On the bus, still on the bus, just missed the bus ... the story of my day

It seemed easy enough. Get on the X3 bus across the road from our condo and get off in Birkikara. As I paid my fare, I asked the driver if he stopped in that town and was told "yes." My question turned out to be too general. The stops are named, as are the LRT stations in Ottawa. However, I was not travelling within a city but rather between two cities, and my destination was not very large. Silly me not to ask if there was more than one bus stop, and how would I know at which one to disembark. Live and learn. The buses are equipped with wifi and a rolling screen to shows the next stop. That is excellent, if you know the name of your stop. I didn't. 

The weather was sunny and warm, and no jacket was needed. There were plenty of seats and the ride was pleasant. After about 80 minutes, I arrived at the Airport! That's the end of the line. I'd missed my stop and worse still, I had barely missed the next bus back, and had an hour to wait for the next one.

So, lunch at the airport. I happily chose a small health food stand and had a very tasty meal. I returned to the bus stop 10 minutes early, because I didn't want to miss it. It's a good thing I was early. NOT!! The bus was 30 minutes late because of traffic.

The road system in Malta is very good, although not all parts are wide enough with enough lanes to cope with the amount of traffic. You are rarely too far away to see the buildings of at least one town. Some are very close together. Valletta seems immense when seen from a distance. The buildings are squeezed together in this tiny country, the most densely populated in the EU. 

Seeing towns in the distance is nice, but I needed to get some cushy shoes for my sore foot and the place to get them was Eurosport, in Birkikara. The helpful transit person at the airport, when shown my chosen destination, told me the name of my stop - Psailas. The "P" is silent.

They love silent letters here. Q is silent. Our place is in Qawra (ahra, more or less). The airport is at Luqa (lua). G is always a soft sound, J is pronounced like Y, sort of. It's a tricky language.

Anyway, the bus came along eventually and I got off at the right stop this time. The store I wanted was nearby and I found a nice cushy pair of runners. I made it back to the bus stop just about a minute ahead of the arrival of the next bus back to Bugibba, as close as I can get to "home." My luck had changed. I also got almost the last seat. That was a good thing because it was just after 4 pm and it seemed like everyone in the country wanted to get on my bus. After one more stop it was full. Then it was jammed. People near the doors had to step off for others to exit. There were not a lot of folks getting off until the end of the line. 

The final stop was about half a kilometre from our place – fortunately, all downhill. By the time I got "home" it was nearly time to eat.

As it happened, we all went off in different directions today and one way or another ,we all got off track. I only managed about 6000 steps today, with all the bus riding. Glenn doubled that, and John was somewhere in between.

I didn't take any pictures today. Maybe tomorrow I'll try my luck on another bus route and take some pictures. Or maybe I'll enjoy the terrace and read my book. 

Coach tour to Blue Grotto and Marsaxlokk

We boarded the coach about 9:15 so we didn't have to worry about messing up hairdos on the open top level. Malta is not very big but it has so much to offer the tourist, historian, oenologist, and just plain sightseers and shoppers. I'll tell you right off the bat we've not shopped at all - except for food and the odd treat. That may come to an end soon.

It wasn't a long drive to the Blue Grotto and our guide described the sites along the way in English and in German. He threw in a lot of personal anecdotes that added nothing to his narrative, but he was keen and we did learn a few things. 

When the bus, er coach, parked at the Blue Grotto we had the option of enjoying a lovely cafe that most likely had pastizzi, or take a boat ride. We opted to walk down the rather steep hill to get tickets and take the boat ride. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny, and the sea was calm. The procedure looked rather haphazard at first, but it turned out to be very efficient.

We paid our €10 each per ticket and wandered down another rather steep slope to the dock. Each boat had a "captain" and held up to about 10 people. The line moved right along and we really didn't wait. Once aboard we were given lifejackets that were probably made the year I was born. Let's just say "not brand new." Then our "captain" drove the "ship" out along the coast where we saw the island of Filfla in the distance. It's uninhabited and a bird colony. I took a useless photo because it was a bit far away, but easily seen. As we motored along the coast we could see lots of different surfaces to the rock, Maltese Limestone from which everything is built.

Setting out to sea to see the Blue Grotto

We were soon near the caves and noted the amazing Caribbean blue water. Our captain/driver named the different caves, none of which I caught except for the actual Blue Grotto. There were windows through some of the rocks and I managed to capture a couple, along with the heads of my fellow passengers. It was certainly worth the price of the excursion at sea.

The water was so clear and had such an amazing colour

The surface of the limestone ranges from smooth to very rough

View from the top, above the caves
It was a nice place to pause on the steep climb back up to the coach

Then, of course, we had to go back up that steep hill we'd walked down. Somehow it wasn't as much fun, and I haven't gotten any fitter yet, but as we continue to encounter hills everywhere, maybe that will happen. LOL

Once the two stragglers were aboard the coach, off we went to Marsaxlokk. We passed a couple of vineyards but obviously it's not grape season because they bore no fruit. There are quite a few of these on the island and I should learn more on Friday during the wine-tasting adventure.

Marsaxlokk, being the destination for the entire population on Sundays, required a 10-minute walk from where the coach parked, to the start of the market. It looked like any other flea market, except for the varieties of fish available for sale. We ignored the fish and sought pastizzi but found none. We had to compromise with Maltese pastries of a different sort - and were not disappointed.

It was difficult to choose which one to enjoy

The harbour is very pretty and there were a number of Luzzus - the brightly painted boats this area is noted for. There is a movie "Luzzu" which is available on some streaming service but I can't remember which one. Maybe I'll watch it now. 

A Luzzu beside the harbour

Peaceful spot by the harbour to take a break

And then, as it was only a half-day tour, we got back on the coach for the trip to Qawra where we are staying. By the way, "Q" is silent in the Maltese language. It had been quite warm without much but a slight wafting breeze at the market. Once we stepped off the coach we were almost blown away by a cool breeze that seems constant here. We are across the road from the shoreline and it's always breezy. 

Now we're relaxing, having done a bit of grocery shopping, and will get supper organized soon. I'm not sure what the guys are doing tomorrow but I'm off on the bus to check out the shopping. My feet are not completely happy in the shoes I have with me so perhaps a new pair of (substantial) sneakers is in order.

The North Tour of Malta

Every tour seems to go through Valletta for an official start, but we boarded across the street from our place and set out toward Valletta. We opted to sit in the open-top seating of a double-decker bus. Within seconds of starting out, I wondered why I had bothered to blow dry and flat iron my hair. My efforts were in vain. So I put on my Tilley hat. Well, ultimately that made it worse, but who cares?

Here are some scenes along the way:

St Julian's - the happening place that seems to be all hotels and shops

Sliema - very crowded and almost adjacent to Valletta

Triton fountain at the entrance to Valletta

Then we began our walking in earnest. Earnestly and honestly, my left foot was already complaining but I waited a while before complaining aloud. I'm taking measures to reduce the plantar fasciitis which arrived approximately the moment I deplaned in Malta. Ah well, these things are sent to try us. And they do.

Not to be deterred I am happy to brag that I took 13,000+ steps today. I'm currently employing ice on my left heel and it seems to help a bit.

But I digress, so best to get on back on track. This sign seems to exemplify the spirit of the Maltese, but we didn't stop to see if was all true.

And what follows are some random photos taken in Valletta as we walked uphill (as little as possible) and downhill (whenever we could). 

The balconies for which Malta is famous

We bypassed this street hoping (in vain) to find a flat area

At the edge of the Grand Harbour
I have no idea what those little buildings are, nor what those
wall paintings of boats are about

We wanted to be on street level with those buildings at the top because we'd chosen downhill routes
And, fortunately, we found the elevator that made it possible, with hardly a puff or pant. Yay!

,

We rewarded ourselves with Pastizzi and Capuccinos, but couldn't wait for the drinks to arrive before taste-testing the specialty pastry of Malta. We will be doing comparison tasting most days, in different areas as we travel around. I will try to avoid using my hat and sitting on top of a windy bus because it resulted in a nasty case of hat head.

St Mary's church in Mosta
During WWII a bomb fell through the dome during a Mass but
it didn't explode and nobody was injured. 

Yes, we climbed the 74 steps to have this view of the interior
I took a vertical panoramic shot to get the dome in the picture

The next stop was at Mdina/Rabat but since we'll be spending at least one day there in about a week, we didn't hop off our bus. This is not tourist season and it was very busy. I can't imagine how packed it must be in the summer. Our weather today was perfect for touring - I think it got up to 20C and it was sunny almost all the time.

When we left Valletta for the ongoing tour, we sat downstairs because the seats up top were fully occupied and thus we avoided the wind. The damage to my hair was beyond redemption by then anyway. We had an audioguide to use on the bus as some descriptions (of where we were and what the sights were), was available in many languages. After asking a fellow tourist, I tuned in to Channel 2 for the narrative in English. My Maltese stretches to "Bongu" and "Grazzi" and I'm still waiting to hear someone say "Mela" which they say corresponds, more or less, to how and when we use "Eh" in Canada.

Lunch was enjoyed in MGarr but the ancient temples (I think that's what's nearby) were nowhere to be glimpsed, so we hopped on the next bus. That's a lie. At this point, hopping was not possible. Staggering was closer to what I could do. But we decided that instead of dessert with lunch, we'd postpone that until we hopped off at Golden Beach. I waved to the guys as they descended to the beach and instead, I found us a table on the terrace overlooking the beach. When they returned we all enjoyed local favourites – John had a Kinnie, I had a Farson's Shandy, and Glenn had a Cisk 0%. All tasty. Well, apparently, the Kinnie is tasty but having tasted Iron Bru in Scotland, the thought of tasting a drink with a similar description was dismissed immediately. Maybe later as there is a bottle on the kitchen counter. But probably not.

We boarded the bus for the final time and had the last part of our ride on top of the bus once more. It was really windy and got chilly, but we had our jackets at hand. Happily, I'd used the idiot tie on my hat so it only blew to the back of my head and not off into the wild. 

Now back in the condo, we shall forego a walk after supper. I'm going to indulge in a peanut butter sandwich followed by one of my hand-made truffles. I might stay awake as late as 8 pm. Tomorrow we don't have to meet the bus until 9:10 giving us an hour more to sleep than we had last night.

 

Ah the sacrifices one has to make to escape the rain

As promised by the weatherman, today was wet and windy, but not cold. In fact, it was warmer outside than inside our condo. There's no problem having the bedrooms cool enough for sleeping. Having the living room warm enough to enjoy relaxing, is not so easily accomplished. There is a heater in the living room, and it does a great job of heating anything within three feet. The first one to move the heater gets to stay toasty. Mostly we just wear sweaters. I'm thinking maybe of including gloves. We can usually step outside to warm up but it was pouring rain so not the greatest idea today.

The view from inside today

After breakfast I dashed out in the rain to the tour office, located mere feet from our front entrance and learned of possibilities for touring the island. We will get local bus passes later, but decided that some guided tours might be a good way to start. After I brought the information up to my roommates, the three of us went down and made our bookings.

We have to be really careful because there's one receipt per tour, that is the ticket for all three of us. It must not be lost. We took photos of them just in case. They are now nicely assembled on the bookcase to be used one at a time.

Tomorrow we're taking the Northern Route hop-on hop-off bus at 8:15 to maximize our touring time. It's quite a long walk to the bus stop, about 50 yards. We plan to hop-off in Valletta for a couple of hours, explore a bit, maybe together or maybe separately, and then hop back on. Why we go south to Valletta for the Northern tour beats me. It's an hour between buses so there's time to look around any stop that you choose to hop off. We have a couple of other stops in mind for exploring but you'll hear about them after the tour. 

On Sunday we'll visit the Blue Grotto and Marsaxlokk (Marsashlock) – details after the visit. We also purchased tickets for the South route, which also goes to Valletta but our tour date is to be determined, and for Gozo which includes transport to the ferry, as well as the hop-on hop-off tour of that island.

I bought a ticket to tour the Three Cities and Wine Tasting next Friday. You might notice that there's a bit of a theme to my solo tours. I will have to find a tour that includes beer so I'll complete the trifecta of tours – Gin, Wine and Beer. Stay tuned for updates. Please note, we have all added our stamp of approval to Cisk beer, the local brew so maybe that is good enough.

But that's what's coming up. I had a fabulous afternoon at the Chocolate Factory in Bugibba today.

The first workshop was Truffle Making and nobody knows the truffles I've seen – OK, apologies for that. We were a group of 10, including 5 Canadians, 2 Maltese, and 3 ladies of unknown nationalities. Well, they probably know but I don't. The truffle "shells" were provided to start with – four each of dark, milk and white chocolate.

We made a pomegranate-dark chocolate ganache to start with and oh my, I'm still smacking my lips for that one. We had to stir the liquid chocolate into the pomegranate-flavoured cream until it was the right consistency. Then it was piped into the above-mentioned shells. I forced myself to scrape and eat the chocolate clinging to the mug after the piping was done. Heaven!!!

Before things got messy

Two other pre-made ganache fillings were available – salted caramel and prickly pear. Once all the shells were filled with the ganaches we chose, we got to the really gooey part. White, Dark and Milk Chocolate were piped into our just-freshly-washed hands, one type at a time, and a few truffles were rolled around to get coated. Once all the shells were coated they could be covered with coconut or cocoa and then drizzled with vanilla or chocolate. At my end of the table, we never got the dark chocolate drizzle. 

All piped and ready to roll

That was lots of fun and we enjoyed licking our hands of the chocolate used to coat the truffles. There was a lot of hand-washing today. 

We had to lick our hands after this stage
 and washed them between each of the three types of coating

I won't be seeking employment as a chocolate dipper

The finishing touches improved the appearance of my truffles

The second workshop was the Gin and Chocolate pairing. There were seven of us from the first group who had signed up for both. The five Canadians and two Maltese. What a fun group! We started with a couple of ounces of Tanqueray Gin and later added tonic. Salted dark chocolate was the accompanying chocolate. Yum.

Next up was the local Island8 gin, made in Malta. It was quite lovely. Now maybe I got those two mixed up. But whichever gin it was, went very nicely with both the crispy strawberry truffles and the lemon ones. 

We moved on to martinis - stirred NOT shaken because they must be stirred so you don't bruise the gin. I don't understand so can't explain except to say James Bond was wrong. Each drink was tastier than the previous one, or was it the one after? By this time I was feeling quite merry and I can't remember what truffle was which, but they were all good. 

The cocktail was next - gin, plain syrup, prickly pear liqueur and something else I think, maybe ice, and it was a very pretty pink and more than delushous. There was another truffle nearby and I think it was pretty nice too.

We ended up with Monkey 47 Gin. Since I was born in '47 this must be mine. There's a long story about how it came to be and has something to do with WWII, maybe WWI, I'm sure it wasn't Korea. This gin has 47 botanicals in it and I could easily detect rosemary. I have no idea if that's one of them. We had dark chocolate with ginger with that. I am not usually fond of ginger but at that point, everything was tasty.

We'd already had the Dark Chocolate with Gozo Salt by this time
 but you can see a plate of truffles for the pairings

The group was tons of fun and our one-hour workshop lasted for an hour and half. I managed to get out the door still vertical, and walked a few blocks towards "home" and then decided to call an Uber.

Dinner was fish 'n chips at Knickerbockers, a little ways up the hill. It's very sobering to walk uphill. Luckily I'd sobered up for the walk back down. The pavement was still wet and slippery.

So, how was YOUR day?

Lots of steps today – uphill and down, and along the waterfront

A good night's sleep, and a cup of coffee on waking up, and I was all set for the day. No sign of jetlag. The kitchen is equipped with a great espresso machine that I couldn't figure out. All was not lost, there was a Melitta one-cup filter "thing" with lots of filters and regular ground coffee, so I was well caffeinated within minutes.

My fellow travellers had already gone out for a walk and a bit of shopping, but they returned by the time I'd fully wakened up and completed my morning ablutions. Did I enjoy the underfloor heating and the heated towel rack in the bathroom? You betcha! There is no central heating and it gets chilly in here. Perfect for sleeping but we're used to more heat when sitting around. I'm using the electric heater in the living room this evening. It's pointed right at me as I type. Its range is very short and the room is large. But most of the time we just wear sweaters.

Glenn accompanied me to the supermarket, having learned where they hide things on his first outing, thus adding to his step count for the day. As it happens, that supermarket is at a different altitude than our condo. I didn't quite experience altitude sickness, but my huffing and puffing provided undeniable evidence that I'm out of shape for walking uphill. Fortunately, the climb was en route to the supermarket and the return, with bags of groceries, was all downhill. 

The fact that, as of yesterday, I'm trying to manage a case of plantar fasciitis in my left foot didn't add to the joy, but I wasn't going to let that stop me. Once this post is published I shall begin the exercise routine to hopefully get rid of it before it gets worse. I blame the step-in Skechers for the problem. They are now free to a good home - in Malta. They will not be coming home with me. Fortunately, they are not my only shoes.

After lunch, the guys went out for a stroll and I followed shortly afterwards. I decided to follow the promenade along the waterfront. It's mildly up and down but could hardly be called hilly, as it's quite close to the coastline. My destination was the Tourist Information Office in Bugibba. I made it there in about half an hour only to find it closed, and not just for the usual afternoon siesta. Will it be open tomorrow? Who knows? This isn't tourist season. Here are some sights along the way.

You could enjoy a sort of private beach but the swimmers who braved the cold Mediterranean in the next photo, chose to swim parallel to and near the shore (lower left).

Promenade along the waterfront

Glenn on the rocks

Not to be deterred, I decided to see what was around the next corner. And oh my, it was well worth those extra steps.There it was, on the other side of a construction fence – the Malta Chocolate Factory. It was a short walk around the barrier, but with the lure of chocolate, it was well worth it. 

Possibly only a real chocoholic would have noticed, but you do know who's writing this

After walking around that wall I followed the yellow plank road to the entrance
 and wasted no time going inside

Inside I found a chatty Aussie fellow who works there and got some great touring suggestions, in answer to my query about what he would recommend. We might make a day trip to Sicily on Ryanair which is cheaper than the ferry and arrives in a better location. Plans are still in the thinking stage.

For a good thyme, try this

We were joined in our chat, by a young South African woman who also works there. I asked about their workshops and was provided with a brochure. And I hit the jackpot. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be very wet and nasty all day and all evening. What better way to spend some time than learning "Truffle Making" followed by "Gin and Chocolate Pairing." So – I signed up for the two back-to-back workshops for tomorrow afternoon

The young woman suggested that I might enjoy one of the Dark Chocolate and Thyme chocolate bars - a subsequent taste test proved that she was right. There was another one calling my name – Dark Chocolate with Gozo sea salt. I bought both bars and headed home. Rather pricey, but that will serve to limit consumption to a small morsel per day. Well, let's work with that theory for now. 

I'd walked in the direction of "home" for about 10 minutes when it started to rain. My raincoat was safe and dry in the condo. Fortunately, I was at the Doubletree Hilton and stood under the canopy at the entrance while summoning an Uber on my phone. [I did get the e-SIM working] I was having trouble with the app, but at that moment an Uber parked about 20 yards away and the driver, on a bio break, was heading to the hotel. He helped me set it up and he "answered" the request as long as I was willing to wait for him, and that was fine. A ride home, despite not being far, was better than walking in the rain. 

Glenn was the cook for dinner and we enjoyed Butter Chicken. The chaps had a side of pasta and I had a baked sweet potato, some stir-fried carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. For dessert, we had some Maltese wreath-shaped cookies with treacle filling. And, our host left us a bottle of wine so it only seemed right to enjoy it.

It will be a quiet evening and I've already passed last night's 8:30 bedtime. I might even make it to 10 PM. 

The Great Escape from Winter

To see us off, in case we had any stray thoughts of staying home, Mother Nature provided a snowstorm. Not to be deterred, the airport was coping nicely and a parade of plows kept the runways open. We did have to make a stop at the de-icing station before taking off. If there was any freezing rain, it waited until after we had flown off into the clouds.

Our transatlantic journey began an hour later than scheduled, partly because of the de-icing and partly because the plane arrived into Ottawa a little late. Apart from some slight bumpy turbulence from time to time, it was a good flight, with decent meals and no crying infants. 

Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris is massive as one would expect. What we didn't expect was to have to walk so far and take a bizarre shuttle ride that eventually dropped us off one gate short of where we started. The passport check was a breeze, the two security screenings seemed rather unnecessary, but that bizarre shuttle trip gobbled up much of our 3-hour layover time. 

We, quite literally, were issued through a set of glass doors after a very short shuttle ride, did a large u-turn and were ushered out the same doors onto what seemed to be the very same shuttle bus. Not at all confusing. Then followed a very long very boring backstage tour of the ugly part of the airport.

Wandering through what we hoped was 2D by the time we disembarked from said shuttle, we found the area to check in for our next flight. The lineup crawled along slowly but we were rewarded with boarding passes. Then we had to find our gate. All-in-all we took almost 4000 steps in addition to our shuttle tour of the back parts of the airport, and as we arrived at our gate, they were already boarding. This all took three hours. There wasn't time to enjoy coffee and a croissant, or even grab them and run, which we were counting on being able to do.

The flight on KM Malta Airlines was about two and a half hours, during which we were able to purchase a snack for a princely sum. I was very hungry as breakfast had been more than five hours earlier so I coughed up the required cost.

There was no immigration or customs procedure at Malta International Airport, and our driver was waiting for us. The sun was shining and the views were lovely and the countryside much lusher than I'd seen in pictures. Winter rains, promising an encore on Friday, produced the greenery.

Taken from our taxi window en route to Qawra

Getting into the Fort Knox of our Airbnb was quite the exercise. A code to enter the front door worked like a charm. The code for the lockbox holding two sets of keys, worked like a charm. The keys however presented challenges. We had to use one for the elevator and that was fine once figured out. The key to our front door seemed to produce nice clicks indicating a successful opening, but the door wouldn't budge. Eventually, I tried it and added an extra little quarter turn after two full "turns of the screw" and we were in! Then I finally realized that to remove the key from the lock, it had to be turned to a horizontal position.

Our apartment is everything we hoped for and more. We've unpacked and attempted naps, although in my case no nap occurred. Now we're back from dinner at Trattoria Ricardo nearby. Tomorrow we'll spend much of the day getting acquainted with the local area, do some grocery shopping, get our bus passes and maybe even have time for a hop-on hop-off tour. Adventures await.

The view looking in one direction from our very windy terrace

But now, my pillow is calling and I must obey.

Hello Malta - we're on our way

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go, I'm sitting here inside my door ... just be grateful you can't hear me trying to sing that tune. 

Today's weather in Ottawa isn't sunny and clear but if the freezing rain can wait until we've flown off, then all is well. I'm sure the aircraft will make a stop at the de-icing station before heading for the wild grey and cloudy yonder en route to Paris and on to Luqa, Malta. Our breakfast might be coffee and croissants in Paris. Well, at the airport.

We've watched endless YouTube videos and devoured guidebooks and are now well-prepared for the real thing. I'm not sure I'm prepared for such hilly terrain as offered everywhere in Malta, but will give it my best efforts. As for hop-on hop-off bus tours, they shall be enjoyed without any actual hopping. We have to retain our dignity. 

Our accommodations in Qawra look fabulous on the laptop screen and my next post will let you know if all is as it seemed. 

Watch out Malta, the Ottawa senior genealogy squad is coming.