Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Northern Region

  • 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 – 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 – 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 – Northern Region – Mdina – National Museum of Natural History

    This was the first building that I saw when entering the ancient walled city of Mdina, and it looked a fascinating building. It was included in my Heritage Malta pass, so I went in without really being aware of what it was. The whole visit was rather surreal, a fascinating building clearly packed with history, and a museum which was, to be honest, in the way of seeing the historic interiors. The building is the Vilhena Palace, originally built between 1726 and 1728, built as a grand residence, but later used as a hospital before it was converted into a museum.

    One of the supporting columns under the floor in front of the museum entrance. I liked how this history was revealed, although it wasn’t a theme of the rest of the visit. The nearby toilets were located in an old cellar part of the complex, although there was no explanation of what all the rooms used to be.

    Some of the building is sealed off, I’m not sure what the non-museum part is used for.

    The view out of one of the upper windows, although visitors couldn’t access this.

    I must take Dylan and Leon to another museum of dead animals. Anyway, this is a jaguar.

    And an owl, another of Dylan’s favourites. Although I think he prefers living ones.

    More owls.

    A dead snake, with a dead giant lizard behind it.

    A mackerel shark.

    A turtle of some kind, but the descriptive plaque has fallen off and bits of the skeleton have also fallen off. It’s a little bit symbolic of the whole museum.

    A bat.

    An early Homo Sapiens skull which was found in Kenya.

    Glassware which was found from when the building was used as a hospital, which was between 1909 and 1956.

    A piece of lead shot which was likely fired in battle that was found in the south facing walls of the building. These small displays were some of the more interesting to me, as they had a relevance to the building itself. The collection of dead animals and rocks was no doubt of some importance, but it could have really been housed anywhere.

    Perhaps in the future much more could be done with this historic palace building itself, rather than just using it as a location to house a museum which has no relation to it.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mdina – City Walls

    Mdina is the former capital city of Malta, but the Knights of the Order of St. John moved it away when they constructed Valletta, which was designed to be easier to defend. Above is the main gateway into the city, which is also known as Città Vecchia and Città Notabile. This isn’t the original entrance way into Mdina as it was re-constructed in 1724 with a Baroque design and it was also designed to be easier to defend.

    The map at the entrance to the walled part of the city shows just how many buildings were located within it.

    The city was never as well defended as Birgu, which was where the bulk of the action took place during the Great Siege, but the defences are still formidable. During the Great Siege the Ottomans did come to try and seize Mdina, but the local governor was able to fool them into thinking there were more troops than there actually were, so they decided not to attack. There’s a story that I’ve read in a few books that the governor also got the females in the city to dress up as troops, as part of the plan to pretend it was better defended than it actually was.

  • Malta (Northern Region) – St. Paul’s Bay – Steps

    Of very little importance, but I just quite liked this photo of some steps which go from the harbour area up to the main road. I’m fairly sure that these were wider, but a new frontage has been added to the old harbour walls which are centuries old, with the steps now being much narrower….

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mosta – Mosta Rotunda

    The imposing, but still beautiful, frontage of Mosta Rotunda where work started in 1833 and was finished after just 28 years…. Great civil engineers they had there. Anyway, they built this building around the existing church, and then demolished the church when they had finished it, so that must have been a giant construction site for three decades.

    Wikipedia tells me that this was the third largest unsupported dome in the world when it was constructed…. The frontage was also modelled on the Pantheon in Rome, a noble endeavour for a town in Malta to want to recreate.

    The domed ceiling, although photos can’t really do this justice.

    The altar in what felt a spacious and elegant environment.

    Visitors can visit the sacristy at the rear of the church, this is one of the connecting corridors and there are tombs on one side.

    One of the elegant tombstones on the floor of the church. I say (well, type) church although it was elevated to the status of a minor basilica in July 2018.

    I feel very slightly cheated by this, the church proudly signs internally their unexploded bomb. This was an amazing piece of good fortune, not that the bomb fell through the roof in an bombing raid which in itself is bad news, but that it didn’t explode. Anyway, I thought that this was the bomb. But it isn’t, the actual bomb was chucked in the sea by the Royal Engineers who didn’t want it to explode. However, the story is still marvellous because there were 300 people inside the Rotunda when the bomb fell through the roof, so it could have been one of the worst tragedies of the war if it had gone off.

    The pulpit and view across the interior of the Rotunda. The church was quite busy with visitors, but everything was organised and well signed. I got a joint ticket with the war shelter for €3, which was perfectly reasonable value.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mosta – Freddie Micallef Statue

    Statues of politicians are quite useful in a country that I don’t know, as they give me an opportunity to find out more about them. Freddie Micallef was a Government Minister for a few years in the 1970s and a representative in Parliament for a much longer period, from 1966 until 1996 (serving in the country’s second to seventh legislatures).

    I’m not sure that he had any standout policies, certainly the country’s Labour party didn’t mention any when commenting on his death, but they said “he was a man of whom one could never speak badly and was always on everyone’s good side. He also never held back from mixing with anyone, no matter their background or history” which is rather nice.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mosta – Ta’ Bistra Catacombs

    It’s not the grandest entrance to a museum that I’ve ever seen, but that’s because they’ve taken over a former farmhouse. The museum has the second largest set of catacombs in Malta, the largest being those at St. Paul’s. There was a friendly welcome from the staff member at the entrance and I also get the impression that this isn’t the most visited site that Heritage Malta operate.

    The section of the catacombs is the other side of the road to the farmhouse and it was thought that the road building had destroyed a chunk of the site. However, all was well, the engineers either hadn’t bothered to dig down very far or they carefully avoided the catacombs (likely the former) and they had just put the road over the top in the 1930s.

    The first part of the site is where visitors can enter the catacombs themselves, something better for shorter people than taller people. This section is located underneath the former farmhouse and the catacombs were repurposed as animal pens.

    These catacombs felt much drier than the ones at St. Paul’s, which all seemed to be quite damp.

    This is how much of the site is presented now, but it would have once likely have been on the edge of a valley side.

    The triclinium, where relatives of the dead would have a final meal.

    This is where they think that the Romans were cutting stone to use in building projects, but just didn’t get any further at this particular point.

    This apparently is where the fortunate body was given their own drinks stand, in the hole behind the two headrests.

    One of the few blocking stones which was still in place when they completed the archaeological dig. Interestingly when they completed an archaeological dig relatively recently, they found entire sections which had been missed at what they thought were comprehensive excavations in 1933.

    Although this site isn’t as extensive as St. Paul’s, it’s better explained with numerous informational panels. There’s also a short introduction video, but otherwise very little in the way of exhibits. The extra challenge has been in trying to explain the damage done to the site when it was re-used, particularly the farmers who turned sections into animal pens. At least though the road didn’t destroy much history, so there’s plenty to see at the site.

  • Malta – Northern Region – Mosta – Southern Fried Chicken

    I was inspired to have fried chicken having seen the Kentish Fried Chicken outlet, and nearby is an outlet from this British chain. Southern Fried Chicken is not particularly Maltese, well – other than being in Malta, and it is seems to be in a growing number of countries throughout the world.

    The service was helpful and friendly, so everything seemed welcoming. There seemed to be a lot of options to choose from as well, but it was all clearly priced.

    The interior was clean and had quite a modern and contemporary feel to it.

    As chicken burgers go, this was excellent. The chicken had lots of flavour in the coating, the meat was tender and this combined to have an enjoyable taste. The bun was fresh, mayo and ketchup were supplied free of charge and everything was hot.

    OK, so it might not be a beautiful platter of Maltese locally sourced food, but it was reasonably priced at just over £5 and tasted of a decent quality. It’s also well reviewed, unlike the nearby KFC, which I didn’t bother visiting.