Christine’s plan has been to explore in increasing distances, rather like a pebble thrown in a pond. We’ve explored Sliema, Balluta Bay, Spinola Bay, Dragonara Peninsula, and so the next logical place was St. George’s Bay. We stayed home in the morning. I did a load of laundry and pegged it up on the clothesline on the roof. Christine made a quick trip to the market around the corner. We thought maybe Annette would come today, but she’ll be here on Tuesday instead. Christine caught up on some emails. She’s also been working to piece together, rather like a jigsaw puzzle, all the bits and pieces of information she has about her family history. She’s digitized lots of information and photos and so she is pulling this information together in a cohesive story. She wanted to provide Carol much of this information, so she’s been putting together lots of old photos to email Carol and others in the family.
After lunch, we launched out for a little adventure. We decided to take the 14 bus to Pembroke. The public transport is as good a way to see things as a hop on hop off bus tour, and all for 1.50 euros each. We certainly had quite the ride through Paceville and Pembroke today. That bus goes down these narrow little streets, winding through neighborhoods, out into the far reaches of suburbia and then back. The 14 bus route really provides a great overview of how Sliema is expanding, but it also goes very close to some rather desolate coastline with some fantastic views of the sea. It was a really great tour.
We got off the bus close to the Corinthia hotel, the big hotel we saw across St. George’s Bay from the Westin. We went in through the lobby and walked around the pool area outside. This is a big hotel, and it seemed really nice.
The Corinthia is set at the mouth of St. George’s Bay. It has an interesting garden area and its own watch tower. The outdoor area goes right down to the edge of the bay with easy access in and out of the water. The bay at its mouth was crystal clear and very inviting.
We had really nice views across the bay to the Dragonara Casino and the Westin Hotel. It’s interesting to see all these places we’ve walked around from a different perspective.
We then walked over to the Radisson Hotel. It seemed a little impersonal and sitting out on the terrace, it felt like we were sitting on a large cruise ship. But we enjoyed a drink and wandered around. The pool seemed small and the view was straight out to the sea, which neith of us finds terribly interesting.
We walked around the end of St. George’s Bay. There is a lot of construction going on, building high-rises. This area clearly caters to the bar crowd as there were lots and lots of clubs along the main street. It is close to Paceville, and so I think the plan is to make all this area attractive to younger tourists and residents.
As we were starting to walk back towards our flat, we came across a newly constructed neighborhood park near the hotels. There is a new housing development there of upscale apartments. This park, Pembroke, was situated on a hill and throughout the park was a manmade water-flow with all sorts of ways for little kids to cross the little stream. I thought it a clever playground.
As we were walking close to Spinola, we passed a Fish Lounge where you can get either a pedicure, or a full body massage, done by little fish. I’ve heard of this, but had never seen it. We talked with a German fellow and his wife who were in the process of getting the pedicure. They said it was fantastic. I don’t think I’ll rush in to give it a try.
As we were going around Balluta Bay, we noticed that the doors to the Lady of Mt. Carmel Church were open. I’ve been wanting to see the inside of this church. We learned that the original church was a much smaller Carmelite Chapel built in 1858 and was expanded several times to keep up with the growing neighborhood. The current church was built in 1958. It is a beautiful structure and what I found to make it interesting is the rows of rose windows with clear glass running the length of the nave high up close to the ceiling. The light coming in through these windows casts all sorts of prisms around the church and lighted up the very white ceiling.
We got home and had our dinner sitting out on our little balcony. Although there is a great deal of traffic noise, we’re starting to notice it less and less. We just drink in the view and feel how blessed we are to be able to be here in wonderful Malta. Another nice day exploring!
I don’t think I could do the fish massage or pedicure either.