Category: Malta - WANDERING WITH WILLIAM

Malta - Istanbul - Chicago

2/19/2016

The bittersweet time has come for us to leave Malta. We have truly enjoyed our time in the county and our stay at the aqua penthouse flat in St. Paul's Bay. We have had good conversation over wonderful meals - everything from pizza and pasta to rabbit stew and rib eyes. The dining spots have ranged from outside patio's beneath towering palm trees to vaulted stone rooms below street level.

We have found plenty to see and do during our 33 days in Malta, yet we took it at a relaxed pace. We noticed that churches are to Malta as pubs are to Ireland - there's one (or two) on seemingly every block. As Paul drives us to the airport he explains that there are well over 300 churches in Malta - it's said that there is one for every day of the year. We certainly have seen at least 33 churches during our stay!

Our flight to Istanbul arrives in the afternoon. We have a 23 hour layover so we have booked a room at the Renaissance hotel overlooking the Sea of Marmara and located just 10 minutes from the airport. After checking in we catch a taxi to the Sultanahmet district. We stroll around the Hippodrome - viewing Sultan Ahmet (also known as the Blue Mosque), the obelisks, and the German Fountain. Just a few steps away is Hagia Sophia which from 537 until 1453, served as an Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople.

By now it is time for dinner. We stop in a local restaurant. We order the cheese pide and the Turkish meatballs for our meals and share them. The waiter brings us a freshly baked flat bread, followed by cups of puréed lentil soup, then the main courses and lastly small pieces of baklava for dinner. Each of the meals are each priced at 15 Turkish Lira ($5.07 / €4.54) and the food is very good! Of course, the cost of our beer and wine doubles the bill.

After dinner we stroll around a while longer then, despite the warning from our taxi driver to wait until 9 pm when the traffic will be better, decide to catch a taxi back to the hotel. Oh my! This is India level traffic jams. 14 million people call Istanbul home and most of them seem to be on the roads. It takes us an hour to get back to the Renaissance.

On Friday after a relaxing full breakfast we take the hotel shuttle to the airport at 11:30am. Once again we are lucky and the middle seat between us on our Turkish Airways flight is empty. The flight is delayed on take-off but arrives on-time and I use the 9 1/2 hours to watch five movies - a good way to catch up on some more recently released films.

Fat Tuesday in Malta

2/19/2016

Today is the last day of Carnival so we decide to participate in the closing activities in Valletta. We have planned to have an early dinner then check out the festivities along Triq Anne (Anne Street). We catch the #41 bus to Valletta and it takes us through some towns we have not seen before - a bonus.

Our search for restaurants takes us along Republic Street, the main pedestrian walkway. Along the way we encounter many people in costumes. Some are clearly part of the dancing groups associated with the floats. Others seem to be people who just wanted to participate and have fun in costume.

We meander over near Strait Street. There's a gentleman eating a pasta dish at cafe with outside tables and a few counters inside. It's a little cool to sit outside and the counters don't really appeal to us. The waitress quickly explains that they have additional seating downstairs. After climbing the stairs we soon find out that this restaurant is the same as the Whisky Bar we have previously visited. They must have the full corner building and market the bar on one street and the restaurant on another street. How funny!

In honor of Fat Tuesday we both order pasta - Spaghetti Carbonara for William and Pappadelle Pulled Pork for me (made with whisky jus, garlic, and truffle paste). Both are delicious. We have an opportunity to chat with one of the owners. He gently admonishes William for having one small ice cube in his whisky; the owner saying his grandmother who is Scottish would not approve. We discuss various whiskies and we decide to try one of his favorites from Isay - Ardbeg. It's quite smoky, but smooth. Very nice.

After dinner we waddle the 8 blocks to Triq Anne. The vendors are setup offering sweets, a range of foods and beverages. Unlike our first trip to Carnival alcohol is now frequently offered by the vendors. However there's no rowdiness. Perhaps it is early in the night or people are tired from 6 days of fun. We've also been told that Valletta's Carnival is much more tame than Carnival on Gozo.

The floats are now lit and the parade moves very slowly down the street. The music is blasting and there are dance groups coordinated with many of the floats. Along with the rest of the crowd we enjoy Fat Tuesday.

Carnival in Malta

2/7/2016

Carnival in Valletta, Malta runs from 6pm on Thursday, February 4th to 9:30pm on Tuesday, February 9th. Each day there are planned events.

On Friday afternoon we take the bus to Valletta to see what's happening. We find an increase in police and temporary fencing in the city as well as a good number of porta-potty's dotting the city. St. George's Square has been transformed into a huge stage with temporary seating. We learn that advance tickets are necessary for the program, which will include a dance competition. We opt not to try to get tickets.

Booths have been setup selling sweets - mostly cookies. We are drawn to sample cookies from a couple of different stands. We don't notice any vendors selling beer, wine or soda, that's interesting, as we have heard that the evening crowds are sometimes a bit inebriated. We pop into a restaurant for some chicken wings and beverages.

Per the official Carnival website there will be a costume parade starting at 5:30pm. We find a number of floats in the area at the start of the parade. Some are clearly satirical with what appear to be local politicians. However, we don't have an appreciation for the satire. We would probably need to be here a little longer to catch on.

There are children and young adults in costumes streaming through Republic Street with their parents.

At 5:00pm it does not appear that the parade is anywhere near ready to start in 30 minutes. We stop by a cafe and ask the waiter about the time. He indicates the parade may start around 6:30pm or maybe later. This causes me to think about last year when we attended Carnival in Ambato, Ecuador. In that case we had reserved seats along the parade route and even went back to our room for a while waiting for the (delayed) parade to approach. That was a great way to attend a parade!

We enjoy the floats and the people in the streets of Valletta, but ultimately decide not to hang around waiting for the parade. We catch a bus back to St. Paul's Bay and stop at Damiano's to share a pizza for dinner.

Lascaris War Rooms

2/7/2016

I've mentioned that Malta was pummeled with bombs during WWII. In Valletta we have the opportunity to visit the Lascaris War Rooms, which were one of Malta's best kept secrets during WWII. The rooms are located 40 meters underground.

Our visit starts with a 30 minute period documentary 'Malta G.C.' which was narrated by Lawrence Olivier (before he was knighted). The film used film footage taken during the actual air strikes as well as the result on Malta.

We then use audio guides as we walk through the war rooms to hear about their use and the events of the period. With today's 3-D computerized capabilities it is hard to image coordinating defense and attacks using just static maps and figures/symbols to indicate air, land and sea positions. All Allied offensive operations in the Mediterranean were waged from these rooms, including Eisenhower's Invasion of Sicily. Amazing!

It is interesting to learn that the British continued to use the War Rooms until 1977. We emerge from the War Rooms with a much better appreciation for the role of Malta in WWII and WWII overall.

Sleima and St. Julian's

2/4/2016

We liked the area of St. Julian's and Sleima when we took the Hop-On Hop-Off Bus so we decide to return to walk around the area and have lunch. We start out a little late, so lunch becomes the first priority. As the bus rambles along St. Julian's Bay we keep our eyes out for an interesting area. As we pass the smaller bays we see a number of them with seaside restaurants. I push the stop button for the bus in Exiles Bay and we find ourselves having a pasta lunch overlooking the bay. While we are dining I notice someone swimming laps the length of the bay - probably 400 meters across at this point. He's much more adventurous than me!

After lunch we stroll along the seaside walkway and take in the view of the town of St. Julian's. The number of cranes strikes me. Everywhere we have gone on these islands we see construction. There's even four projects within one block of our flat in St. Paul's Bay. It appears that the Maltese economy is doing well, or at least the real estate market is strong. The prices for flats in St. Julian's look like they are three to four times what we have seen in St. Paul's Bay, but it's all about location, location, location.

Rabat & St. Paul

2/4/2016

Enough of this being sick! William is up for an outing so on this nice Monday morning we catch the #48 bus then connect to the #186 to Medina/Rabat. We are not as lucky with the bus timings as the last time we took this route and it takes us approximately 1 1/2 hours with the extra waiting. Oh well, it's a nice day to be out and about.

Our primary interest is St. Paul's Catacombs and St. Paul's Grotto. It's a pleasant 15 minute walk from the bus stop. When we arrive we're pleased to learn that the €5 admission includes the catacombs, the grotto, WWII Shelters and the Wignacourt Museum.

St. Paul's Grotto is where St. Paul spent 3 months when he was shipwrecked on his trip from Crete to Rome. It is also where St. Paul first began to preach Christianity to the Maltese people. Malta remains a very Christian country, with the Maltese Constitution establishing Catholicism as the state religion. The grotto feels quite small, but it is easy to see how a small group could live in the space. It is now adorned with alters and statues.

The catacombs are dated from the 4th to the 9th centuries, AD. There is much better lighting than I remember in the Roman catacombs we visited 10+ years ago. William and I meander through the catacombs for 45 minutes stopping to see the gravesites. Some of the passages are tight and/or low. William's hat saves him from scraping his head at several points along our journey.

We make our way to the WWII shelters, which were built below the catacombs. Malta holds the record for the heaviest, sustained bombing attack - 154 days and nights and 6,700 tons of bombs. The Maltese people carved out from the limestone long corridors with rooms off to the sides as bomb shelters. The corridors were the public shelter, where most people waited out the air-raid alert and slept. The rooms were ‘private’. Better-off families paid for a stretch of wall 6ft long into which to build a family shelter. Some of these family rooms contained tiled floors, painted walls and it is reported even had art (paintings or tapestries) on the walls!

Our last stop in the complex is the Wignacourt Museum, a former residence of the Knights of Malta. On the first floor it contains an antique Austin Six car used by the Archbishop. There's also some rooms containing sculptures and artifacts collected by the church. The head of a cherub is a little disconcerting.

The second floor has multiple galleries. In one we find portraits of the Grand Masters, always with the Maltese Cross included in their clothing or jewelry. I find the Treasury fascinating. The Treasurer had an adjacent bedroom which includes a ladder to the treasure chest (literally a large chest which contained the treasures of the Knights). We also find a chapel with an interesting starburst style altarpiece.

Back out on the streets of Rabat we take in the local culture. We find a group enjoying some food and beverage at a local snack bar. The side streets of Rabat are a delight of color and limestone walls. And, as is often the case, we find an historic church which is undergoing renovations.

Our return home on the bus is easy - we catch it at the first stop in Rabat and don't have any issues finding a seat.

Around the Area

2/2/2016

Some may say I'm a giving person. They could be right - I have given William my cold! While he suffers through it we are staying close to our flat.

A 400 meter walk along the seafront Promenade takes us to the Buggiba Bocci Klabb. It appears that there are regular games at the club. We stop by mid-morning, mid-afternoon and early evening to see the "action". On warmer days a small crowd gathers in the seats surrounding the field to watch the play. Bocci is a popular sport in Malta, and there are more than 30 teams which take part in a national league. It looks like a fun way to socialize and have a little friendly competition.

Further down the Promenade another 5-10 minutes is Buggiba Square. The main attraction here is the assortment of restaurants. There's Fat Harry's Pub, where we have enjoyed huge hamburgers, Victoria's with their delicious wood-fired pizza's and home made pasta's (as well as other entree's), Bistrotecca where William devoured a decent rib-eye and I had duck breast as well as another 6-8 restaurants.

Along the Promenade one kilometer from our flat we find the Malta National Aquarium. Their restaurant features a huge mobile of a school of fish overhead and delightful food. An indicator of the quality is the number of business people who choose to lunch here. After we have a snack we enjoy meandering through the exhibits and tanks which have been laid-out to highlight areas of Malta including the Blue Grotto, St. Paul's Bay and the Grand Harbor. There are also other exhibits showcasing oceans and seas around the world. It's a fun 90 minutes. We even see a fish with legs!

The Oracle Casino has been calling to William since we spotted it during our first week in the Malta. It also is reached via the Promenade. On a walk one day I overheard some ladies talking about the nice lunch for €5 at the Casino. This gives us a perfect excuse - we'll go for lunch and stay a bit to play. The lunch turns out to be a good deal if you stick with their prix fixe, otherwise we find it to be of slightly better than average value. We wait a bit longer than normal for our food, but to their credit the meals arrive piping hot.

After lunch we check out the small casino and find the only blackjack table in the non-smoking section. With minimum bets at €5 we are able to play for quite a while (we played with three dealers) and lose €28 between us. Alas, we would have been up just a bit if not for the last ten minutes. Drat! 😏

Gozo

2/2/2016

I caught a cold so we spent a few days in and near the flat while It ran it's course. By Monday I'm feeling better and we are ready for an adventure.

We catch Bus # 221 toward Cirkewwa and the ferry to Gozo. Gozo is the second- most populated island in the five island Malta archipelago, and it sounds like a good place to spend a day exploring. The crossing itself is about 30 minutes and takes us past Comino Island, another of the islands in the archipelago. Comino Island is primarily a nature preserve and has only four residents. The sheer limestone cliffs are a key feature, and even from a distance we can see that there are sea caves. St. Mary's Tower is the notable building on the island, which was part of the Knights series of watch towers. It is also known for it's Blue Lagoon.

We arrive in Mgarr harbor on Gozo and are able to catch the 12pm Hop-On Hop-Off bus. The harbor is small, with the neo-gothic Our Lady of Lourdes church up in the hill watching over it.

The bus takes us through Xewkija, whose huge Church of St. John the Baptist is also called The Rotunda. It has the worlds third highest unsupported dome. The church can be seen from far and wide.

Victoria is the capital city of the island, also called Rabat. It contains the fortified citadel in the center. We pass through Victoria at least three times as we criss-cross the island on the bus.

We choose to hop-off at Dwejra (Stop #6) which is home to the Azure Window. It is said that the 92 foot tall arch was created when two limestone sea caves collapsed. It is quite a sight! Around the Azure Window there are limestone formations which made me think of walking on the moon.

Back on the bus we drive past Ta' Pinu, the National Shrine of the Blessed Virgin. We enjoy the countryside as the bus makes it's way to a couple of fishing villages, Xendi and Marsalforn.

Our next Hop-off is Ggantija Temples. There are two Neolithic temples which are believed to have been constructed between 3600 and 3200 BC. It is considered as one of the oldest freestanding monuments in the world, pre-dating Stonehedge and the Egyptian pyramids. They're interesting but not as aspiring as Stonehedge or the pyramids.

After exploring the Temples we Hop-On the next bus and finish the tour loop, driving through the countryside and passing by the stops for Ramla (with a long walk to the red beach) and Nadur (whose highlight is a baroque parish church).

We return to the port in Mgarr and buy our ferry ticket. They've worked out a system where you buy the round trip ticket on the return to Cirkewwa and the main island of Malta. It seems to work out fine and reduces the administrative cost of the ferry. In Cirkewwa it is easy to find a bus that goes near our flat.

Door-to-door we're gone just about 8 hours and we have had a wonderful day.

Sleima, then Ferry to Valletta

1/31/2016

The forecast for this Thursday is partly sunny so it's a good day to visit the harbor. We catch the bus for Sleima Ferries. It's a 45 minute ride, much of it along the seafront and very pretty.

After St. Julian's Bay we arrive in Sleima. We pass by the first Sleima harbor and continue on another three stops until we arrive at the harbor used for the ferries and harbor tour boats. As we stroll along the harbor every 30 feet there is another outfit selling tickets for their sight-seeing cruises or one of the three Hop-On Hop-Off Bus operators. Everyone is polite when we nicely decline their service. In the middle of this group is the Valletta Ferry Service. We check the timings and learn that the ferry to Valletta runs every 30 minutes, so it will be easy for us to explore Sleima for a bit before going to Valletta.

We stop for coffee's and a snack at Tony's Bar across from the harbor. After all, it is almost noon! It's a nice mix of locals, expats and tourists in the small bar/restaurant. We sit next to a nicely dressed woman in her early 70's. Her shopping bags show that she's made two or three stops this morning. She sips a glass of white wine and watches the crowd in the bar, smiling occasionally to herself. Once she's finished the glass she hands the waiter €2 (which includes a 25¢ tip). He thanks her and says he'll see her next week. Apparently they have a ritual.😌

We walk a few blocks inland checking out the store windows as we go. After a few blocks we see a church up the hill on one of the side streets. We decide to check it out and come across the parish church Stella Maris. It isn't open, but we enjoy the architecture and the neighborhood, which includes some interesting abandoned buildings and a street mural which catches our eyes.

We stroll back to the Ferry and pay the €1.50 each for our one-way tickets. The ferry boat arrives and we are soon on our way for the 20 minute ride across the harbor. There are great views of the harbor, Maneol Island and Fort Maneol. As we draw closer to we are treated to a wonderful perspective of two of Valletta's churches and also the massive walls of Valletta.

After disembarking we have two options to reach the city center 1) walk 20 minutes uphill or 2) pay the shuttle driver €1. We pay the man and arrive in the city center four minutes later.

We explore further into Valletta, strolling through the side streets and the plazas. We stop by the Carmelite Church, whose massive dome looks majestic, but it not open. Across the street is St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral. It is open and welcoming visitors. It is interesting to see the memorial to the merchant marines and to compare the pews to those we have seen in the Catholic churches.

I take a few minutes and walk around to the terrace behind St. Paul's Anglican Cathedral where I'm able to capture a nice panoramic photo of Manoel Island and Sleima.

With all that walking it's time for a late lunch. We find ourselves near Streat Whisky Bar, so we decide to stop in for a bite and a wee nip.

Mdina, the Silent City

1/22/2016

The winds have died down a bit and it's supposed to be partially sunny - seems like a day to go exploring. Mdina is our target on this Tuesday and depending upon our mood when we get there we will either check out the nearby catacombs or the city or maybe both.

Mdina is a walled city which sits in the middle of the island of Malta. Google tells us to catch the #48 bus, take it three stops then transfer to the #186. Luckily the #186 arrives four minutes after we get off the #186. Unluckily the #186 is packed and we end up standing for the 35 minute ride.

When we arrive we decide to first explore the city of Mdina and save the catacombs for later. There's a line of horse carriages outside the main gate with cabbies offering rides within the city. We decide to hoof it ourselves, but are delighted when we see a bride (in full wedding dress) and groom taking a carriage ride - fun!

I am curious as to why Mdina is called the Silent City. I envision some historical or romantic event or events that lead to the name. I'm more than disappointed when I am told that the name of Silent City is attributed to the very limited number of automobiles that are allowed in the city walls.

The city is less than a square mile, so it is easy to explore. In the summer it is packed with tourists but today I would be surprised if there are 250 tourists within the walls. Only half of the gift shops and restaurants are open, which is just fine with us. It allows us to more easily take photographs of the narrow streets and interesting buildings.

Mdina's St. Paul's Cathedral is of primary interest. It was built in the late 1600's in a baroque style. A highlight is the octagonal dome. I am also intrigued by the colorful detailed gravestones on the walls and floor.

A block away is the Carmelite Priory. The church was completed in 1675, and is also in a baroque style. This beautifully restored dome is an ellipse.

We wander through the city then decide it's time for lunch. We pop into Trattoria 1530 which is in the 5 Star Xara Palace Boutique hotel. The display of old woodworking tools on the wall makes for a unique decor. The service is impeccable and we enjoy nice meals finishing with coffee's. It's a little more expensive, but worth the price.

The coffee is not enough to perk us up enough to tackle the catacombs this afternoon. We catch the #186 bus headed back to St. Paul's Bay. On the return trip we are able to get seats on the bus. Yeah!