Malta - Week 3

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Week 3 – Malta (18-25 Mar)

We had a heart attack at 4.30am ahead of our airport transfer. Our chalet receptionist kindly offered to drive us from the chalet to the bus station, which is 2km down the road, but when we went to leave the chalet, someone had blocked the boom gate exit by parking illegally and leaving for the night. We were completed blocked! The receptionist got out, looked around the car, tried to see if the owner had left contact details but to no avail. I immediately said “Jesus, help us!”. I then decided to check if the vehicle was unlocked and it was. The receptionist jumped in the driver’s seat and put the stick into neutral. I then pushed the car away from the boom gate, far enough to provide a gap for us to drive around it. Dwayne and I got to the bus station and when it pulled up, the others still hadn’t arrived. The driver was fuming that they were late and he was about to drive off when their car came around the corner. It was super stressful but oh so thankful for the answer to prayer. Glory to God for that one!!

The rest of the transfers from Geneva to Zurich to Malta all went ok, albeit a 1hr delay and issue with overbooking (very unSwiss!) but our luggage followed us so we couldn’t complain.

Sunday was an easy day doing a load or two of overdue laundry and brunching at Café Riche on the recommendation of the property manager. We were seated in a small garden courtyard and we ordered 3 bagels, 2 veggie breakfasts, 1 peppered goats cheese side as well as coffees, a smoothie and a milkshake. The whole bill only came to €57. I love cheap destinations. We then wandered the neighbourhood of Birgu, which is where we’re staying and opposite the capital of Valletta. Its original walls are in still intact from the Knights Order in the 1500’s. There are narrow sandstone alleyways and houses adorned with colourful doors, coloured balconies and interesting door knobs. It reminded us of Cordoba in Spain as we moved through the alleys and of Dubrovnik around the waterfront. Everyone speaks English, they drive on the left, the food is mainly Maltese or Italian. It’s an interesting mix. It feels like Italy without the attitude or expense. I like it.

Monday, we ventured over to Valletta, the country’s capital. It feels a lot like Lisbon with a mix of maintained and rundown buildings side by side. There are several pedestrian streets running from the main gate to Fort St Elmo at the harbour’s tip and smaller cross streets dotted with cafes and shops in undulating terrain. The height and thickness of the walls from the port up to the city are impressive to say the least. It’s a good 60m from the port to the city above and the walls still tower over you as you walk. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in-tact walls in a city. Usually, they are dismantled hundreds of years earlier to build shops or housing, yet these walls are everywhere and still intact. I’m super impressed at their commitment to keep them maintained. At 12pm we watched the traditional cannon firing at the Saluting Battery, we snacked on local street food (pastizzi, imqarat etc) at the Triton Fountain, we took in the history at the National War Museum, stopped for a hot chocolate at a trendy cafe and made our way home after nearly 7 hours exploration. A good day was had by all.

On Tuesday we took a road trip around the south half of the island. We began in Marsaxlokk, which is a traditional fishing village with colourful boats and fishermen mending their nets. The only attraction is the waterfront with its local markets and restaurants offering fresh fish dishes. The prices were very cheap - €8 for pizza, €9 for fish and chips. Unfortunately, we’d only just eaten breakfast so it was too early to capitalise on their offerings but we did pick up some gifts at the markets. We drove to the Blue Grotto, which is a rock formation in the ocean attached to the land via an arch. It was overcast weather so the colours weren’t really showing as much as they could be, and the usual boat tours were not running due to the prevailing winds, but it was still a pretty stop for 5 minutes. We stopped at a little village up the road which had a small restaurant overlooking the ocean for lunch before visiting Mdina. This used to be the capital of Malta until the Great Siege of 1565 between the Knights and the Ottomans, after which the capital was moved to Valletta. It’s still fully walled and was quite the delight to wander around. They’ve even turned the moat into manicured gardens that you can walk through. It never ceases to amaze me that all these forts are still standing some 500 years later, despite many invasions and bombings during numerous wars. How they have survived all these years is puzzling. Our final stop was the Dinghli Cliffs, which are the highest point in Malta. Not worth the effort, I felt.

Wednesday we explored the upper half of the island, stopping off at Ghajn Tuffiejha Bay, Golden Bay Beach, Anchor Bay and its associated Popeye Village, the Red Tower, Coral Lagoon and St Paul’s Bay. The weather was sunny so the turquoise colours really shone through. Anchor Bay was my favourite of the ones we saw. We saw St Paul’s Island in the bay, which is where Paul was apparently shipwrecked (Acts 27-28) and then bought ashore to Rabat, which is next to Mdina but of course, Mdina didn’t exist in Bible times. We had lunch beside the sea and finished the day watching the sunset from our apartment rooftop.

Thursday was a cracker of a day - bright, sunny and warm. We drove to the top of the mainland and rode the car ferry to Gozo Island, Malta’s little sister. It’s more rural than Malta but because it’s only a 15 min ferry ride from Malta, it’s very popular with day and cruise tourists. We visited the old citadel in the capital, Victoria, and walked around its walls overlooking the surrounding farmland. We ate gelato and traditional Gozitan pizza for lunch before catching a local foot ferry to Comino Island. This uninhabited island features the famous Blue Lagoon and it was the highlight of the day. The water colour is crystal clear and shimmering turquoise in a large sandy bay. It was delightful! Despite being 3pm in the afternoon, it was still super crowded with lots of boat tours moored there for hours as well as the little local ferries like ours coming and going. I can’t imagine what summer crowds must be like. We only had 1h there, which wasn’t long enough, but the 10C water temperature didn’t beg us to stay in longer either, so we swam for 30 mins in the stunning but freezing surroundings. Mum made it for all of 3 minutes before getting out to dry in the sun! Kudos to her for taking the plunge for the sake of bragging rights. Dwayne was not easily swayed by peer pressure and decided to watch on.

On Friday the parents and brother left, and Dwayne and I made our way back to Valletta for a 23^rd wedding anniversary meal at Legligin. It was a 5-course tasting menu for €30 each. There is no advertised menu because they decide on the dishes each morning depending on what was available at the market. On this particular day we started with fresh bread and olive oil, followed by spiced pumpkin soup, local tapas of sheep cheese, homemade fig jam, puttanesca paste, sundried tomato paste and caponata. 3^rd course was cauliflower gratin, 4^th course stuffed eggplant with walnuts and white chocolate cheesecake to finish. It was well worth the small expense and a nice way to celebrate another year of wedded bliss. After lunch we visited the Casa Rocca Piccolo Museum, which used to belong to one of the knights in the 1500’s but it now belongs to one of the Maltese Nobleman and they open it up to visitors. They even have a framed invite to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, as well as portraits of what they wore to the event. The first 2 storeys are for visitors and the 3^rd storey is where the family live their daily lives, and that’s obviously closed to the public. They also have bomb shelters 30m below ground in old wells so the whole house was interesting to tour. We wanted to do a “Below Valletta” tour of the air raid shelters but they only run on Sun/Mon/Wed and it was too late by the time we discovered tours were possible. We caught the ferry home and watched the glow of sunset for the last time.

Malta has been great. There are fortified walls everywhere that make your mouth drop open every time you see them. No other city has this many surviving fortifications so it’s pretty amazing. There is loads to see, it’s easy to get around, the surrounding waters are cold but beautiful to look at and we had excellent weather. I feel like we’ve done it justice and probably won’t come back but boy, are we glad we chose to visit.

Overall, we’ve had a blessed holiday. There was no sickness, Covid or injury. Our flights connected without issue, our luggage arrived at every destination, there was no excess baggage fees and the weather was always good for what we were doing. We got to ski both resorts after their season’s best snow fall. We witnessed incredible answers to prayer, such as an empty van being unlocked in the middle of the night. We are so thankful and mindful of the privilege of travel. We don’t take it for granted.

Jobs fill our pockets, adventures fill our soul!

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