Floriana, Malta 4/18/25

 

Happy Good Friday!  We got off to an early start walking around Floriana, which is an old walled part of Valletta.   I started thinking about Frioday's in my past. In my FBI Agent days, we got paid every other Friday.  We referred to payday Friday as good Frieday and the week in between as Passover.  Just a little FBI humor. That all ended with direct deposit.

The Parish church of St. Publius is one of the largest in Malta The facade was partly inspired on Christopher Wren’s St Paul’s Cathedral and other churches in London.

The main altar was lit by this weird light.

Beautiful vaulted ceiling.

There were fresh flowers every where in honor of Easter week.

More flowers leading up to Jesus on the cross.

This is Sarria Church, built in 1676 and dedicated to the immaculate conception. It was built in Thanksgiving for the end of the plague.

The Wignacourt Water Tower commorates the inauguration of the aqueduct in 1615.  It has a drinking trough for horses.

Dennis and I walked through the botanical gardens, also known as, The General's Gardens. We were impressed by this massive tree but there was no information about it. At least information we cold read.  The Maltese language is about as easy to read as Hieroglyphics.

I first thought maybe this signified a divorce, but in reality it is a war memorial.  So nice to see women recognized for their contributions.

I saw many doors decorated with flowers.

I love funny signs.  In case you cannot read it, it says "Someone please call 9 Wine Wine."

Self explanitory.

I have discovered cherry gelato called, Amerena.  UM -UM Good!

Dennis, sporting his new purple Malta cap.

Of all crazy places to eat for our last night in Malta.

I ordered the Pork Rib in Mustard Spicey Honey Sauce, Guacamole, and Corriander.  Dennis ordered the Chicken Curry with Rocket salad (arugula), Caramilized Apple, Mozzarella, Corriander Yoghurt Sauce, and Chipolte Sauce.  Both were really good.  Plus we had a couple of excellent local wines.

Tomorow we say good bye to our lovely hotel, Palazzo Ignazio.  Denis heads to Athens for a couple of nights and I am on  to Manchester England for a 3 1/2 week hike - The Penine Trail. Malta was my warm up hike for a much more challenging walk.  You probably won't get a blog post tomorrow so do not worry, It is totally a travel day - rather tedious and boring.

Good night and God Bless!

Ferry Back to Valletta 5/17/25

 

Good Morning!

We said goodbye to Gozo - Boohoo!  We loved the Island of Gozo and our little village of Xaghra, pronounced Shah ra.  We took a ferry back to Valletta. Dennis and I have today and tomorrow here in Valletta to sightsee and goof off.  So if you don't hear much, we are not on a hiking route.  

We ate lunch at this charming sidewalk cafe.

Dennis ordered a Maltese beer called Cisk.  I tasted it, but it was a bit on the strong side for me, but he liked it. I had water. We split a Diavola pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy pepperoni, jalapenos, and rucoa (arugula). Diavola translates to sauce of the devil.  It was a thin crust, Italian style, the kind that you fold over a slice and must be careful lest the oil run down your chin.  Perfecto!

Right after we polished off that large pizza, we passed this sign.  Aging - bah humbug!

The streets are incredibly narrow and packed with people, trucks, and carts. Very lively and entertaining.

There are many flags and banners for the Easter celebration.

I have seen these red phone booths all over Malta, and they have working telephones inside.  They are more modern than the last time I used a pay phone.  I remember, in my FBI days, and, in the days before many people had cell phones, if the bad guy stopped at a pay phone and made a call, then right afterwards, we (an Agent) would make a call to the office, so when we got the phone records we could testify which call the bad guy made.  Those days are long gone. Now babies get cell phones as soon as they can talk.

This was a hopping place for dinner.  We old folks felt so with it, eating at the "in-place."

Dennis looked happy that we were soon to get food.  After all, he had his glass of wine.  Me too!  We ordered the hummus and it was a good start.  It came with this red pepper/onion relish with a touch of sweetness that highlighted the hummus's taste.  YUM!

Dennis got the Cacio de Pepa pasta.  It is one of our favorites.

Tonight, I got the gold star dish. I ordered pasta with browned butter, hazelnuts, and truffles.  OMG!  You could smell the fresh truffles from the kitchen all the way to our table. The pasta was stuffed with a very mild local cheese.  I love truffles, and this did not disappoint.  

So a short post.  Tomorrow, we will do some sightseeing and have our last dinner together. Dennis will head to Athens, and I will head to Manchester, England - ah, the modern marriage.  Happy 20th to us.

Good night and God Bless!

Boat to Comino 4/16/25

Good Morning!

Today I took a small boat from Mgarr to Comino Island.  I say small because if you describe any boat, I get seasick, and this one was pretty small.  Small is worse. And sure enough, the sea was rough.  I stared so hard at the horizon that I got a headache, but I was not seasick.  

This is the bay that we pulled into.  Look at that magnificent water. Uninhabited Comino Island, isolated and having many caves and cliffs, was an ideal place for pirates during the Middle Ages, where they used it as a base to raid passing ships. 

Just after I got there. I saw this rescue helicopter drop a person down.  I waited to see if they were rescuing anyone, and it appeared to be a training exercise. As soon as the person's feet hit the ground, he/she was pulled back up and into the helicopter.

It is easy to take incredible photos of such beautiful turquoise water.

In 1618, the Knights of Malta built a tower on Comino to serve as an early warning system in case of invasion.  It was also used to keep pirates from hiding on the island.

 The island was used to punish knights who committed minor crimes.  It was a lonely and dangerous task to man the tower.

Comino has a long history of hermits living on the Island. After wandering all over the island, I wondered how they survived.  I saw no edible vegetation.  I guess they ate food from the sea.

A little pond in the middle of nowhere.

The Abandoned Hospital: One of the most significant historic buildings on Comino Island is the Hospital, which the British constructed in the 1890s. This served as a quarantine place for British troops arriving in Malta from the cholera-stricken Levant. It is now abandoned.

Barricks for the military on the Island.

I walked about nine miles, counting a few misjudgments, which were to be expected.  I had to climb over one fence to stay on my trail, and when I got to this abandoned hotel, it was completely blocked off.  I wasn't about to turn around and go four-plus miles back.  The last boat to the mainland was at 2:15, and I had already heard significant thunder.  I created my own path and finally found the road to the dock in plenty of time to catch the boat.  I already spent the night beside a glacier on my last hike, so I certainly didn't want to spend the night on a deserted island. 

There were no restaurants, but these guys were selling pina coladas from a food truck.  Don't ask me how they got a food truck to the island. I had to order one for the whole island experience.

It was a comely cocktail, but it lacked so much as a sniff of coconut milk and maybe rum.  It was mainly a cold and refreshing drink of pineapple juice.

On the way back, the boat captain gave us a tour of some caves.  We went into the mouth of the caves for a quick look.

I will let you enjoy the photos.

This water was about 10 feet deep and clear as clear can be/

I really enjoyed my trip to Comino.  It is the romantic and famous blue lagoon of many films and movies.

We headed back to the shore after a wonderful day.  I had to take two buses to return to our B&B.

The food just gets better and better.  We ate at a Michelin-starred restaurant called Al Sale.

Our Amuse-Bouche was this fresh bread accompanied by local peppered cheese and tomato confit. And of course, we had some wine to go with it.

We ordered a starter of baked brie in puff pastry.  OMG.  I have died and gone to heaven.  It was topped with Gozo honey, figs, and hazelnuts.  I don't particularly like figs, but everything about this was perfect. The golden brown puff pastry is made in-house by the chef.  I love to bake, but making puff pastry by hand is admirable.

I ordered tagliolini pistachio and burrata. Just a taste of heaven and then some. 

Dennis ordered sea bass al sale, which translates to cooked inside a salt shell.  I had read about this technique but had never seen it on a menu. The server had to chisel the salt off the fish and then debone it. It was delicious and not at all over-salted.

Both our meals were served with potatoes and vegetables.

Once again, we waddled back to our B&B - happy as larks and sorry that we leave this island tomorrow morning.

Good Night and God Bless.