking through the fence. The ticket buying process is a little convoluted for those without passes, they have to buy them at a different location or go and hunt some farm in the village down. There is a ticket desk at the site, but I imagine that they want it to be cash free, hence the no ticket purchase policy.

    The main temple area, which was added around 1,200 years after the first settlement at the site.

    This is one of the tallest standing stones remaining at the site. Much of the stone has gone missing over the centuries, likely reused for buildings and walls over the course of time.

    There hasn’t been much messed about with at the site in terms of some form of modern reconstruction, although there’s a limited amount for them to mess about with. For a site this old though I’m surprised there’s not a greater protection in the form of some sort of overhead canopy and the information boards could perhaps be improved a little in terms of their positioning.

    A site of this age and importance does perhaps warrant a small museum of its own at the location, although I assume that the visitor numbers would be too low to justify this. Anyway, it’s marvellous that anything has remained standing for this long and I’m glad it’s here.

  • Malta – Central Region – St. Julian’s Bay – Fisherman With Cat Statue

    I can’t find out much about this statue, other than it’s meant to represent a local fisherman sorting out his nets, whilst a cat sits by eagerly waiting for a snack of a delicious fish to be provided to it.