Petanque and darts were two games we didn’t get to try at the Egyptian resorts, so we tried them at The Dolmen. Rob’s style and accuracy improved dramatically after I defeated him and Gabby (Gabrielle, the cute and funny recreation person at the resort) 5-0. Over the next two days he defeated me 6-1 and 6-0 with a very methodical, deliberate and deadly style.
Gabby and Lynn showing off Lynn’s bulls-eye.Old dead eye showing how many games she won!
Tuesday – 2 June, 2015
Two Harbours/Three Cities Cruise (90 mins)
We postponed our planned harbour cruise from the week before to co-incide with a trip to the HSBC Office in Sliema to open a Euro account with them. The Two Harbours are the ones on either side of the promonotory on which the city of Valletta is located – Marsamxetto Habour to the NW and the Grand Harbour to the SE of the city. The Three Cities are Senglea and Vittoriosa on two promontories that project into the Grand Harbour and Cospicua inland from the other two. Vittoriosa was the original settlement of the Knights of St John before they moved across the Harbour to Valletta.
The start of our two harbour, harbour cruise around Valletta, starting from Sliema.St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral from Marsamxetto Harbour.Fort Manoel, Manoel Island, Marsamxetto Harbour.St. Paul’s Cathedral up close.Valletta Grand Harbour entrance with Fort St Elmo in the foreground and the Siege Bell Memorial in the background.Port channel marker to the Grand Harbour.The Siege Bell Memorial and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier adjacent to the Lower Barrakka Garden (refer photos Week 1).Victoria Gate – the original entrance to Valletta from the Grand Harbour (refer photos Week 1).The very large Catamaran that takes only 90 minutes to get to Sicily.This old tub will take more than 90 minutes to go anywhere.One of many dry docks in the Harbour.An oil rig being refitted.A covered dry dock for super yachts.The watch tower at the tip of the Senglea promontory. It has alternate carvings of eyes and ears on the outside as a reminder to watchmen to watch and listen.The Maltese version of a Gondola.Fort St Angelo at the tip of the Vittoriosa promontory. The Fort later became a stone frigate, HMS St Angelo. Lord Mountbatten was Vice Admiral Malta during WW2.The Bighi Hospital near the town of Kalkara. In 1803 Lord Nelson recommended the presence of a naval hospital in Malta and Villa Bichi (Bighi) was converted in 1829.The channel markers of the Grand Harbour.Passing close to the port marker with Fort Ricasoli in the background.Keeping our distance from a large fishing vessel as we round the starboard marker.
After the cruise ended in Sliema, we sought out 60 Stella Maris Street where Hella used to live. The name plate has been removed by the door and the house appears to be empty these days.
60 Stella Maris Street, Sliema.Top end of Stella Maris Street.Back at Sliema Dock. Waiting for the bus ride back to St Paul’s Bay.
After our first week in Malta we decided to take a few weeks off and laze by the pool as we are now without transport having returned the hire car on Saturday. So far this second week we’ve been catching up with emails, the blog and some reading. The pool is very nice but the water is still a bit chilly.
18 May, 2015
This morning we awoke to heavy rain and chilly winds so we decide to check out the Malta Classic Car Collection and Museum which is just around the corner from the hotel. By the time we slept in and had a late breakfast the rain stopped but it was still cloudy. A quick 5 minutes walk and we are in the museum. While we were there we watched a fascinating film on the history of Jaguar Racing. Of coarse, Lynn now wants a V12 E Type.
The Malta Classic Car Collection. Outside with a Bugatti.Lynn always wanted a BMW. How’s this for size, dear?A bug eyed Sprite.
Lynn has often told me about some of her car issues she had when she was living in Canberra and regularly drove the 4 hour trip back to Albury on weekends to visit her family. She once owned a Ford Cortina that regularly failed to complete the trip home or back to Canberra. On most occasions she would summon her father who was a mechanic to rescue her and the Cortina from the side of the Hume Highway. We both have an unhealthy dislike of Fords.
Lynn hated her version of the Ford Cortina. It spent more time in the garage for repairs than on the road. Typical Ford…How about a crank start?The E Type Jag. Still stylish.A Corvette. Probably too big for Malta’s roads.
After struggling through the chaos of Terminal 1, Fiumicino Airport thanks to the fire in Terminal 3 a couple of days before, we landed in Malta, and collected the hire car which was supposed to be a Ford Focus or equivalent. Now as all my friends know I am not a Ford fan but Budget, in their wisdom, decided that a Skoda was an “equivalent”. Yeah, to a POS! Anyway it was only for a week and since Malta was such a tiny rock we weren’t planning to do many kilometers to see the whole island as well as Gozo. We arrived at the Dolmen Resort, St Paul’s Bay about 45 minutes after collecting the car.
This is Lynn’s 2nd visit to the Malta archipeligo (its islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino) having spent 2 weeks’ holiday here in the late ’90s when her Maltese friend, Hella Jean Bartolo, lived here. Lynn and Hella met at University College London in 1993 and remained close friends until Hella’s death from breast cancer in 2004.
The usual view from our hotel window overlooking St. Paul’s Bay. The Bugibba Dolmen in the foreground.Sunset from our balcony with Gozo on the far horizon.Our hire car… in what universe is this an equivalent to a Ford Focus??
10 May, 2015
As it was Mother’s Day, we opted to drive the top third of the island of Malta trying to avoid the towns.
A tiny church on the top of a cliff at Ahrax Point, at the northern tip of Malta.
And to check out Cirkewwa Ferry Terminal for our planned trip to the island of Gozo later in the week.
The old south quay at Cirkewwa. This would be very wet in a high sea.
Malta is heavily fortressed – from the times of the Order of St John to WW2. Nowadays you’d probably describe it as a fortified quarry.
Red Tower near Melhieha Bay.
And quite barren – reminiscent of The Burren, Ireland in lots of places, thanks to the limestone capping of the landscape.
Rugged limestone cliffs looking towards Anchor Bay, North Malta.
Everywhere we drove, lots of people dining out and a traffic queue to get back into St Paul’s Bay.
One of the huge number of churches in Malta. This one is at Mgarr.
11 May, 2015
A day in Valletta. After parking the car in the multistorey near the War Memorial, we took the tunnel through the city walls to the Valletta Waterfront and walked along the Grand Harbour towards Fort St Elmo. In Week 4 our cruise of the Two Harbours will give another perspective of the following 7 photos.
HMAS ANZAC moored at Lascaris Wharf on the Grand Harbour, Valletta.Victoria Gate at the entrance of the wall for access from the Customs Port.
At Customs House we took the steps up to the top of the wall.
Very nice terraced houses overlooking the Grand Harbour.
And walked to the Lower Barrakka Garden and its viewpoints.
Lower Barrakka Garden in Valletta.The Siege Bell Memorial adjacent to the Garden.
Next to the Bell Memorial is a sculpture representing the burial of the unknown soldier at sea.
The view of the Grand Harbour entrance from the Garden.And looking back down the Grand Harbour.The neo-classical temple folly in the Lower Barrakka Garden.
We then walked up Republic Street, known locally as Triq Ir-Repubblika.
The guards outside the Grandmaster’s Palace & Armoury in Valletta.The ornate 16th century-built Auberge de Castille, Valletta.
And visited the St John’s Co-Cathedral (Conventual Cathedral) and Museum.
Nave of St. John’s Co-Cathedral.
The Order of St John is the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, and is a Roman Catholic lay religious order of, traditionally, a military, chivalrous and noble nature. It is the world’s oldest surviving order of chivalry.
One of the many colourful tombs of the knights of the Order of St. John embedded in the floor of the Cathedral and dated 14 May 1761.A chapel of the Church dedicated to one of the ancient Langues.A side street off Merchant Street in the heart of Valletta.Outstanding architecture in the heart of Valletta, featuring traditional, built-in balconies.The entrance wall of the old town of Valletta.
Tuesday, 12 May – Our tour of the southern third of Malta. We visited two adjacent ‘temples’ – Hagar Qim and Mnajdra near Qrendi – both under canvas. First excavated in 1839, the remains suggest a date between 3600 – 3200 BC, a period known as the Ġgantija phase in Maltese prehistory.
The Hagar Qim Temple.Doorway cut from a single slab of stone inside the Mnajdra Temple near Hagar Qim.Coastline near the Blue Grotto.The inlet from where the boats depart for the Blue Grotto.The Arch near the Blue Grotto.One of the many colourful Maltese boats in Marsaxlokk harbour.
13 May, 2015
Day trip to Gozo. Our first port of call is the small and picturesque seaside village of Xlendi situated in the SW of the island. The main buildings (restaurants, cafes and the lovely St Patrick Hotel) are located at one end of a rectangular bay, with steep cliffs on either side and a valley at the back of the village.
Our Ferry to and from Gozo.View of the bay and cliffs at Xlendi village from the coffee shop.The shallow bay at Xlendi.Walking around the headland of Xlendi.Looking back at St. Patrick’s Hotel.One of the fishing boats sheltering under the cliffs.The view of Xlendi from the northern cliffs.
Our next port of call, in our clockwise tour of the island, is the Azure Window and adjacent Inland Sea.
A fossilised shell imbedded in the limestone at the Azure Window.The Azure Window.The Inland Sea near the Azure Window.Coming out of the cave from the Inland Sea into the Med.Not sea sick yet…Exiting one of the many sea caves near the Azure Window.Entrance back through the cave to the Inland Sea which looks too small to go through.Exiting the cave back to the Inland Sea.
Our next stop is the Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary out in the middle of nowhere – a massive church. Considering the small population of both Malta and Gozo, each town has splendid churches.
The Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary on Gozo.
14 May, 2015
Visit to the Head Office of The National Archives of Malta, Rabat.
While waiting for our appointment time at the Archives we take a stroll through the narrow alleyways of Rabat and have a coffee in the delightful courtyard of the Wignacourt Cafe.
Wignacourt Museum Cafe at Rabat.
We were taken on a tour of the Archives including the Conservation Laboratory. It was heartening to see a photograph of Hella Bartolo in the foyer of the Archives, alongside the book which the National Archivist, Charles J Farrugia, produced in remembrance of Hella, Guardians of Memory. Hella had worked tirelessly locally and internationally to promote archival education and was President of the Friends of the National Archives, Malta at the time of her death in 2004. Hella’s death prompted Lynn to participate in Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Weekend 2005 – a 60 km walk around London which raised GBP 5m for the charity.
Hella Bartolo.Guardians of Memory.A Maritime Tribunal record dated 1701 undergoing conservation at the National Archives.Leonard Callus showing us Government Notices of Regulations relating to the plague in Malta in the 1800s.
After the Archives in Rabat, we went ‘next door’ to the walled town of Mdina.
The walled town of Mdina, Malta.The access bridge through the old gate of Mdina.View from the battlements of Mdina looking towards St. Paul’s Bay.The church dome and bell tower in Mdina.Outside the Mdina office of the National Archives of Malta.
15 May, 2015
Lastly we visited Pembroke, an ex-military town, in search of Australia Hall which featured as several photographs in a National Archives pack, Malta Memories, World War I. The building was inaugurated in January 1916 and could hold over 1600 people. A place for the recreation, rest and amusement of the hundreds of convalescents in the hospitals of St Andrew’s, Pembroke and St George’s.
Ruins of Australian Hall built by the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross during WWI and subsequently bombed out in WWII.
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