Advertisement
When you come too close to driving over a cliff as you notice your intended destination is daubed in the word 'Private' is every available space complete with two dogs chained up, you may rethink your plans. And then when your re-thought plans are going for a walk, but you struggle to discuss this with your husband because he can't hear you over the thunder and the thunder is hard to hear because of the gale force wind, maybe this is time to give up?
The original plan being a visit to Bingemma Fort and the further plan was a walk along the Victoria Lines aka the Great Wall of Malta. I could tell you a bit more about both, but what's the point when I gave up? You will have to go yourself - or look it up on the interwebs. So now we had to find a way to safely turn around on this dirt track I'd led us down and leave pronto as the sky was turning black and neither of us had a coat.
Something vaguely indoorsy was required so we drove to Ta' Qali Craft Village near Rabat. A series of artisans and crafts
people in Nissan huts and other rough buildings, you also get to watch stuff being made. Our first stop was Valletta Glass where we watched the men blowing hot glass and waving the red hot molten blobs around in a very dangerous looking manner until it became a fancy shape. Some of the items in the shop were amazing and Glyn claimed it was the best glass he had ever seen - that's quite a claim! We bought a few souvenirs and then stayed a bit longer watching as heavy rain meant two other tourists were blocking the entrance whilst staring at the weather.
In the end we had to shift them. We went into the next hut purely because it was the next hut and it turned out to be a jewellery maker, specialising in the Maltese art of very fine filigree silver or 'silverlace'. The guy that worked there chatted a lot and it was fascinating to see how he made the silverlace. He in return loved Glyn's camera and told us a good place to photograph the sunset later, although it was hard to discern where it was as he and the woman at the till
were talking at the same time. He also showed us lots of his photos on his tablet, including images of the Northern Lights - anyone who has read my Iceland or Finland blogs will know this is a bit of a sore point! I ended up buying a silverlace necklace which is absolutely gorgeous, rather expense (but worth it when you know how long it takes them to make it). A stray ginger cat started yowling at the door and they let it in as they feed it; the gorgeous little thing rolled onto its back for me and demanded fuss. I didn't want to leave! Glyn did.
We decided not to go into any more of the shops as it was getting expensive so after a walk around the 'garden' that silversmith guy recommended (it wasn't all that), we drove to Rabat so that we could walk around Mdina in the rain. I didn't walk far before I heard the familiar mewling of cute cats, a local woman was bringing the strays biscuits and they were all over her.
Once the capital of Malta, Mdina is full of narrow alleyways that are redolent of its medieval past.
It was now that we realised that we could not avoid buying umbrellas, the rain had no intention of letting up just yet. Like a lot of places in Malta, it is extremely quaint with a massive cathedral. We didn't go in because it was €5 and we've seen tons of cathedrals in the past for free.
Looking for somewhere dry to visit, we opted for some catacombs as Rabat is beset with them. The two main ones are St Paul's and St Agatha's. So when I came across St Paul's Grotto AND Catacombs I assumed it was St Paul's but no, they were not.
However, what a great place to visit. Now St Paul lived during Jesus times and was originally know as Saul, a warrior who did a lot of bad deeds such as murder. One day he fell off his horse and saw an angel that told him to sort himself out and believe in the Christian God. So naturally he changed his name, to Paul, and went about preaching the Gospel at a variety of countries around the Mediterranean. Considering it was 2000 years ago, it's pretty amazing how far he got (assuming it
is true!) and one day he was popping to Rome to have it out with the Romans when he was shipwrecked at Malta. See, there was a point to all of this. Being as hard as nails, when St Paul was bitten by a viper, he never felt a thing and threw it in a fire. This blew the minds of the Maltese and they concluded he must be a mate of God's. St Paul stayed in Malta for a while, in the grotto that we visited today. This grotto would not get scored very high for accommodation on TripAdvisor but back in ye olde times, it must have been fairly comfy with good protection from the elements.
Further along from the grotto was a warren of tunnels and tiny rooms dug out of the soft limestone rock that the Maltese used as air-raid shelters. Also not great accommodation but saved a lot of lives. The layout put both me and Glyn in mind of the Snow Hotel we stayed at in Finland earlier this year. Further along were some catacombs, very narrow in places with low ceilings and easy to get lost in. It's all dug from the
limestone that is white and dusty and so I became white and dusty.
There were only a few other people down there and we kept bumping into the same British couple so we followed the signs to the Agape Table with them. I said I had no idea what an Agape Table was and the woman told me that Agape is a type of rock (no. Agate is a type of rock). I found out later that it's an area near where dead people are lain within the catacombs that has a seating area and table so that their loved ones can have a final goodbye meal. A bit like a table for a wake, only it's underground, alongside the grave.
Exiting the catacombs, we found ourselves in the museum with Fine Art Gallery. It was really old art, dark with age of long dead people staring gloomily. Not my bag at all, so we left.
Being into catacombs, we went to St Agatha's which was a guided tour with a rather shy man who couldn't look at any of the group he was leading. No photography was allowed, probably because this site seemed to be a
lot more religious or because there were fragile frescos on the walls. There were 6 others in the group and a few of them seemed horrified upon seeing the medieval skeletons in open graves. This too had an Agape Table (still not a type of rock but made from white dusty rock) I was covered in white dust which stood out on black clothing. Glyn and I were the only ones in the group who did not take sneaky photos of the open graves and catacombs.
It was still raining once we had finished but didn't have a desire to do a further set of catacombs and so we went to nearby Mosta instead. Again, like everywhere in Malta, Mosta was a town of narrow alleyways with a huge church. But this church is a beast: the Mosta Rotunda or Mosta Dome, is a giant unsupported dome that was hit by a bomb during WW2 but miraculously, the bomb did not explode. Much of the inside is painted vibrantly with eggshell blue and gold. Taking photos proved difficult as there were two old german guys trailing us and deliberately standing in front of myself and Glyn just as we
wanted to take a photo. They would then hold a long conversations in prime spots, until Glyn got extremely wound up and I could see him mentally writing his blog about it. However, we did both stand in front of the replica bomb for an unnecessarily long time just when german 'selfie man' showed an interest in it.
Finally the rain began to cease, the sun attempted to shine and it was that lovely picturesque time when you have dark grey/blue skies and a golden light on the landscape. So now was a good time to photograph the coast. Glyn decided he wanted to give Dingli Cliffs another chance even though he dissed them last time.
It was very windy there and we came across a tower where an old guy was selling strawberries from his own garden (sure they are!) and 'Maltese coffee'. This could be the worst coffee I have ever tasted, worse than Happy Shopper by a long chalk and worse than when a young kid made me an instant coffee with luke warm water from the hot tap with bits of limescale floating in it. I think it had cloves in it and we all
know cloves are only good for toothache. Glyn soon binned it.
There was a radar station up on the cliffs but apart from that, not much foreground interest when shooting the landscape and the sea was far below. But the sun and light was awesome, although Glyn preferred to sit on a bench and gazed wistfully out to sea. I do not know why he likes to do this, as far as I'm aware he has no longing to swagger off to sea with a parrot on his shoulder.
We'd planned to have an evening meal in the nearby town but it was still a bit early so we went to Buskett Gardens, the only woodlands in Malta. We had a little wander and I guess if it was the only woodland you had ever seen, it would be awesome...
Anyway, when we got to our chosen restaurant for the evening as recommended in Glyn's guide, the waiter demanded to know if we had a reservation and it wasn't open yet. So we thought sod this, lets head towards Ghajn Tuffieha Bay were silversmith man told us to shoot a good sunset and eat near there. Glyn
found us a place in Mgarr, right by the obligatory enormous church and had the best meal of the trip - it was very reasonable too, including lots of complimentary food - all Maltese.
We just got to the tower at the top of Ghajn Tuffieha Bay (I think all bays have towers here) in time for the sunset. It was quite popular, filled with photographers and couples attempting romance. There was even a bride and groom tottering over the loose rocks and pebbles. It's a really nice place, we may come back tomorrow.
As i write this blog I cracked into the €1.50 wine I bought from the back of a van in Marsaxlokk. I was had, it tastes like floor polish!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.306s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 25; qc: 103; dbt: 0.1175s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
Scott Adlhcoh
non-member comment
Curiosity to Travelling Malta..???
I never Visited this place but i will soon visit this place because after this article my curiosity to visit this place is now high. I am Scott Adlhoch and i love to explore new places. The Article is very good and i am now the Fan of this Blog. Thanks for sharing the Information.