Malta

With the house half empty since our daughter’s death in August and her husband and most of their furniture and belongings in England and with my husband still recovering from new knee and hip operations, it was time for a convalescent time for both of us.

In the past, we have sometimes considered going away for Christmas/New Year but had not done so before.  Now the time seemed right and with a hotel we have stayed at previously offering three weeks for the price of two, we decided on Malta.

We had a difficult journey getting to Brussels (our nearest international airport) with the last 15km taking 2.5 hours in stop-start heavy traffic partly caused by closure of part of the ring road for road works and I wonder what bright spark decided on that on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas!  Also, we found out later, there were a lot of security checks in the city itself, so a huge number of locals headed for the ring road. By the time we got to “assistance” at the airport, as we needed transport from check-in to the plane, those staff were on a break and we had to wait until they returned.   We finally got to the gate (where we got a ticking-off for being late!) and on to the plane with one minute to spare.  Bags and walking sticks loaded into the locker, seat belts done up and we took off! It was a good job we had allowed plenty of extra time!! It was a good flight and our booked taxi was waiting for us at Luqa but it was midnight before we got to the hotel.  We were allocated the wrong room, a side view not the front sea-facing room we had already paid to upgrade to. It did for the weary travellers for that night and we got our preferred room the following morning.

For two days the weather was rough and windy...

The next morning the right view from the right room!

View left.

...and the incoming waves inspired this poem…

tide of life

the sea rolls on relentlessly
then tumbles to the shore
in froths of foam
it then retreats
to crash again once more
just like the tide of life
it carries joy and pain
a continuum
with which we lose or gain
we have to choose
to swim - or sink to never rise again

A well-earned rest.

Thankfully, for the next two days the wind dropped and the sun shone from bright-blue sky, reflected on the sea.  We relaxed on the hotel roof terrace, breathing in the sea air while we read books.  This is what we needed and had come for and we slowly unwound as was our intention, having explored much of Malta on past visits.

A stroll on the prom...

...then views from the hotel roof terrace.

How blue the sea!

How much smoother the waves!

And two taken on the roof terrace one day the following week...

From the shelter of the hotel bar on a windy day...

Ropes flying - too windy to put out the flags!

Tanker ahoy!

But the strong, blustery, cold wind was never far away over the rest of our stay, culminating in a force-8 gale with rain on our last full day with a force-7 without rain forecast for our journey home. Christmas sees the start of winter in Malta but the Maltese people were amazed and had never experienced weather like it.  But we took the chance to get out sometimes, enjoying the open-air café by St Julian’s Bay, to Valletta and to Marsaxlokk and, in between, we got the rest and relaxation we so desperately needed.  Christmas and New Year celebrations were enjoyable and we met some very nice people to share those times.

St. Julian's Bay - left view...

St Julian's Bay - centre view...

St Julian's Bay - right view to the Hilton Tower...

...from the sheltered open-air cafe of Dixie's Kiosk.

Valletta...

Views of and near the new Opera House...

...the ever-busy main thoroughfare...

Bronze sculpture - small real fish swim in the pool a man is climbing out of carrying a basket of fish watched by a boy - and cat whose tail has been polished by many strokes!

New Year's Eve celebrations...Good food, good company, pipers, music for dancing - and yes we did and got a round of applause!

In spite of the winds, there was a lot of sunshine and it was certainly warmer than at home where, we discovered from a friend on Facebook, that Jack Frost reigned supreme!

Of course, knowing us, the holiday was not without incident(s)!  Ron fell out of bed. bruised his right arm but only broke his walking stick - we found a new one he liked in Valletta - and I, busy talking and not looking where I was going, completely missed a step in the bar lounge area and went into a staggering headlong fall, but, to my surprise, suffered no ill effects.  On our third and final week, Ron was not so lucky and succumbed to the chest infection that was making its mark throughout the hotel - and Malta…also in the UK I believe.  He really was very poorly with cough, sore throat, violent earache and infected eyes and spent three days in bed and a doctor (who said this bug is “everywhere”) came to see him who prescribed anti-biotics.  He has still not fully recovered but is slowly “getting there”.

In the end, the flight back was smooth, Brussels roads far less busy - but the weather could have been kinder on the way back home with very wintry conditions, -4 temperature, freezing, misty rain with previous snow and ice on the verges, patchy fog on the more-rural roads.  We took a slow, steady journey with a few stops when needed  arriving home at nearly midnight.

We have become midnight arrivals!

Considering all that…did we make the right decision?  For us, at this time - Yes, we did.