Blogs from Malta, Europe - page 3

Gozo’s not that big, about five kilometres from one side to the other, so we set off on a drive, figuring that if we keep going for long enough we’re sure to find something interesting. We don’t have to wait too long. The set of salt pans a kilometre or so west of Marsalforn is the most extensive collection we’ve seen in Malta so far, all laid out in neat geometric patterns on the flat rocks a metre or so above the waterline. And this lot is very definitely still a going concern. Unlike all the others we’ve seen, there are signs here warning us to keep out on pain of death, well maybe not quite, but the message is clear enough. We read that they’ve been here since the early 1800s, and the same family’s ... read more

Today we head across the strait to Malta’s second most populous island, Gozo. I should probably put that in a bit of context; according to the ever reliable Wikipedia the permanent population of the country’s third most populous island, the mighty Comino, is two; no, not two thousand, two people. In fairness, Gozo’s population is a respectable 30,000 out of the country’s total of just over half a million. We’ve visited the island a couple of times before and really liked what we saw, but we’ve never stayed there, so we’re really looking forward to the experience. I’ve never thought that working in a rental car office would be all that interesting but it seems it might have its moments. As I wait in line at the office at the airport I hear the guy behind ... read more

We decide on yet another morning of relaxation, this time at the local “lido” which is only a couple of hundred metres along the waterfront from our apartment. I remember being taken to the Lido when I was growing up in Melbourne. I’m pretty sure that was a theatre, but if there are movies playing here they’re keeping them well hidden. This one’s a waterfront terrace with sunlounges, umbrellas, a bar and a restaurant, plus of course the old Maltese staple, a step ladder down into the water …. and very pleasant it is too, almost a bit too warm to be refreshing. There’s entertainment out of the water too. First up is a party of half a dozen or so seventy or eighty year old ”girls” stretched out on sunlounges next to some balloons tied ... read more

I’ve always been a bit fascinated by catacombs and caves. Issy doesn’t quite seem to share my interest, driven largely, as I think I might have written previously, by fear of thousands of tons of rock suddenly collapsing in on top of her. So I set off on my own by bus for Saint Paul’s catacombs at Rabat, in the centre of Malta. The bus system is excellent, and the fares are cheap, so I’m prepared to ignore the saturated seat that I’m sitting in and try not to think too hard about what particular liquid might have made it that way. The Saint Paul’s catacombs are apparently the largest such system in Malta. I read that there are more than thirty separate catacombs here in all, twenty of which are open to the public. They ... read more

We’re up early for a long day of travelling, first by train back to Palermo, and then on to Malta (not by train) via Rome. But the day’s first challenge is to find the Cefalu train station. We know it’s up the hill somewhere, and we know the hill’s steep because our suitcases are trying hard to extract our shoulders from their sockets. My theory is that if we keep going uphill eventually we’ll run into the railway line and then we can walk along it to the station. And it’s an excellent theory, which would work perfectly in almost all circumstances. The one exception would seem to be if part of the train line just happened to be in a tunnel. By the time we’ve realised this flaw it’s an eleven minute walk to the ... read more