Tag: Malta

Back to the UK today, but we had a few hours before needing to get to the airport. Above incidentally are some of the yachts in the harbour that we saw at Birgu, with some costing €100,000 a week to hire, although that bargain price does include 12 staff. Where’s Gordon when you need him?

Anyway, back to the start of the day. Our second breakfast in the Slimiza Suites Sliema, all rather lovely.

Liam rummaging around the breakfast options and faffing about with the toaster. There was a sign telling people not to put cheese in the toaster, so I dread to think what has happened here before. I don’t use toasters in hotels anyway, in case I set some alarm off, these things just sort of happen to me.

For our last few hours in Malta, we got a bus from Sliema to Valletta, then a second from Valletta to Kalkara. I hadn’t visited this section of coastline during my previous visits to Malta, today it’s mostly former forts which have either fallen out of use or which have been repurposed.

Just a small part of Fort Ricasoli that we could explore.

We walked from Kalkara to Birgu, going by this building, the Villa Bighi.

One of the former entrances to Birgu, now part of the Malta War Museum complex of buildings.

We walked to the entrance of Fort St. Angelo, more of which here from my visit last year, from where it connects to the settlement of Birgu.

I had forgotten how many steps there were in Birgu. They are everywhere.

The bus back from Birgu to Valletta, one of the quieter ones which we’ve taken. The bus network has worked really well for us this week, but there have been a couple of journeys which have been packed. But, I’ve already moaned slightly about that situation.

Back in Valletta, this is a rather decadent liquid chocolate drink in the Chocolate District coffee shop, a mixture of white and dark chocolate which are poured directly from the taps.

Liam went for a cinnamon hot chocolate, not quite as decadent, but still rather middle class.

One little treat before the return to the airport. It’s important to be well fed before the longer 25-minute bus journey.

Liam in the bus back to the airport.

The sun shining over Malta on the bus journey to the airport. There was no queue for airport security, so we were through in only a few minutes. I sailed through unhindered by the airport staff, who were incidentally very helpful, whilst Liam got stopped again. They can see aviation amateurs……

Some of the lounge food selection, more on this in a separate post, but I’ll notice that the beef skewers (which tasted rather like McRibs) were very moreish indeed. And I got chance to have another Kinnie, which I discovered in this airport lounge last year.

And that, as they say, is that. Goodbye Malta….. Our flight isn’t for a couple of hours, but that’s the end of this little series of daily summary posts. But it’s just the start of my shorter posts from this week, I can just sense how excited everyone must be…. Or maybe not.

And, it’s now Friday and day six of our little Malta adventure…..

We have the moderate luxury (ie, don’t have to carry any bags) of staying two nights in the same accommodation for our final part of our visit to Malta, which is at Slimiza Suites Sliema. This proved to be better than I expected, both in terms of the accommodation and also the breakfast which was included in the room rate. After a lovely breakfast of yoghurts, cold meats, olives and gherkins (which reminded me of the month I’ve just spent in Poland) I was ready for the day.

So, on our last full day in Malta we thought we’d make the most of the decent weather (by decent, I mean too bloody hot) and go for a walk on the southern coast of the island.

A quick and moderately plain photo of Ħad-Dingli, which is where our walk of the Dingli Cliffs to the Blue Grotto began.

A little sculpture just outside of Ħad-Dingli. The walk that we were following was on a leaflet that we had picked up from our accommodation, which saved us planning our own effort and also made sure that we saw some highlights. We also picked up a windmills walk that we were going to complete in the late afternoon, but we didn’t bother. It was too hot.

 

I have a lot of photos of this walk on my camera, but I haven’t downloaded them yet to my phone. So, here are a couple of the walk that I took with my phone (that’s poor English, I mean that I took the photos on my phone, rather than I went on a walk with my phone), which rather set the scene of the walk. It was a moderately long walk, at just under ten miles, which encompassed some beautiful scenery and some busy and soulless roads. It was worth it to walk along the cliffs though, and I can forget the bit traipsing along tarmac whilst lorries for the quarry trundled by. And they trundled by regularly.

 

The cafes at the Blue Grotto seemed to be of a mixed quality, some looked quite appalling to be honest and they had reviews to match, whilst others weren’t open when we visited. There was though an ice cream kiosk open and this proved to be sufficient refreshment for us. Due to circumstances beyond our control, namely the sun, we had become a little sun burnt, so this also helped cool us down. The last thing I want is to go through an airport all hot and bothered with the temperature checks that are going on for the coronavirus.

Liam is much more decadent than I am, he wanted a waffle cone, whereas I was content with my ice cream being dumped into a tub. There was just one more part of our walk left after this stop, the short walk to see the Blue Grotto.

Again, I have a lot more photos of this on my camera, I’ll excite my huge readership of three people with these in a separate blog post when I’m back in the UK. Or indeed before then if I get a little surge of excitement and creativity. But, I will say, these views were tremendous and it was a peaceful environment. Liam was able to get his selfies and I pondered what was happening to the ant that I flicked to a slightly lower rock in case it bit me. I had a slight panic that I had separated him from his other flock of ants (I don’t know what the collective term for ants is) but I was pleased to check on Google that he’d make his way back as he hadn’t gone far. I was pleased by this, as otherwise I would have had to find him and put him back where he was.

Just before we caught the bus back to Valletta, and then Sliema, we realised that there was another viewpoint to see the Blue Grotto. We rushed down there before the hourly bus came and were pleased that we did, as the views were even more spectacular, but they’re on my camera, so they won’t appear for a day or two. We got a seat on the bus, but it was a busy service and it was standing room only by the next stop and then positively full for the next section. We’ve done well with the buses this week, but I dread to think how busy they must get in the summer months.

Back in Sliema, Friday night means fish and chips (well any night actually means fish and chips to me, but that’s a different matter) so we decided to be moderately thrifty and get a takeaway from the well reviewed Sea Salt fish & chips shop. Above are the raw fish ingredients in the shop, some of which were taken out for cooking when we were there. This is a takeaway only outlet (other than for two little seats which are I think are designed for waiting customers rather than dining) and it was busy when we collected the food. The service did seem disorganised, and they forgot one of our sauces, but it was always friendly and although it wasn’t very cheap, it was cheaper than eating the same meal in some of the restaurants in the area.

Back to the main event, the food itself was excellent, the batter was full of flavour and had herbs sprinkled throughout it, the fish had a rich and deep taste, with the skin-on chips being crispy on the exterior and sufficiently fluffy on the interior. There was sea salt sprinkled over it, so we were entirely delighted with our choice.

This is our last night in Malta, so boarding passes downloaded for tomorrow’s flight and the trip back to the UK…. It’s all been very lovely as someone keeps saying on Facebook. But, it’s been too hot today, although I’m sure I won’t mention that again.

There was no breakfast included with our bargain room rate at the Hotel Europa, so after checking out of our luxurious, or at least functional, room it was time to have a little meander around Sliema.

I appointed myself as the head selector of food and drink venues for this week, given my obvious expertise in this field. The option I went for was Pastry Park, a quiet little cafe with a rather lovely view over the sea. The lemon cake was moist and lemony, which is always good for a lemon cake, and the coffee was way above par. Reasonably priced and another one of my excellent selections.

We then walked from the centre of Sliema to Fort Manoel, a fort which is closed to the public at the moment, but hopefully it’ll reopen in future years. When I walked this route last year there were tens of cats, but they seem to have disappeared this year, hopefully they were all just having a little sleep.

This is the area behind Fort Manoel which has some extensive views over Valletta.

And a little look at Duck Island on the way back to Sliema.

As the morning had been another busy exercise in walking, the lunch was at the Crew Cafe Bar, where Liam had an omelette which had cheese melted into it (a combination I hate) whereas I had the Bailey’s cheesecake (a combination I love). Not the cheapest, but a comfortable lunch-stop with the staff being friendly and helpful.

The Point Shopping Mall, a medium sized shopping centre which was of no great excitement, although it has some not unpleasant views out to the sea. We then went to check into the accommodation that we’ve booked for two nights, a rather keenly priced room at the Slimiza Suites which includes breakfast. More on that in tomorrow’s post.

After dropping off the bags, there was a long bus journey (as in time wise, the bus wasn’t particularly long) to Mdina, via Mosta.

The Mosta Rotunda, which I visited last year.

Before leaving Mosta, we went to Cafe Olavi. The lady who worked there was lovely, although commented on how fast Liam spoke when we queried where half the order was. This doughnut was full of cream and some jam as well, a rather decadent little treat. But one that I of course deserved after a morning of exploration. Liam’s latte was hotter than the centre of the sun, but all was well in terms of the taste.

A phone box in front of Mosta rotunda. We had a longer wait than expected here as the bus was delayed by around 25 minutes, but there are worse places in the world to have to wait. I’d add that we waited near to the phone box, not in it, obviously.

 

St. Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina, which was reconstructed during the late seventeenth century when the 1693 Sicily earthquake damaged the earlier building.

The cathedral’s dome.

Inside the grand cathedral, rebuilt in a baroque style.

A street on Mdina.

Liam exploring.

The view from the top of the defences of the fortified city of Mdina.

The city’s substantial defences.

The evening meal was at Bottegin Palazzo Xara, an Italian restaurant which was located in a grand former residential building which was constructed during the first few years of the eighteenth century. The restaurant had a small craft beer menu, but the options were entirely acceptable, with Brewdog’s Zombie Cake available.

More on this in another post, but the sausage pasta with goat’s cheese was one of the best dishes of its kind that I’ve had. Freshly prepared, there was a richness to the sauce, the pasta retained some bite, the cheese crumbled into the sauce and the sausage was full of flavour.

Then it was back to our accommodation in Sliema, fortunately on a bus that arrived on time and that wasn’t too busy.

Our final night in Gozo over, we meandered through the town of Nadur to get to the bus stop, passing the friendly stray cat at the accommodation. Although that wasn’t before I finished off the pizza left from the night before as a healthy little breakfast…..

Walking through Nadur, this whole plan was coming together. Get the bus down to Mgarr and then get the ferry back to the main island. This went marvellously until it was clear that our bus was a few minutes late and then a local came to tell us that due to a road diversion, the bus would no longer stop where we were waiting. We were sceptical of this, as the bus company had a sign on the lamppost saying that services wouldn’t operate before 9am and 11am of the previous day, so it seemed unlikely they hadn’t mentioned that the bus wouldn’t run at all the next day. But, nonetheless, our bus wasn’t there and so perhaps the man was right.

Fortunately, the walk to the harbour was only twenty minutes and we would have walked it usually but the road looked like it might be busy. The road actually looked like the above, it was closed off (hence the bus diversion), making walking it easier than anticipated. The only little problem was that there was a missing chunk of road, meaning we had to walk down a muddy hill and the mud on that bloody field was like some form of liquid earth glue. I was very brave though and managed to get to the bottom of the hill without getting too irritated.

Liam looking over Mgarr harbour, perhaps recreating the look of the Knights of St. John as they surveyed the landscape.

We bought a ticket at the ferry terminal, I muttered that the cafe didn’t have any green cakes (I had a lovely green cake there last year and I’d note that the green is deliberate, it wasn’t mouldy) and then back to the main island.

The on-board snacks, the rather lovely bacon flavoured Tastees crisps and a Fanta. Living the travel dream.

A little Asian meal for a lunch-time snack.

Saint Julian’s Tower, and what a lovely name that is, which is a watchtower which was completed in 1658.

The coastal area near to St. Julian’s, which is all built up, but the beach area is still attractive.

We checked into our accommodation at Sliema and then headed into Valletta, one of my favourite cities and also the smallest capital in the European Union. Above is the Prime Minister’s parking space, located just opposite the Parliament building.

I was going to show Liam where the saluting battery took place in the morning, only to discover that by chance it also takes place in the afternoon and we only had to wait for two minutes to see it. Fortuitous timing indeed and the noise of the cannons being set off was as loud as I remember it.

The defences of Valletta.

Part of the old defences of the city.

Looking out onto the harbour.

Looking out over Fort St. Angelo, which I visited last year. After all this walking, I felt that it would be sensible to visit a few of the city’s craft beer bars. Unfortunately, there aren’t a vast number of bars which sell craft beer in any measure, but I picked the three that I thought would be the best.

The Beer Cave, an interesting set-up in the cellar of an historic building, with a reasonable selection of beers. Unfortunately, the music was at a ridiculous volume and since we were the only customers in there, it wasn’t somewhere that we could possibly stay at. I’m nervous about any bar that plays music so loudly in the afternoon, it suggests to me a desperation that they’re trying to create an atmosphere as the venue can’t generate its own. In this case, that fear was justified, it was an unfortunately soulless place, although I’m sure it’s more exciting in the evening.

Liam outside Wild Honey, which was our second choice of the night. I looked upon a beer that seemed interesting in the fridge, but it was €13, so I decided against that little plan.

Instead, the friendly barman at the bar suggested the Chocolate Cherry Yeti from the Great Divide Brewing Company, which was a perfect recommendation for me. More on this bar later on in a separate post though.

The beer at 67 Kapitali, a restaurant which specialises in platters and craft beer that I visited last year, which was our third bar of the night. The beer, in an intriguing bottle, is the AMA Mora from Birra Amarcord.

The food at 67 Kapitali, this sandwich was first rate. Liam got a platter which had more food than he could finish (I managed his crisps), all for a very reasonable price. Again, more on this in a separate post……

And we’re staying at Europa Hotel in Sliema for one night, which has wonderful views over the sea. Well, our cheap room doesn’t, but the hotel does.

Day three on Malta started at the accommodation where we were the only guests, so all rather peaceful.

Part of the breakfast laid out just for us, with the lovely accommodation owner having one of the widest selection of teas that I think I’ve ever seen. I felt a little guilty that the owner had to put all of this out just for us, but she made a fine effort and I’m pleased that she did.

We had a little more time in Gharb, with their church having a more impressive interior than I had anticipated. I would have investigated this church a little more, but there was a lady contemplating and I didn’t want to disturb her praying.

We got the bus into Victoria and had another look around the Citadel, including a visit to the Ditch (the defensive moat at the base) for the first time.

Perhaps more excitingly, the air raid shelter underneath the Citadel was open which was something I had wanted to visit last year, but it was still being restored then. It’s free of charge and it’s an extensively sized site, with tens of rooms where the brave residents of Gozo would have gone for safety in the air raids during the Second World War. The signage notes that the authorities deliberately didn’t make it too pleasant in the shelters as they had problems with people going down there when there weren’t any air raids on.

Liam in a room at the air raid shelters. We hadn’t heard from our accommodation for the evening by this stage and it was becoming evident that we weren’t going to get an e-mail from them so someone had to phone them. I can’t possibly be doing phone calls, so Liam was appointed as Head of Logistics for the day. Fortunately, that phone call resolved the accommodation issue for the day.

Lunch was at Victoria and consisted of a rather lovely chicken pie and some green bits, all a pleasant reminder of my visit to the islands last year (the pie, not the green bits). Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that the cafe stocked some of the local craft beers, so I just went with a Fanta.

A bridge at the park in Victoria.

The park also had no shortage of cats.

We decided to stay on the island of Gozo for one more night, so got the 303 bus to Nadur. The weekly bus tickets cost €21 and it’s fair to say that we’ve had good use of these over the last few days. All of the buses have been pretty much on time and not too busy, although I can imagine that this situation changes during the summer months.

The view over the harbour area from Nadur.

A little park between the beach and Nadur.

After checking-in, we walked down to San Blas Beach, which was once known for its red sand, although this unfortunately got blown away a couple of years ago. It was a steep path down to the sea as well, but fortunately all paved. We thought that it looked a slightly terrifying stretch of road for a car driver, but we did see a couple of cars go all the way down to the beach area.

Liam and another one of his selfies. The bloody younger generation. We then retraced our steps slightly and walked to Sopu Tower, a former defensive structure which has extensive views over the local coast. The wind was relatively strong, but the temperature is still moderate so the walking conditions are still pleasant.

The evening meal was in Nadur and it’s a moderate shame my photo didn’t show this shared starter with much clarity. There was some marvellous peppered goats cheese, capers, sun dried tomatoes, bruschetta and so on, which proved so filling that I didn’t really want anything else.

Unfortunately, I had already ordered this pizza, and didn’t get very far with it.

More fortunately, the restaurant was able to give us boxes so that we could take the remainder of our pizzas back as an evening snack. The value that we got at this restaurant, the Fat Rabbit, was excellent and not only were the prices cheap, but the portion sizes were generous.

We’ve booked the next night of accommodation, back on the main island, so in the morning we’ll be leaving the delightful island of Gozo on a morning ferry.