The weather forecast for the next 24 hours is for thunderstorms. At 9:30 it still looked fair, so we decided to get out for a walk before the weather turned. We hadn’t walked around the promenade to Spinola yet, so that’s what we wanted to do. Here’s map of the bays so you can see where we are and the layout of the smaller bays around the larger St. Julian’s Bay.
Our flat is across the street from Fresco’s Cafe in the lower right quadrant of the map, in between the 2 Antik bus stops. Where we walked this morning was around Balluta Bay, where the funny little sand restoration project created a small beach area, and then along the bay towards Spinola Bay.
Balluta has the large church, Church of our Lady of Mount Carmel, that is kind of a landmark as it can be seen all around the bay. The other building I really like is called the Balluta Buildings. It’s not terribly old, built in 1928, but it really has a wonderful facade. It is in the Art Nouveau style and was once one of the most prestigious addresses in Europe. The building contained 20 very large, glamorous apartments. It looks like the exterior has been cleaned up since 2016, which I am happy to see.
Spinola Bay is very picturesque and has lots of cafes and restaurants. One of our favorites is Raphael’s. We didn’t get there for dinner this week, but we stopped in for a cappuccino today, which was just right for a late morning respite.
And yes, I was on this trip too!
When Christine was 4 years old, her family lived in a small apartment in Spinola. We found it during our 2016 and this year the building is even in more dire condition. I’m sure some developer has been clamoring to get his hands o the building so it can be torn down and a glitzy condo raised. This area is the “hot” spot and attracts lots of younger tourists. Up the hill from the end of Spinola Bay is the town named Paceville and it is hotbed for bars and clubs.
The traditional fishing boats of Malta are called luzzus. They are typically brightly painted and have the Eye of Osiris attached to the bow. This is probably some Phoenician custom handed down over the centuries. The eyes are a symbol for protection of the fishermen.
I saw a boat on shore that was wrapped up in some kind of fabric. When I walked around the front of the boat I saw the Eyes of Osiris peaking out above the fabric. I thought it was funny.
We call this building our fixer upper. I can’t believe someone hasn’t purchased this property and restored it. We laughed about the possibilities of turning this into a wonderful Spinola Bay retreat.
The white-faced building is really sweet. Our fixer upper could have something like this on the bottom floor.
At the end of the harbor near the road is a sculpture, which is two slabs having the word “love” carved out upside down. Of course, people have used this for placing their love locks.
We saw this banner in Spinola.
Just as we were heading back to our flat from Spinola, it started to rain. At first, it wasn’t too hard, but then it really started to pour. We kept stopping under awnings and overhangs to prevent becoming totally soaked. We were still halfway away from our flat when I said to Christine, “let’s get on a bus the rest of the way.” We darted across the street and into a bus shelter. In just a couple of minutes a bus came along and we boarded. It wasn’t a very long ride, just around Balluta and to our Antik stop, but it kept us drier than we would have been.
We had lunch at the flat and organized our travel for Friday. We fly to Catania, Sicily and so we wanted to familiarize ourselves with all of that information. We also received a message from our Florence Airbnb host. This was a relief because we have had no communication about this reservation and the Airbnb site shows that the host is no longer accepting reservations. So, we were so happy to get Francesco’s message.
We’ll be packing tonight and ending our first week of this adventure.
Thanks for putting in the helpful map.
It is hard to believe that you are leaving already. Now I see why the 3 month trip was so valuable.