04-29-2024: Last Day in Malta

We awakened to another sunny, yet windy day. The sea is a many hued gorgeous color this morning. We still see crashing waves across the bay, but not quite as dramatic as yesterday. The temperature is warmer than yesterday, and the rest of the week is expected to be excellent here in Malta. Not so in Rome, however, where rain is forecast for the entire 6 days we’ll be there. I bought an umbrella today. I forgot to pack one; Christine remembered hers. Christine said that buying the umbrella would be a good omen and might keep the rain at bay. You know the old adage. If you have an umbrella it won’t rain, but if you don’t have one, it most assuredly will rain. So my nice new blue umbrella hopefully will do the trick.

We arranged to meet Bernadette Carabott for coffee this morning. We sat with her at Roger Vella Bonavita’s party last week. Her mother and the mother of all our Australian cousins were sisters. We have heard about Bernadette from Louis, but in all the times we’ve been to Malta, we have not met up with her. She is a very nice woman and we enjoyed talking with her. The first thing she did was to take us down the block from the hotel showing us where everyone lived, right down to the corner building that Christine lived in. The Vella Bonavitas also lived on the block. So Bernadette explained who was where and how the families were related and what happened to the apartments and buildings. It was fun hearing about it all. We also learned that the hotel we stayed in in 1985, the Meadowbank, was where she had her first job and she worked there 16 years, so it is possible that she was working there when we stayed there. It’s really amazing all the connections Christine has with Malta. While we had coffee, we caught Bernadette up on all the the Australian cousins. Coming to NYC is on her bucket list, so we’re hopeful that she’ll come visit us.

After visiting with Bernadette, we walked to the post office to get stamps. There is a gorgeous building on Dingli Street just down from Carol’s building that is just so charming, and to me, the epitome of Malta.

As we neared the building Christine lived in, she said she wanted to stop in. For the last week, we’ve tried to get into the building. It is a realty office for luxury properties, but each time we stopped by, there was no answer at the door. Today, however, the office was full of people and Christine went in. She explained that she used to live in the building and so one of the people there showed Christine around. Of course, the space had been renovated and upgraded, but the one true thing from when Christine lived there was the beautiful Maltese tile floor. Every room in the place and Maltese tile and Christine remembered that. She walked me down the hall telling me where things were situated when she lived there. She was totally thrilled to get into the apartment. She got contact information from the woman who showed us around and so if we return to Malta, the woman said she could help find us an apartment.

Afterwards, Christine nearly floated down the street, she was so happy to have seen the flat where she once lived.

Once back at the hotel, we had lunch from things that we snatched from the breakfast buffet. Then we worked on organizing and packing. We have a very early morning flight to Rome. We’re getting picked up by cab at 4:45am, so I wanted to be all packed and ready to go in the afternoon so we wouldn’t have to stress out later in the evening. We spending our last night in Malta having dinner at Raffael’s and then we’ll get gelato and sit down by the seashore to enjoy our last evening.

What a wonderful time we’ve had in Malta. Now, it’s off to Rome and our next adventure. This will be a totally new experience for us and we’ll be complete tourists trying to get around Rome to see the sights.

04-28-2024: Great Day for a Walk to Dragonara

I thought the hotel was going to be noisy at night, but surprisingly, we didn’t hear any hallway noise, for which I am grateful. Breakfast is included with our room at the hotel and we set off a little after 8:00am to the 6th floor where the restaurant is. It was a mob scene, so much so that there were no tables available, and it was a large area, three big rooms. We wandered around for a bit hoping to find people preparing to leave, but to no avail. We told the hostess we’d be back later, but as it turned out, we persevered and got a seat near a window giving us great views of the bay. At the next table was a couple from Nottingham, UK and we had a pleasant chat with them. The breakfast was surprisingly good with a buffet having both an English-style breakfast and a European-style breakfast available. The only downside was getting coffee. The queue for the machine producing individually-selected coffee types was very long and was taking forever. I found some hot water and packets of instant coffee and we made do with that.

Today’s weather was beautiful sunshine, but 30mph winds again out of the ENE. The surf was pounding and we watched it from the rooftop for awhile.

In spite of the wind, we decided that we would walk around Balluta and Spinola bays and head out to Dragonara Palace. We’ve done this walk several times, but today the walk was thrilling around the bays because of the crashing waves.

We’ve had dinner on this restaurant’s patio that is right at the water’s edge. Clearly, there won’t be any eating here for a while.

The breakwater at the mouth of Spinola was doing it’s job of protecting the little harbor. Some of the waves hitting the wall went up in the air several yards.

Christine kept saying that it surely was a good thing she got her swim in yesterday. No one was going in the water today, the surf was way too rough.

That big tower we see across the bay is Portomaso. The tower is a mix of and commercial and residential, and there is a casino on the top floor. Portomaso Tower used to be the tallest building in Malta at 23 floors, but with the rampant over-development, several buildings are now taller. Portomaso also has two very large apartment complexes and a 110-berth marina. It is definitely exclusive and swanky. Just next to the Portomaso Tower is a fairly new building that looks ever so much like the back of a cruise ship. We like to wander around the marina and look at all the yachts.

We then headed towards the Dragonara. It’s on a peninsula. The whole complex is actually the Westin Dragonara Resort. There’s a huge Westin Hotel with fancy spas and restaurants and then the casino. Crossing over to the casino provided some more crashing surf views.

We walked around the side of the casino to the end of the peninsula where waves we crashing. Across the water is the very nice Corinthia Hotel and beyond that is a Radisson Hotel. One time we were here we walked to all the hotels in the area and had a cappuccino at each place over our stay. That was our daughter Eve’s idea, and we enjoyed following that advice.

Christine then wanted to go into the casino. Back in 2016 we actually got our casino cards allowing admittance. We hope we would still be in there computer system, but we weren’t. However, we were registered and new cards, so into the casino we went. It’s a typical casino with lots of slots. On a Sunday midday, there weren’t too many people playing, but we walked around and then had a drink at the bar. We sat and watched the goings on for a while. I watched roulette with lots of money being lost; there were very few winners after several spins.

It was time to start our walk, about 2 miles, back to the hotel. Despite the wind, it was a lovely day for walking with nice sunshine. We actually doffed our jackets and Christine was actually in just a tee shirt as this was the warmest day we’ve had in Malta, about 70 degrees. On the way back around Spinola, a guy on stilts was talking up something as his colleague explained what they were advertising.

As we were getting near the hotel, Christine wanted to get a photo of one of the buildings she lived in as a child. It actually was right across the street from our Airbnb, but she wanted to get a better photo from the promenade. There are so few hold limestone buildings remaining on Tower Road. They’ve all been knocked down and replaced by huge condos and apartment buildings. The first time I was here in 1985, there were no buildings higher than 3 or 4 floors and every building was beautiful limestone.

We rested in our room for a bit and then went over to pick up Carol to go to dinner. We walked with her down Dingli Street to a small neighborhood restaurant called Maggie’s. John Tabone, her brother-in-law, joined us for dinner and then after we had eaten, Carol’s daughter Rowena joined us for a drink. Rowena does pop up shows of vintage clothing. She is very fashionable and goes all over Europe buying vintage clothing for her shows. Carol said that Rowena sells all the kind of clothing that she had in her closet in the 1950s and 1960s. It was nice to see Rowena and catch up a bit, and it was lovely to be able to treat Carol to dinner because she has been so kind to us during our visits.

So another great day in Malta has come to an end. Tomorrow is our final day.

04-27-2024: A Move and a Swim

Today we have to leave our Airbnb flat. It was not available for the whole time we wanted, so we took what we could get and booked the last 3 nights at a nearby hotel, the Plaza Regency Hotel. We spent the morning organizing and packing up. We then carried our luggage down the street a block to the hotel. Our Airbnb check out was at 11:00, but our hotel check in wasn’t until 2:00, so we decided that in the interim, Christine might swim. Today’s wind, although brisk, is out of the ENE, so it is blowing toward Spinola. That means that where we could swim, we’d be protected from the wind by the buildings and the sea would be fairly calm. Last night we staked out the hotel looking for a way to shower after swimming. There is an indoor pool at the hotel that is kind of off the beaten path and seems little used, and voila, a shower room was near that pool. So, we knew that if we did swim, we’d be able to get showered and dressed before check in time.

Christine is a swimmer. She swims at the Y three times per week at home. Here in Malta she has been longing to swim. Her visit to the pool at The Imperial was not quite satisfactory because the pool was small and was full of kids having a swimming lesson, so she really wasn’t able to swim laps there. She’s been longing to get into the sea, but with the very brisk winds over the past several days, it hasn’t been very conducive for swimming. Besides, the sea temperature is 62 degrees and the air temperature is 65 degrees so that’s pretty chilly. However, conditions today were the best for swimming to date.

We dropped our luggage at the hotel and headed down to a fairly sheltered little beach across the street. Christine thought she might be able to get in the sea there and the area was a bit shallower than that at our customary spot a bit farther down the rocks. She thought the water might be a bit warmer in the shallow part.

So she checked it out. Will she, or won’t she, take the plunge?

Still considering . . .

And she’s off!

Christine had a lovely little swim and loved every minute. I wanted to get in the sea, but it was too cold for me, although I regretted my decision later. After her swim, we had a picnic lunch sitting in the sun down by the water. This little area is where a lot of families with small children come so the kids can be close to the water, throw stones in the water, and pick through the detritus washed up on the beach. It was fun watching all the kids.

We then went over to the hotel to shower. By the time we were showered and dressed, it was time to check in. The hotel is apparently totally full, and it’s a big hotel. When we dropped off our luggage, a busload of people were going into the hotel, so the hotel must be on a tour route. Our room is on the 3rd floor, equivalent to the 4th floor since the ground floor is 0. We do have a sea view room, just a bit obstructed by the top of a tree across the street. The room is small, but comfortable, but the balcony is great. The view is pretty much what we were accustomed to at our old flat that we stayed in several times over the years. So, Christine was happy that she can see the Dragonara Palace. At the Airbnb, our view to the right was blocked by a building, so we couldn’t see the Dragonara.

At any rate, we settled into our room, rested a bit, and then had an early dinner at Peppi’s across the street. It’s one of our favorite places to eat and we had a nice dinner of Lobster ravioli and spaghetti with seafood.

It was an early night for us as we both were tired. Only two more days in Malta. It’s going by too quickly.

04-26-2024: Walk, Lunch, Concert

Today the wind has finally lessened and it looks beautiful. We decided to take a walk along the rocks this morning before our planned lunch date with Carol. We really enjoy taking in the sites along the shore, smelling the salt air, and watching the surf. As I said, while a little cool, it was a beautiful morning.

That building out beyond Christine’s left shoulder is the Dragonara Palace, one of her favorite landmarks. It is now a casino. The first time we visited Malta in 1985, there were no buildings around the Dragonara and it seemed so far away. The building was like a beacon out on that point. Now, it has essentially been taken over by all the development around it. The exterior of the building is still beautiful. It was built in 1870 as a summer residence of a very wealthy and powerful family. During WWII, it was used as an officers’ hospital. It became a casino in 1964. On one of our trips to Malta, we actually signed up for casino cards, but we’ve never done any gambling, but we do like walking out to the casino and wandering around the point. We hope to do that soon.

An interesting thing along the shoreline in several places near the Surfside restaurant are man-made “baths.” These are great rock pools that came to be in Victorian times when the beginning of leisure time at the seashore was popularized. Remember, Malta was a British colony from 1800 to 1974, so there lots of British gentry visiting Malta. There is a lot of history about how carriages would be placed over the rock pools so ladies could enjoy bathing in the sea away from prying eyes. Whatever the true history is, these pools are terrific and we’ve taken dips in them in the past.

At noon we met Carol outside her flat. Her brother-in-law John Tabone was picking us up to go to lunch in the town of Attard. John was married to Joe Farrugia’s (Carol’s husband) sister who died a couple of years ago. John Tabone is also a cousin of one of Christine’s Australian cousins, Alex and Gloria. All these Maltese people all seem related to each other! At any rate, John drove us to a lovely restaurant called The Villa Bologna Restaurant. It is an Italian trattoria in a very lovely old villa. John’s sister Flossie joined us for lunch as well. I had an incredibly good rigatoni bolognese and we all enjoyed our meals very much. It was nice getting to chat with John, who we met back in 2016, and also meeting his sister Flossie, who lives in a farmhouse and has 21 cats.

We got back to Sliema mid-afternoon and we rested a bit. I had seen an article in the Times of Malta about a concert that I was interested in. It was a celebration for the 150th anniversary of the National Philharmonic of Valletta and it was being held in one of the oldest churches in Valletta, St. Paul’s Shipwreck Church. The other thing of interest to me was that the principal violinist would be playing a Stradivarius. We finally decided to go, even though I hadn’t been able to find out anything about tickets. We tried to get a bus to Valletta, but a couple of buses passed by without stopping because they were jam packed. We then were able to get a bus to Sliema Ferries where we hoped to get the ferry across the harbor to Valletta. That was a bit nerve wracking because the ticket office wasn’t open so we weren’t sure what was happening. We started to try a get a bus, but then the ferry came so we hurried back to the terminal and got on the ferry. It’s only about a 7 minute ride across the harbor, but it gives some pretty striking views of Valletta. Since I’ve already posted lots of Valletta skyline pictures, I’ll just show one of Fort Manoel. The ferry passes right by that fort.

Once off the ferry, we had a very steep, long trek up the hill to the city center. The maim street, Republic Street, runs right down the center of the peninsula at it’s highest, so on either side of Republic Street, the slope goes down to the harbor on either side, and it is quite a steep slope. After our trek up the hill, we had a refreshing smoothie and a pastizzi for our dinner. We didn’t need much after the fabulous lunch we had. We then found our way to St. Paul’s Shipwreck Church. We learned that you needed either an invitation or a reservation. We had neither, but there were a couple of chairs at the back of the church for people like us. We were told that maybe seats would become available if some people didn’t show up for there reserved seats, and that’s what happened. We were able to move up several rows to better see the performers.

Before the concert, we had an opportunity to take in the awesome art around the church.

The first piece was a Bach violin concerto played by Lorenzo Meraviglia on a 1730 Stradivarius violin. The violin had a very unique tone, I thought, and I really liked the sound. It was lush but somewhat metallic, but very pleasing. The second piece was Franz Schubert’s Mass in G Major. I thought the chorus did a nice job and hearing this wonderful piece in such an incredible setting was moving. Some of the movements are quite rousing! Then came Mozart’s Sancta Maria, a lovely rather short piece that’s full of energy. The guy playing the Strad got to do an encore, and there was also another encore by the string ensemble and chorus. I’m really glad we went. I don’t think we’ve ever done anything like this in any visit to Malta, so it will be a memorable evening.

Walking back to the bus terminus, we got to see Valletta at night. Many of those steep side streets are alive with activity. I am amazed by the restaurants and bars having seating out on the steep streets. The tables are propped up on the downhill side by wooden boxes so that things don’t slide off the table. There is great nightlife in Valletta, for sure.

Just at the entrance to Valletta is this lovely building.

After a crowded bus ride back to the flat, we arrived tired, but happy. It’s been a very nice day.

04-25-2024: Valletta Views and Rolling Geeks

One need not wonder why Christine’s favorite color is turquoise. Nearly her entire wardrobe is made up of various shades of turquoise. And here is the source of that love of turquoise.

At times, when the sun hits the wonderful waters of St. Julian’s Bay, the colors are varied and splendid. This is in Christine’s blood, her Maltese heritage and the colors of the sea.

This morning we walked up to The Imperial to meet Carol so she could take Christine to the pool. While they were swimming, I went off on a walk, not knowing where I would go, but just walking. One of the fun things when wandering is to look down the little side streets. Sometimes you’ll see amazing things, like the back of the Parish Church of Sacra Cour. Because this little street is at a higher elevation than the church, you’re just about in line with the dome.

I eventually ended up at what’s called the Sliema Front, or the Strand. This is where all the tour boats start so as you walk along the promenade, hawkers for each tour company try to entice you onto their boat. We’ve done many cruises from the Stand and enjoyed every one of them.

My walk along the Strand was for the purpose of taking pictures of the Valletta skyline. It is an iconic skyline with the Basilica of Our Lady of Mount Carmel dome and the steeple of St. Paul’s Anglican Church. I never tire of seeing this site. And I’ll bore you with several photos.

The fortified walls of the city are very impressive, as well as the walls of the neighboring city of Floriana. These were all constructed in the late 1500s and early 1600s by the Knights of Malta. These photos don’t really show just how huge the walls are, especially below towards the right of the photos. That’s Floriana.

The harbor between Sliema and Valletta is called Marsamxett Harbour. The harbor on the other side of Valletta, between Valletta and the Three Cities (Birgu, Bormla, and Senglea) is called the Grand Harbor. With these two natural harbors, Malta became an important port city throughout the millennia with probably the Phoenicians being the first to create a port city in Malta.

At the end of Marsamxett Harbour is a small island called Manoel Island. There is a fort there build by the Knights in the 1700s which became the home of a major part of the British military after 1800. Manoel Island has attracted some developers who wish to create housing and shops. It is unknown what will become of Fort Manoel, but it is a beautiful Baroque building up on a hill overlooking the harbor and Valletta.

The area at the end of Sliema is called Tigne Point. It, too, was once the home of barracks and army buildings of the British. Tigne now is all tall, exclusive high rise buildings. I remember coming to Malta the very first time in 1985 and being at Tigne Point when there was still military buildings, no high rises, and being able to look over at Valletta. I was definitely awestruck at the time, and I still am. Also from Tigne Point you can see the marker at the mouth of the Grand Harbor where all the ships enter the harbor.

It was now time to meet Christine at The Imperial and get back to the flat for a bite to eat before taking off for our next adventure. One time when we were in Malta having lunch along the Birgu waterfront, some electric buggy-type vehicles went by and I thought that looked like fun. I had found a company called Rolling Geeks that provided these electric buggies. They included a GPS-guided tour around the Three Cities and other locations. I reserved our buggy for this afternoon. The advertisement was this.

We got a crash course on the route that we would follow (I should have paid better attention). We then got a crash course on how to operate the vehicle. Then off we went. At first, we followed a car from the company who was watching to see that we, and a buggy behind us, were being well-operated. After a short time, the guy sent us on our way. The entire course was about 18.5 kilometers. It took me a while to get the hang of operating the thing, but I wasn’t doing too badly. Christine, on the other hand, was quite frightened and wasn’t enjoying herself at all. There was a tablet on the dashboard that had a GPS. The route was showing as a blue line and the tablet would tell us which way to turn. Initially, we went out away from Birgu where there was little traffic, but then we eventually got back into higher traffic areas. I think our top speed was about 15 mph so cars were not too happy with us being in the road. We got lost several times. Fortunately, the tablet has an SOS button to push that connected us to the office. They were so nice in re-routing us and reprogramming the table. It got to be pretty ridiculous how much we couldn’t follow the route. But a calm voice over the tablet kindly directed us, each time adding, “you’re doing great, ladies.” The other thing the tablet did was tell us about the sites we were supposed to be seeing. I, however, was watching the road and dealing with traffic so I didn’t get to see much of what was being talked about. The other big issue was the bad roads which made our buggy bounce quite roughly. Malta also has a lot of speed bumps and if we didn’t come to a crawl over them, we would be practically bounced out of the buggy. Christine really did not like all the jarring around. Although belted in, the sides of the buggy were open, so you did feel quite exposed.

The final section of the tour was through Birgu. We were met at a turn into Birgu by another guy from the company how said he would lead us through Birgu. I’m not sure if he was doing that to prevent us from getting lost again, as it was already into hour 3 of a supposed 2-1/2 tour, or because there was some construction that we had to navigate around on a different route than programmed. At any rate, we were glad to have him escort us. And we went around all the little streets we had walked a few days ago, including going by where the bagpipers were. It was good to be on familiar territory. We eventually made it safely back to home base. I’m sure Christine will never do that kind of activity again, but I would. Despite getting off track several times, it was kind of fun to buggy around the Three Cities.

We then headed back across the Grand Harbor in a dghasja, which Christine does really enjoy. We then managed to get a seat on a crowded bus from Valletta back to Sliema. As a treat for a trying day, I told Christine we’d go to the restaurant Barracuda for a nice dinner. Barracuda is in the location of a restaurant called Piccolo Padre where we had eaten several times back in 2016. It’s also memorable because shortly after we ate there, the porch of the restaurant out over the water buckled and fell into the sea. Fortunately, no one was hurt as the restaurant was empty at the time. The building was renovated and heavy pilings were driven into the sea to support the porches. Barracudas is a very nice eatery with great views of St. Julian’s Bay. The only downside this night was there were several large tables of guests in the restaurant so it was very loud. Nevertheless, we both enjoyed our meals and we strolled home.

This was another exhausting day, but we’re still loving being here.

04-24-2024: Around the Neighborhood

We didn’t do much yesterday as the wind was again very, very brisk. The weather has been rather unusual for April. Like us at home, there wasn’t much of a winter which meant for Malta little rain, so the country is rather parched now. Rain is expected today, though.

We did walk around Balluta Bay and had dinner at a new place on the water called Karly. As we were standing outside looking at the menu, a server came out with the specials board and coaxed us in. He was a cheery guy, very loud, and said thank you to nearly everything we said. But it was a pleasant location, nice atmosphere and pretty good food. I came home with leftovers for the next day.

Today, we wanted to wander around the neighborhood. The area where we are is Christine’s childhood home(s) area. With rain due in the afternoon, we headed out after breakfast. Tomorrow, Christine is going swimming at a place called The Imperial. Carol swims there once or twice a week and has invited Christine to go with her. There’s little chance of getting into the sea this trip. With the air temperature in the low 60s, winds of 20+ mph, and the sea temperature also in the low 60s, it is not inviting to be swimming in the sea. So a trip to the pool will be nice for Christine. She wanted to practice the route to the pool, which is just a 10-minute walk.

We love walking up and down the narrow streets in Sliema. It’s very nostalgic for Christine. And I love looking at doors, windows, balconies and doorknockers. Although we’ve seen all this several time before, we still get a kick out of walking around the neighborhood. And you may have seen many similar photos in the past, but I’m posting them again so Christine and I can enjoy our blog, which has become a cherished memory book for us.

We easily found The Imperial and we were bowled over. What a marvelous retirement and senior care facility! It’s stunningly beautiful inside and out. It offers a continuum of care from independent rooms/suites to skilled care and rehabilitation. Christine and I both said, “this is where we’ll come to retire,” however impractical that is.

The Imperial

The building is 150 years old and has been beautifully restored. It has many amenities, including a cafe, indoor and outdoor pools, communal dining room, hair saloon, convenience shop and much more. From just the little that we saw it seems like an elegant and vibrant home. And I’m sure it must come with a pretty price tag, but it was very inviting.

After looking around The Imperial, we headed down the High Street to find Stella Maris Church. Along the way, we came to the top of Dingli Street where there is an iconic rotary where a tree and a Brit phone box stand. There was some talk of removing this to improve the traffic flow, but there was such an uproar from the locals, that the idea was scrapped. A good thing, too, because it is such a landmark and a lovely sight.

As we walked down the High Street we passed two old villas that we’ve seen before, Villinu Zammit and the Fatima House. These were built by brothers-in-law in the late 1800s when the High Street was “the” fashionable area. The Fatima House was gifted to a nun who was a sister of one of the original owners. Since then, the Fatima House has been owned by a religious order of nuns which run a girls home at Fatima House.

We stopped into a small chapel, Adoration Chapel, which is across the street from Stella Maris church. The chapel is a couple hundred years old.

Stella Maris church is across the street from the chapel, but unfortunately, was not open. I don’t think we’ve ever been inside the church. As we were walking down Stella Maris Street, we chatted with a woman who was entering her house. She is a life-long resident on the street. Christine’s grandmother lived on Stella Maris Street, but down a few blocks from the top of the street near the church. Caruana is a very common name in Malta and even though it seems everyone is related, we weren’t sure that the woman knew Christine’s grandmother. But it is always nice to stop and chat with residents in Christine’s old neighborhood.

We couldn’t remember what number Christine’s grandmother lived. I was pretty sure it was 38, (we’ll have to check old blog posts) but that entire block has been changed with all the lovely facades being torn down and 4 and 5 story apartment blocks taking their place. We even wandered up an alleyway behind the building searching for something familiar, but to no avail. Its sad that so many old, beautiful houses no longer exist. The over development occurring has so drastically changed the landscape of Malta, and it saddens me.

From Stella Maris Street we returned to the Tower Road promenade. We went to the Surfside for lunch and watched the weather turn more and more dark. As we left the Surfside, it was starting to rain a bit. Fortunately, the worst held off until we got back to the flat.

Darkening sky

Shortly after we got home, the rain came. For a while, it was torrential with 30+ mph winds. The wind was coming from the WNW again, so it was blowing right into our balcony, rattling the windows. It was raining so hard and was so dark that we couldn’t even see any of the buildings across the bay. So it was a good thing we had some leftovers from last night’s dinner and pizza from lunch today for our dinner. We did not have to venture out again into the bad weather.

04-22-2024: Bus, Mdina, Buskett

One of the places we have not visited in Malta is Buskett Gardens, or as we have learned is now called Buskett Woodlands. As you have seen from pictures, Malta is very densely populated in a majority of the country. The major cities are mainly based on the eastern half of the island. The western half is generally more rural and less populated. Buskett is one of the few areas where there is a woodlot of deciduous and conifer trees. It also adjoins Verdala Palace, now the summer residence of Malta’s president, but it was built during the period of the Knights of Malta as a hunting lodge.

To get to Buskett we searched the Malta Public Transport routes and found that we could get to within a 20 minute walk of the entrance to the woodlot. The weather was somewhat overcast and very breezy so we dressed in layers, including the all-important windbreakers. We first took a bus to Rabat where we were to change buses to Dingli. Once in Rabat, we decided to walk around nearby Mdina, the famous historic, fortified Silent City. We never tire of wandering around the streets and alleyways, although it gets very crowded as Mdina is one of the must-see tourist attractions in Malta. Everywhere you look there are wonderful architectural details and fabulous stonework and decorations.

Mdina sits atop a hill so the views from the city walls area breathtaking.

After wandering around Mdina we headed back to the bus stop for our bus to Dingli. We grabbed some quiche and pastizzi to takeaway for our lunch from a food stall near the bus stop.

Dingli is on the west coast and is famous for its cliffs, and that was the name of our bus stop, Cliffs. We got off the bus out in the middle of nowhere and found ourselves in a stiff breeze. It was not obvious in which direction to walk so we huddled against a wall to try and find directions on Google maps, which was of no help. This is what we were facing, not a sign in sight.

So we started walking. Off to our left was a cement factory and a cement truck came by. We asked the driver for directions to Buskett Gardens and he said to keep going straight and we’d find it. That was a relief. By now though, we were out of the major wind and we found ourselves very much enjoying our walk down the lane. One of the marvels in Malta, I find, are the rubble walls all over the place, especially in the rural areas. All these walls are dry stacked and I think it is miraculous that they stand firm over decades and centuries.

We walked up a small hill and at the top we saw Verdala Palace off in the distance, straight ahead with the Buskett Woodlot below.

Verdala Palace was built is 1586 by one of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta. During British rule, is was home of the British governor of Malta.

Malta was once covered by indigenous forests, but these were all cut down for ship building. The Knights of Malta planted the Buskett Woodlot to serve as a hunting reserve. The woodlot today covers about 75 acres. Many different trees and shrubs grow in the woodlot, including numerous fruit-bearing trees. It is one of the greenest areas in Malta. One of the nicest things was a large number of citrus groves and the smell from the orange blossoms was heavenly. We walked down a dirt road for a while where we had nice views of Verdala Palace. There were lovely flowers blooming everywhere.

I saw this sign along the road and I thought it would be good to post it to show you what an unusal language Maltese is. There has been quite an effort to get Maltese back to being the national language, as opposed to English. Malta was a British colony from 1800 to 1974, so English was the official language. But now Maltese is more widely spoken and most signs are in Maltese. This one is in both, so you can see that Maltese is rather complex, as I say, a mishmash of Arabic,a Semitic language and Italian, a Romance language.

We then turned off the road down a path and found ourselves walking through the woodlot which is located in the fertile valley of Wied il-Luq. There was a old stone farmhouse with its vegetable plot in the valley.

By now, we’re starting to get tired so we made our way back to where we started, thanks to Google maps. Now, we needed to find a closer bus stop than the Cliffs. I thought I had one in view on the map, but Christine asked a couple if they knew where a bus stop was. The guy pulled up a map on his phone and pointed us in the direction of the bus stop. It was the same one I had identified. As we were nearing the bus stop, a bus heading towards Valletta pulled into the stop. I ran to the stop and the bus waited for Christine to get there. On this bus, we were seated and it wasn’t crowded. My thinking was that we could just go into Valletta and transfer to a bus to Sliema. Christine wasn’t happy about this because Valletta was out of the way. So, a few stops before Valletta we did get off and waited at a stop for a bus to Sliema. This was an area we new well so I knew a Sliema bus would be along soon. And it was – a very crowded bus. We jammed ourselves in and held on as we lurched forward. Most of the riders got off at the ferries section of Sliema so by the time we got off, the bus wasn’t a sardine can any longer.

Christine wanted to get off a couple of stops before ours to walk along the promenade. The sea was quite wild again with the wind. So, we ended our adventure today with a bit of sea breeze and nice views.

We were happy to be back at the flat where we relaxed, had a dinner of salad and leftover chicken and watched more Bridgerton. It was quite an adventure to one of the few places we had never been in Malta. I will say that riding the bus is a great way of seeing the countryside and on some of the routes away from Sliema and Valletta, you see more of the locals and get to listen to the Maltese conversations only imagining what they are talking about. We really love being here.

04-21-2024: Lazy Day, but a Nice Dinner

We got up at a normal time this morning. Christine was working on her investment stuff and I wrote yesterday’s blog. We had breakfast and then we both said, “I’m going back to bed.” I think the jet lag and a couple of full days caught up with us, so we slept in and didn’t get up until after noon. I think we needed the sleep. After that, we still didn’t feel like doing much, so I read and Christine did whatever she does on her computer.

In the late afternoon, we decided to walk over to Spinola Bay and have dinner at our favorite restaurant, Rafffael’s. It’s about a 40 minute walk along the promenade around Balluta Bay and along Tower Road to Spinola Bay. It’s a nice walk offering great bay views. We passed by my favorite building , Balluta Buildings, an Art Nouveau apartment block built in 1928.

Balluta Buildings

There are 20 apartments in the 3 blocks and each is large and luxurious. At one time, the address was one of the most sought after in Europe. I read that of the original 20 apartment owners, 16 are still owned by heirs of the original owners. I really hope that this building stays intact and survives for a long time. You can’t tell from the photo above, but the architectural details are beautiful. I also read that the flooring in all the apartments is wonderful Maltese tile of exceptional colors and patterns.

As we strolled along, we took lots of photos. Of course, we have all these photos from each of our trips to Malta, but we never tire of seeing all this.

Every time we visit, I look to see if a particular building is still present in Spinola. It’s a ruin, but for some reason I think it was once a beautiful place. It makes me think of a tiny castle. It’s still there, but much the worse for wear and sandwiched between high rises. It’s probably only a matter of time before it gets demolished and another ugly high rise takes its place. Malta is terribly overdeveloped.

Another building we look for is one that Christine lived in as a child. It’s definitely worse for wear, but it appears that maybe someone is renovating it, either that, or they are preparing to tear it down. It now has scaffolding around it and some netting. I hope it’s being renovated.

Christine lived in the building that has the brownish color and scaffolding around it

We arrived at Raffael’s. Initially, we thought we would want to eat inside due to the wind (still windy, but less so than Sunday), but it was really a pleasant evening and so we took a table outside so we could look out over Spinola Bay.

Raffael’s

Christine likes to come here and order Timpana, a Maltese dish that is a baked macaroni. Louis made Timpana for us when we were in Australia. He used a recipe from his Maltese mother’s cookbook. This was the dish that Christine asked her mother to make her for her birthdays. I had a nice spaghetti vongole e pescespada. Both were delicious.

We really enjoyed our meal. We then strolled back around the bays to our flat. It was just dark enough that the lights were reflecting nicely in the water and the wind had died down. The walk did us good after all the eating we did.

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church

Our lazy day ended with ice cream and another episode of Bridgerton. It’s been a good day.!

04-20-2024: Party, Boat, Walk, and Bagpipes

Facebook has been a real treasure for Christine because it has enabled her to find several people from years gone by. FB was the way Christine and Carol Farrugia got connected, and that has been a wonderful gift to us, especially during our trips to Malta. Carol has been our activity guide. Another connection has been with Martin Vella Bonavita, a former playmate when Christine was about 10 years old. We actually had lunch with Martin and his wife Sandy when in Australia in 2020. Cousin Louis took us on a wonderful road trip and we got together with Martin in Melbourne. As a result of reconnecting with Martin, Christine found Martin’s brother Roger. She didn’t really know Roger as a child- he was older and away at school – but through FB she has had some ongoing communication. Roger lives in Perth, Australia now. In their messaging Christine learned that Roger would be in Malta during the time we were there. He said he was hosting a party for family and friends and he kindly invited us to attend. We arranged for Carol to be invited as well. So off we went to Valletta to a party at Casino Maltese.

Here’s the description of Casino Maltese from their website. “The Casino Maltese is a private members’ club in Valletta. The Club offers its members the advantage of having a base in the nation’s capital, a home away from home, with a selection of elegant rooms and facilities. Here members meet friends, relax, dine, and enjoy social events or special occasions. The Club is sited in a historic building with sumptuous architectural features, in the centre of Valletta with balconies enjoying views over both St George’s Square and Republic Square.” It’s definitely a prestigious place.

Roger Vella Bonavita is a first cousin of Christine’s Australian cousins. Roger’s mother Mary was Aunt Bice’s (Louis’s mother) sister. It amazing to me all the connections there are to this very extended family.

Roger (center) talking with Carol Farrugia with David (right)

We then met Bernadette Carabott, another cousin of our Australian Caruana cousins. Bernadette’s mother was another sister (Olga) of Aunt Bice. She was there with her partner David. We had a ball talking with Bernadette. She misses all her Caruana cousins and really wants to visit them in Australia. So, Louis, Bernadette conveys her warmest regards to you.

Bernadette, David, Carol, Linda and Christine at Casino Maltese

It was a nice gathering and the food was outstanding. Every few minutes a server came by with a tray of luscious hors d’oeuvres, and over the span of about 2 hours we consumed a lot of fabulous food. Roger was a charming host and often he came by to say how happy he was that we came. It was a wonderful experience and we made a wonderful new Malta connection in Bernadette.

After the party, Christine and I walked Carol to where she got a cab home. It was such a nice day that we decided to stay in Valletta and wander around a bit. It being Saturday, the main streets were crowded with tourists. A cruise ship was in port, so that always makes for big crowds. But we enjoyed strolling around and ending up at Upper Barrakka Garden. The Grand Harbor views are just fantastic from there.

As we were looking out over the Grand Harbor, Christine said, “I want to go in one of those boats.” What she meant was one of the small dghajsas, a traditional Maltese boat, used as a water taxi from Valletta across the harbor to Birgu. Birgu is one of what’s called the Three Cities across the Grand Harbor from Valletta. Birgu, Senglea, and Conspicua are the three. Birgu, also know as Vittoriosa, was once the capital of Malta and the first home of the Knights of Malta. Fort St. Angelo is at the tip, and to this day, the fort is the home of the Knights of Malta. Birgu has a fantastic marina and boat yard and you can see some fabulous yachts and sailboats moored there.

Dghajsas with Fort St. Angelo in the background

In the old days, the dghajsas were rowed across the harbor, but now, the oars are only used for getting to the landings. Small engines are used today. Each dghajsa takes a maximum of 6 passengers and it costs 2 Euros each. The trip across the harbor takes about 10 minutes and you get fabulous views of Valletta, Birgu and Senglea.

We wandered around for a bit and then sat in a cafe near the town square and had a drink. Birgu has many lovely small streets and once you get away from the waterfront, there are fewer tourists so you can just wander along the narrow streets enjoying the fantastic architecture.

It was so much fun to just lose ourselves in this fabulous city. Along the way, Christine said, “I hear Scottish dance music.” I thought maybe she was just hearing music from a bar up a lane, but as we got closer to the music, we realized that it indeed was Scottish music, and bagpipes What a surprise! We entered an old building and up a ramp to a courtyard, and lo and behold, there was a Scottish bagpipe band parading up and down the courtyard. Although they weren’t in uniform/kilts, they certainly were playing bagpipes and drums. This apparently is a very big part of Scouting in Malta as I’ve read that there are several scouting groups hosting drum and bagpipe bands. Christine was thrilled and she danced to the Scottish music.

Drum and Bagpipe Band in Birgu

We made our way back down to the waterfront and returned to Valletta via dghajsa. We took the Barrakka lift back up to Barrakka Gardens and made our way to the Valletta bus terminal. Riding the bus in Malta is all part of a Malta experience. When we were here in 2016 for 3 months, we registered for a Tallinja card and now can top up our cards electronically. It seems the cards don’t have an expiration date, so we’re still using our cards to board the bus. The buses are typically jam packed. Eventually, the driver stops picking up new passengers at some stops when the bus is totally full, and I mean packed like sardines. It is irritating to be standing at a stop and have the bus just pass you by. Apparently, last week a guy kicked in the door of the bus when the driver didn’t open the door at a stop because the bus was full. There have been several instances of bad behavior by passengers in the last couple of weeks. But the bus service will get you to nearly every corner of Malta and it is the way we get around when we’re in Malta.

We got back to our flat in good shape, happy and tired. We still had chicken and potatoes leftover so we warmed up some dinner and continued watching the Netflix series Bridgerton.

It was a very lovely day in Malta today.

04-19-2024: Blowing in the Wind

As we were saying goodnight to Carol last evening, she told us it was going to be windy the next day and to use caution if going out. Well, she was absolutely correct! The wind was a steady 30 mph with 50 mph gusts today. The wind was coming from the WNW which meant it was blowing directly across St. Julian’s Bay and right into our balcony. The sliding doors to the balcony shook most of the day and the wind whistled along the side windows of the flat. It was incredible! We tried to venture out onto the balcony and nearly got blown back into the flat.

In spite of the wind, we did go out to do some food shopping. When we got to the lobby of the building to go outside, we couldn’t push the door open without great effort. Then when the door was slightly open, you had to hang on tightly to it so it didn’t blow away from your hands and swing hard against the building. Having wind of that force so steadily was really something. The good things was that once we got a couple of blocks away from the bay, the buildings blocked the major force so it wasn’t so windy.

We visited two of our favorite stores, Meat and Eats and the Old College Market. The first one is really a butcher shop, but it has good deli meats. The Old College Market is a lovely small shop that is amazing in that it has a couple of very narrow aisles and a side room. The place is chockablock full of anything you could want in the way of food, fresh produce, plus wines and liquor, and housewares. We love going there, and the proprietor always calls women shoppers madam, with emphasis on the last syllable.

With our shopping done, we returned to the flat for lunch and a rest. Later in the afternoon, Christine suggested going for a walk in spite of the high winds. It looked from our balcony as though the wind direction shifted slightly from more northerly, which meant it wasn’t blowing right into our flat. So we ventured out along the promenade across the street and along Tower Road.

It was still very windy, but it was so refreshing. We stood and watched the incredible wave action going on across the bay near a breakwall at Portomaso, a huge apartment complex and marina.

We then walked around Exile point on the seaside. Windy, it was, but it was so nice to see the shoreline.

There is a restaurant below the promenade seawall called Surfside. It’s 3 stories and people were eating out on the second level even though it was cool and the surf was bashing into the shore just below. I thought for sure a wave would crash over the second story. It didn’t, but I’m sure some of the diners got a little wet from spray.

We were quite wind weary so we decided to get away from the promenade and cut through Sliema on Windsor Street. We had a lovely walk through the neighborhood and enjoyed looking at all the Maltese balconies and houses of distinction. It was nearly dark by the time we got back to the flat. We enjoyed rotisserie chicken and roasted potatoes that we got at the market and settled in for the night.

This was just the right kind of day to have after our travel days. Tomorrow we have a party to attend!