Malta Teaser

[TaurusTheBull]

Hi,

With more luck than judgement, my £25 Ryanair flight left Bournemouth only slightly late, bound for Malta on a day of worsening UK winter gales and snowstorms.

We landed as the sun was setting. Malta, Gozo and Comino are very small islands, and I didn't appreciate how densely populated the main island is until taking the X2 bus 8 kilometres from the airport to the seaside suburb of Sliema... and it taking an hour!

Malta is the smallest country in the Eurozone, with less than half a million people. It's strategic location in the Mediterranean has attracted many rulers over the years. After the prehistoric temple builders and bronze age settlers came the Phoenicians, Romans, Moors, Normans, Sicilians, Spanish, Order of St John, French and British, culminating in Maltese Independence in 1964.

It recently attracted attention following the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, an investigative journalist blown up by a car bomb in October. Suspicions range from fuel-smuggling mafia to crooked politicians selling Maltese (EU) passports, not helped by the police chief who is heading the enquiry being married to a prominent politician.

Malta is reasonably priced, at least out of season and away from tourist spots. I got a room at Hostel 94, including breakfast, for €11.2 per night.

From the hostel rooftop, looking west towards St Julian's Bay, a dozen cranes are visible, but they don't particularly stand out against the mass of buildings.

English is the second language, making it easy to get about. Buses are all €1.50, and each bus stop has a name, which is announced and shown on a display beforehand.

Nearly half of Maltese live abroad, and the endless apartment high-rises can appear quiet in winter, though judging by the cars and Christmas decorations outside, appearances may be deceptive...

On my first full day I explored Sliema and neighbouring St Julian. Sliema has a scenic limestone wave-cut platform stretching around the peninsula, with gardens and stray cats, one or two with their own little houses. Urban cats are such a feature of Malta that they appear on post cards and mugs.

Valletta has much history, developing inside it's walls in the 16th century, under the auspices of the medieval Catholic Knights of St John. Many of the buildings are in baroque style, epitomised by the Co-cathedral of St John, with it's impressive interior adornments, including a signed Caravaggio masterpiece "The beheading of John the Baptist".

The entry fee is 10 euros (25% off for students and seniors), as is the war museum by the harbour.

If St John's seems a rip-off, especially for foreigners only wanting to pray, try the simpler neo-classical Anglican Pro-cathedral, St Paul's, in Independence Square.

The next day I took a bus to Golden Bay, near Ghajn Tuffeiha, overlooked by the large Radisson Golden Sands Hotel, supposedly the second most popular Maltese beach.

I walked north-westwards along the scrubby cliffs towards Gozo, eventually reaching Anchor Bay and Popeye Village, the film set for the 1980 film, now a popular theme park.

A short walk across the isthmus brought me to Malta's most popular beach, Mellieha Bay, with a few intrepid paddlers in December.

Up the hill is the town of Mellieha, and down the other side is the main road to St Paul's Bay, where the man was supposedly shipwrecked in AD 60.

In Bugibba I came across a game of bocci, an Italian form of bowls or petanque, played with odd-shaped balls. The promenade has been developed for summer visitors, with many pubs, eateries and souvenir shops.

The next day I walked south from Golden Bay. Adjacent to the old watch tower overlooking the bay is a recently developed Olive Grove, a Gaia Peace Garden, interspersed with signs commemorating those politicians and activists who have died for their cause (Martin Luther King, Chico Mendes, Oscar Romero, Gandhi, Malcolm X etc). Not to mention all you might want to know about olives...

This stretch of coast has few people out of season, and makes a great getaway. I walked along the deserted cactus-lined road to the small town of Mgarr, with it's flat-topped stone houses dwarfed by it's huge basilica, the valley peppered with poly tunnels.

The dishevelled prehistoric temple of Ta Hagrat, one of about 30 in Malta, is situated on the eastern side of the town, pre-dating Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

Up on the plateau, past the small town of Mtarfa, are the quaint old alleyways of Rabat and the adjacent city of Mdina, originally developed as an Arabic fortification overlooking the island, and the capital before the Knights Hospitallers established Valletta in the 16th century. If some of it looks familiar, blame Game Of Thrones...

The cathedral and narrow alleys of Mdina are impressive, popular with foreigners. Occasionally, on clear evenings, the lights of southern Sicily can be seen from the ramparts.

The next day I branched out to Gozo. The ferries operate 24/7 and cost €4.65 return, payable on the Gozo-Malta leg.

Gozo is a small island, and open-topped hop-on bus tours cost €15, but normal buses are only €1.50 per trip.

Unfortunately, a popular attraction, the Azure Window arch on the western coast, collapsed on 8th March, no doubt exacerbated by the massive footfall.

I left the ferry terminal at Mgarr at 10.20 a.m., walking up to Nadur, down to Ramla Bay and on to the northern resort of Marsalforn, taking a couple of hours. The town is quiet in winter, but peaceful and pleasant, with a few bayside restaurants.

In the afternoon I walked 4 km from Marsalforn up to the capital, Victoria (Rabat). The main attraction is the impressive Citidel, Gozo's answer to Mdina, which provided refuge for Gozitans against Ottoman and Barbary attacks nearly 500 years ago.

After a stop at Gozo's Lidl it was a quick walk back to Nadur and down to Mgarr as the sun set.

The roads and towns of Gozo are less frenetic than Malta, and the scenery greener and more picturesque.

I left enough to come back for, including the Ggantija temples, more than 5,550 years old, and supposedly the world's second oldest religious structure, after Gobekli Tepe in Turkey.

After a rainy day off it was back to walking. This time I headed back to Rabat and walked down to Dingli Cliffs, overlooking tiny uninhabited Filfla Island, 3 km offshore, a bird sanctuary and the southernmost point of Malta.

Using a free walking guide, part of the "Malta Goes Rural" series, obtained from the Tourist Information Centre in Mdina, I followed the path 10 km south-east from Dingli Cliffs, passing old churches, an aqueduct and the ancient temples at Hagar Qim and Mnajdra, eventually reaching the huge limestone arches known as the Blue Grotto.

Nearby is the tiny fishing settlement of Wied iz-Zurrieq, a few bars and restaurants built alongside the creek, and the nearest settlement to Filfla Island. This was a fitting place to sit and watch the sunset whilst waiting for bus 74 to take me to Valletta.

After another quiet day wandering along the rocky shorelines of Sliema, St Julian's and Paceville, my last full day dawned.

From St George's Bay in Paceville the coastal path heads through Pembroke and past a military shooting range, which was in use, so I had to detour inland, although I noted all the shots were fired into the sea!

Madliena watch tower was built in 1658, as part of the system of 13 De Redin towers built by the Order of St John, 8 of which still remain. They were built in sight of each other to enable faster communication. Beside the tower is a 'fougasse' or hole in the ground, which was used as a primitive mortar against attack from the sea.

The landscape here is garigue, consisting of low aromatic shrubs with thin soils on karst limestones. In places the wave-cut platform has been cut into rectangles, presumably used as old salt pans.

After the next watch tower I entered Salini Bay, where the much larger salt pans are found, originally constructed in the 16th century.

Across the bay is the fishing village of Qawra, now mainly a tourist destination, continuing on past the headland to adjoin Bugibba and St Paul's. On a cold, windy afternoon, I took bus 212 back to Sliema from the National Aquarium near the headland.

It was a lovely break. The weather was sunny and in the low 20s for my first 8 days, slipping to the mid-teens on my last 2 days, a welcome relief from December in Britain.

All that remains now is for strike-free Ryanair to fly me back to the cold, dark and wet.

Malta hit the spot for me, and I'd heartily recommend it as an off-season getaway. The weather was fine, the history engrossing and the walks cathartic.

There is someone I should mention who dominated this trip. For the first time, he is unable to hear or read about it, but he always took a great interest in where I was going, and without him none my travels would have been possible.

So this one's for you, Dad!

Cheers
Taurus

[scottnsilky]

Thanks for the travelogue TTB, I only wish I knew how to pronounce all the names! I was last there nearly 40 years ago, and I plan to return late September.
dp