Malta Day 4 - Mdina and Rabat

Today we set out to walk along a portion of the Victoria Lines, a fortified wall that follows a fault line across the island of Malta. Rain and high winds drove us from this goal and instead we visited the walled town of Mdina and its neighbor, Rabat. Mdina was once the capitol of Malta and a place of great religious significance. It is surrounded by impressive walls and consists of a warren of high walled streets, churches, residences, museums, and a few restaurants and stores.

We walked most of the streets and visited the excellent Cathedral and related museum.

Mdina from a nearby road - showing the dome of the cathedral

Main gate - detail. Horse drawn carriage rides are available and cars are allowed in Mdina, although only on some streets

Gate detail

About half the streets are this narrow and suitable for pedestrians or horses only

Cathedral dome

The main square has some lovely buildings

Architectural detail

The museum admission is 5 euros and well worth it. The collection of silver religious artifacts is impressive and the museum building itself is stunning.

Silver hanging lamp detail - lamps like this were in use in the cathedral

Silver filigree monstrance for the display of objects of piety. Filigree worked jewelry is a common tourist item still

Reliquary containing saintly bones

A book reliquary - yet another way to house bones

Detail of a large reliquary containing a skull

The museum had a collection of teapots and related vessels with butterfly adornments

This fellow reminded me of our friend Kurt with whom we will soon be sailing

Saint Agatha appears a bit annoyed in this painting - for obvious reasons. Agatha is the patron saint of Malta and also (according to Wikipedia) ...of breast cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna

The museum floors were inlaid with beautiful marbles

Colourful inlaid grave marker in the cathedral floor

The cathedral was decorated in scarlet cloth for Christmas

Altar displaying the apostles in silver with baby Jesus

It is not possible to do justice with a photo to the impressive dome and its wonderful paintings

Neighbouring Rabat is similar to Mdina in its narrow streets and architecture - but is a lively and vibrant place in comparison to the frozen museum quality of  its neighbour

Malta Day 3 - Up North

Given how much fun it has been driving in the urban areas of Malta, we thought we would head north away from the population centers of Saint Julians and Valleta. The only major center along the route is Saint Paul's Bay and we mostly managed to bypass this.

We had read about a hike along the most northern peninsula on the main island called Marfa Ridge, so armed with a trail map on our cell phone we drove to Ghadira  (pronounced A-deer-a) Bay. Just short of the trail head we stopped at a resort supermarket to buy bread, cheese and fruit for a picnic lunch. The cashiers were very friendly and we discussed the complex roots of the Maltese language - Arabic, English, French, Italian, etc - a product of the many invasions that have shaped Malta.

Our rental Picanto

It would probably have been a good idea to review the hiking notes before beginning this hike, but we hadn't, and soon realised that we were starting at the trail end. As in yesterday's walk, we ended up off the described route and for a few hours the only people we encountered were one group of local hikers and a Maltese/Canadian named Joe working on his land holding. We found ourselves on a path used by the farmers to access their fields of crops (which are limited here due to the arid conditions and poor soil). These common paths wind their way between hundreds of private land holdings and may continue for miles. As we walked further on this path, we came to wilder, more rugged terrain where some scrambling was required.

Path between furrowed farmers' fields

Limestone shelves and giant boulders 

Little Rani, Big Boulder

A patch of eroded clay that reminded us of the hoodoos in the Canadian or US west

The views of the west coast from the limestone cliffs were superb. There were fossils embedded in the ledges and shelves we crossed and a sea breeze kept us cool throughout. In the summer, we would have been tempted to bathe in the secluded inlets, but getting in and out of the ocean would have been exciting because the limestone is very rough. There were large patches of yellow wildflowers, a few palm trees and even a tiny forest of bamboo in clay soil.

Coastal panorama

Fossilized sand dollar

Golden flowers - maybe creeping wood sorrel?

We stopped briefly at St. Agatha's Tower, a red ochre watchtower built in 1657, one of a chain of such towers on the north and east coasts used by the Knights of Malta during the 17th and 18th centuries. It overlooks the potential enemy landing sites at Mellielha Bay and has a commanding view of the islands of Comino and Gozo. Unfortunately, like many of the tourist sites in Malta, it was closed to visitors!

St. Agatha's Tower 

Along the trail we came across beehive shaped corbelled huts, called girna, that are constructed from loose rocks and stones gathered from the local garrue (scrub land). These and their more common rectangular cousins, roofed with wood or panels, may look primitive, but they are very sturdy and provide shelter for the farmers from the elements. Some are also grouped together to shelter animals.

Rani looking towards Gozo  (note the corbelled hut behind me)

A crude rock hut shelter. If you look closely you will see that the photographer accidentally made Rani's legs turn to stone! 

The Maltese islands used to be covered in trees but when man arrived 7000 years ago, the forests were cleared for farming and the wood used for fires, leaving very few patches of forest. There is an effort to regrow trees in some areas by non-profit organizations such as BirdLife Malta, and we passed through several conservation areas on our hike. We saw replantings of Aleppo pines among the ubiquitous olive trees. Hopefully these will attract more birds.

We decided to forego the opportunity to visit the reverse osmosis plant and ferry terminal, and drove instead to the end of the road for a walk along the cliffs above Slugs Cove. Signs of erosion and a memorial here kept us (mostly) at a safe distance from the edge.

View towards Gozo island

Posted by Rani...

Malta Day 2 - Siggiwie and Dingli Look Off

Today we had a lovely walk on the west side of the island. After the usual harrowing drive out of densely populated Saint Julians, we reached the coast for a quick stop to view the cliffs by the Blue Grotto and then parked in the town of Siggiwie.

Maltese falcon - a falconer was demonstrating near the Blue Grotto

Tour boat near the Blue Grotto

Siggiwie has a lovely church - or rather three of them surrounding the main square. We tried to follow a walking route described in the tourist literature using a PDF we had downloaded to our cellphone. This worked for about 1/2 a mile before I got us lost. We then resorted to following our noses and consulting Google Maps to give us the gist of where things are.

Church of Saint Nicholas in Siggiewi

Rani at the Church of Saint Nicholas

Hiking out of Siggiewi - note the dense urban area behind us.

There are so many tiny lanes and the landscape is divided into literally tens of thousands of stone lined fields with irregular geometry. This makes it quite fun to poke around and as long as the sun is in the sky and you have an overview map, it is hard to get lost for long.

Rani opened up a fruit of an Opuntia cactus, suffering itchy hands from the fine spines.

This statue marks the route to the Laferla Cross

Climbing the road to the Laferla Cross

We followed farm lanes heading for a prominent cross (The Laferla cross) on a nearby hill. This is apparently a place of pilgrimage during holy week. Malta is mostly flat so that even a 200 foot hill gives you a great view of much of maybe 1/4 of the island. The cross was not accessible to the public probably due to the chapel being unsafe. So far we have found that none of the churches or chapels we have passed by could be visited by casual visitors.

Laferla Cross and Chapel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chapel - as viewed from the cliffs

From the cross we found a ridge walk that took us past herds of goats and sheep as we traversed rock lined lanes and pathways, trying to stay on public right of ways. This route brought us somewhat circuitously to the southern end of the Dingli cliffs, where we had a late lunch. From there we walked back through the Il Fawarra district passing stopping to examine the remains of a bronze age grain silos built into the cliffs and vineyard workers pruning grapes in the warm late afternoon sun. The drive home was against the rush hour traffic but exciting nonetheless.

View back from the Dingli Cliffs look off showing our lunch spot above the grain silos

One of the Dingli Cliffs lookoff points

Dingli Cliffs

Door knocker

Lovely late afternoon light on a gate into a yard

Dry stone walls - the workmanship varies widely with some extremely finely built walls and others like these that are rougher

Terraced fields with Filfa Islet in the distance

These tiny hedgehogs seem quite unafraid. Sadly, we saw several of these little guys flattened on the roads.

Oops - we ended up in Malta

We have been in the UK visiting with Rani's Mum and brother as well as various relatives. For various reasons it seemed like a good idea to take a break somewhere warmer and sunnier that could be reached by a cheapo direct flight from Birmingham. That gave us the options of Spain, Portugal, or Malta.

We rented a car to get around here - definitely going the wrong way because this place is one of the most crowded little countries in the world. Add on to that driving on the left and narrow streets and things get really interesting - a bit like a video game at times and an excellent test of one's relationship when the navigator and driver communications break down. So - if you do come here, take the excellent and plentiful buses instead!

Canon at the Portomaso Marina in Saint Julians

Day 1 we walked around the area near our hotel, the Corinthia, which is in Saint Julians. The local architecture in the older areas is lovely using the local limestone (which underlies all of Malta) and consistent vernacular features including window boxes and ornate doorways. The wooden fishing boats (luzzus) have completely plumb stems and a great deal of freeboard. They are painted in colourful schemes with blue appearing predominant. See this article for more info on luzzus. 

Fishing boats in Spinola Bay

Spinola Bay waterfront

Typical older street - I love those windows!

Luzzu prow - The eyes are believed to ward off evil