Malta is the most religious country in Europe…
…it has more religious public holidays than any other in Europe and 10th February is especially important because this is the The Feast of St Paul’s Shipwreck which was bad luck for Paul but good fortune for Malta because it brought Paul to the island in the year 60AD and he then went promptly about converting the island to Christianity.
Posted in Beaches, Europe, History, Literature, Malta, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Denmark, Gozo, Life, Malta Postcards, Religion, Roman Catholicism, Saddam Hussein, Scandinavia Religion, St Paul Malta, Sweden, Valletta
When it comes to the letter X then thank goodness for Malta where the language does’t shy away from the 23rd letter of the alphabet.
The village of Xewkija on the island of Gozo is a modest place but has an enormous church with what is claimed to be the fourth or perhaps even the third largest unsupported church dome in the World.
To put that into some sort of perspective the largest is St Peter’s in Rome (fourth largest city in Western Europe) and the second largest is St Paul’s in London (population 7.5 million, give or take a thousand). Xewkija is a village in rural Gozo with a population of about three thousand, three hundred people. They didn’t have Christopher Wren to design it or Michelangelo to do the interior decoration – they built it themselves!
“Valletta equals in its noble architecture, if it does not excel, any capital in Europe. The city is one of the most beautiful, for its architecture and the splendour of its streets that I know: something between Venice and Cadiz.” Benjamin Disraeli
After walking around the city and the Grand Harbour it was time to visit a church and although Kim wasn’t too keen, on account of the fact that the exterior was dull and uninteresting, we bought tickets to visit the Cathedral of St John and even Kim was pleased that we did because inside was a complete contrast with an opulent Baroque interior and a floor of headstones each commemorating one of the Knights of St John.
Quite possibly one of the most spectacular sunsets that I have ever seen…
The sky literally in fluid layers with colours that changed like a twist of a kaleidoscope, The blue of the day giving way to the purple of the evening but stubbornly separated by a ribbon of cream. This was the view from our hotel balcony, it was free but I would gladly have paid for it.
Posted in Beaches, Cathedrals, Europe, Food, History, Literature, Malta, Travel, Uncategorized, World Heritage
Tagged Culture, Life, Malta, millieha bay, Sunset
Our plan was to stay on board the bus and complete the route to the very far side of the island at a place called Dwejra where there is a natural rock formation called the azure window which attracts people like bees to a honey pot mostly it seems on account of the fact that it was used as a location for the TV show ‘Game of Thrones’ although I cannot confirm this because I have never watched it.
It was an interesting little stop and we clambered over the erosion scarred limestone rocks, shallow pools where nothing lived and the salt pans which was the reason why. It was very busy so we made our way back to the shabby little ring of tourist trap shops and bars, had a beer and then on account of the number of people who might want to get on the bus made our way in good time back to the stop.
There is a rather sad postscript to this story because in a mighty storm on the morning of 7th March 2015 the stack and the arch were overcome by the wind and the surf and crashed into the sea. Sadly the Azure Window on Gozo is no more and presumably the sightseeing bus tour will have to rearrange its itinerary.
Posted in Arts and Crafts, Europe, History, Malta, Natural Environment, Postcards, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Azure Window Gozo, Þingvellir National Park, Cordoba, Diocletian's Palace, Film Set Locations, Game of Thrones, Gozo, Krka National Park, Northern Ireland, Seville Alcazar, The Dark Hedges
I had walked about four miles or so by now and I was coming to the end of the urban development, the asphalt road became unpaved track and thereafter a dusty footpath that kept going to the end of the peninsular and I carried on because at the end of the mainland there was something I wanted to see – St Paul’s Island.
I was at Qawra Bay also known as St Paul’s Bay…
The problem with an A to Z project is that it starts off easy enough through the vowels and the popular letter but towards the end becomes more difficult. I was worried about X, I thought about cheating and using Extramadura or Eixample in Barcelona but then I suddenly remembered the island of Gozo
Thank goodness for the impenetrable Maltese language: Wiki describes it thus – “Maltese is a Semitic language spoken by the Maltese people. Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect during the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091.”
All very interesting but the important thing for my A to Z project is that the Maltese language doesn’t object to using the letter X.
In 2015 I went on an open top bus tour of the island of Malta and one of the stop offs was the seaside town of Xlendi. I would like to be able to tell you that it was a delightful and interesting place but sadly I can’t. For some reason ( which I am glad of now) I took this picture of an apartment block on the seafront.
There is another village on Gozo that begins with X and this is interesting.
The village of Xewkija is a modest place but has an enormous church with what is claimed to be the fourth or perhaps even the third largest unsupported church dome in the World.
To put that into some sort of perspective the largest is St Peter’s in Rome (fourth largest city in Western Europe) and the second largest is St Paul’s in London (population 7.5 million, give or take a thousand). Xewkija is a village in rural Gozo with a population of about three thousand, three hundred people. They didn’t have Christopher Wren to design it or Michelangelo to do the interior decoration – they built it themselves!
Malta is the most religious country in Europe – Read the Full Story Here…
Posted in Beaches, Cathedrals, Europe, History, Literature, Malta, Travel, World Heritage
Tagged Gozo, Malta Bus Problems, Malta Buses, Marsalforn Gozo, Rabat, UNESCO, Victoria Gozo, Xlen
Welcome to my new project – Washing Lines
The five best places to find washing lines for photo opportunities are Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Malta.
This one is from Malta, Valletta I think although I cannot be absolutely certain…
Clearly it was trousers, jeans and tracky bottoms washing day. I can’t help noticing that they have been hung to dry inside out, I imagine this is so they don’t bleach in the sun
My only other observation is that personally I would have hung them from the bottoms and then the waist band would dry quicker that way.
Like this…
It is a Challenge. Do feel free to join in.
Posted in Cathedrals, Europe, History, Malta, World Heritage
Tagged Malta, Malta Balconies, Valletta, Washing Line Challenge, Washing Lines
Will lock down end soon? Will we be able to travel ever again? Who knows for sure but in the meantime I continue to go through my picture archives. On 5th April 1996 I was on the island of Malta and took a ferry ride to nearby Gozo.
The white ferry boats with blue and yellow livery run almost continuously during the peak summer months so after we got off the bus at a bleak functional strip of baking tarmac there wasn’t too long to wait for the first ferry to arrive and we joined the pushing impatient crowd to get on board and find a seat on the top deck in the hot morning sun and as soon as it was fully loaded it cast off and began the thirty minute crossing to Gozo.
Posted in Beaches, Childhood, Europe, History, Literature, Malta, Natural Environment, Travel
Tagged Comino, Culture, Gozo, Life, Malta Buses, Mgarr Gozo, Rabat Gozo, Victoria Gozo, Ċirkewwa Ferry Terminal
Lockdown continues so I return to the archives. In April 2015 I was on the Mediterranean island of Malta…
We arrived late in the morning and immediately found the bus connection to Mellieha Bay in the north of the island and sat back for the seventy minute journey through the centre of the island. I have heard it said that you either love Malta or you hate it, there are no half measures, there is no sitting on the fence.
I love it but as we crawled through the growling traffic, through the unattractive suburbs of Valletta, past the inevitable McDonalds and Burger King and through miles and miles of road works I wasn’t so sure about Kim’s initial reaction.
As far as I could make out the bus route map suggested that the bus stop was quite near to the hotel so as we got close I pressed the bell for the driver to stop. He ignored it and carried on so I walked to the front to take the matter up with him. He told me the bus didn’t stop there but in about another kilometre or so. To be fair to him he took pity on us and stopped the bus at the side of the road but he wasn’t terribly happy about it.
It turns out that for some reason the bus company doesn’t think it sensible to stop near the several hotels flanking Mellieha Bay where it is convenient for passengers to get off but thinks it is more useful to have one on a remote roundabout half way between two villages which is not really very much use to anybody.
Anyway, I could sense that Kim, just like the bus driver wasn’t terribly happy and her mood was sliding towards the hating Malta side of the scale…
One thing that I had forgotten was, that as a result of years of British rule, in Malta traffic drives on the left. Only four countries in Europe drive on the left. Just for a bit of fun, can you name them?
Have Bag, Will Travel 