I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It’s over now and as I sit here writing, I’m choking in a cloud of Christian Dior Sauvage as Mini Me has just wafted past me on his way out. But that’s ok………………..he’s clearly pleased with his smelly gift but didn’t get the ‘less is more’ memo!
I had a lovely Christmas because both my chicks were back in the nest! And that’s what it’s about for me. It’s not about the presents, it’s not about the food and drink……………………although they are both nice……………….it’s about resting, relaxing, reflecting and spending time with those who you don’t see as much as you would like i.e. my boys. Yes, the big one arrived home just in time for Christmas and graced me with a full week and half of his presence. So both of them together………………………….it was lovely!!
Gifts were exchanged and given. My favourite part, as I love surprising everyone!
And I must have been on the good list too. Thoughtful gifts…………………..three of my favourite things. I love running and being outdoors so there were some new pink outdoor shoes and a top.
The guinea pig (well that’s what the tag said) bought me a collection from my favourite coffee roastery! Weekend mornings always involve a sit down with a nice coffee. But only my best coffee on a weekend when I’ve got time to savour it. I think I may have mentioned ‘Darkwoods’ before. They are a local roastery importing beans directly from the farm, from mainly South America. I got Crow Tree (100% Arabica – Peru/Honduras), Black Hill (Arabica and Robusta – Columbia / India / Brazil), Under Milk Wood (100% Arabica – Brazil/India/Ethiopia) and Arboretum (Bourbon, Catuai and Caturra Arabicas – Panama / Costa Rica).
If you ever get the chance to get hold of some Darkwoods, do so, it’s fantastic stuff. You can even visit them if you are close by. There is a little synopsis of what they are all about on the back of their beans and that might be a clue as to why I like it so much and well what else can I say……………..it’s from Yorkshire!……………..need I say more!
Another exciting gift I got was a full box of ‘Chia Charge’ flapjacks! Why on earth is she so excited about a box of flapjacks when she can make her own you might ask! Well, this is another recommendation if you can get hold of it, for any runners out there. By the way, I am not paid by the manufacturers of any of these things I recommend, but if I come across something good I like to share. This again is made in Yorkshire! They also give 1% of their top line sales revenue (not profit) to environmental causes. In 2025 they gave over £60k to Bumblee Bee Conservation Trust, Trees for Life, Fix the Fells and the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust. They also make mighty fine energy and endurance fuel………………….and that’s what these flapjacks are. My boys bought me a full box of my favourite flavours.
Another good thing about them is that you can choose to mix and match your flavours as you wish, they are packed to order. They have 40g of carbs in one bar and no artificial nasties that upset my tummy. It’s just good proper food, excellent if I am running a race over 10k or over an hour long. I need approximately 80g of carbs per hour, after the first hour, and these are just so easy to get down and I have none of those terrible pains in my tummy that some of the others give me after a few hours.
And the final recommendation of the day is a book……………………….but not a reading book……………………….a cook book!
I have read a book over the holiday. It was ‘A Woman in the Polar Night’ by Christiane Ritter. But I’m not going to recommend that because I can’t work out whether I liked it or not. 😆 Basically it’s a real life account of her one year in Spitsbergen in the Arctic, published in 1938. It’s a tale of Christiane defying society’s expectations in the 1930s to find freedom and peace in the adventure of a lifetime. So that bit I liked, her determination and the lessons she learnt about what’s important in life and what isn’t, and living life to the full and not slowly dying before you are dead. I also loved her writing and the description of the place, but some parts of it I found quite hard to read and I actually found myself getting quite anxious. I have a bit if a fear of being lost and I’m a little claustrophobic and it’s perhaps testament to the power and beauty of her writing that on the occasions when she was lost in the mist at minus forty degrees wandering around looking for the hut, or crawling through a snow hole because the storm had buried her in the the hut I was almost hyperventilating because I felt like I was there with her!
I could perhaps imagine it much better than someone who has not been to the Arctic as I actually went around 11 years ago to seek out the Northern Lights to a small village in the Swedish Arctic. It was on a similar latitude to Nunavut or the Northern Passages in Canada. It was minus 40 for the full five days, never got daylight and was absolutely devoid of life apart from the odd Elk or Reindeer. It was one of the best trips ever as I can’t describe how fantastic the Northern Lights are, and I wanted the boys to experience them………………..but for a girl who likes to be outside all the time, watching the wildlife and likes chitter chattering to everyone ……………… five days was long enough, I could not wait to get back home. I guess I read the book and just kept asking myself why on earth a year!?
The book I’m going to recommend is ‘Simple’ by Ottolenghi. It’s amazing. I actually got this one and Ottolenghi ‘The Cookbook’. My boys know that if they buy me a cook book that’s their meals sorted for at least the next few months as I love, love, love a new cookbook. I go into overdrive. I’ve made so much from it already but it really is as it says in the title……….’Simple’. His recipes are a fusion of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. You need to get a few spices that you might not ordinarily have in your cupboard but they are his store cupboard items and once you have them they’ll last for ages. For anyone that likes cooking and experimenting with food this book is a ‘must have’!
So far the highlights have been a delicious Salmon fillet with a salsa made with olives, capers, spices and fresh herbs but I forgot to take a picture. Then there was a cous cous with raisins, almonds, herbs and blistered cherry tomatoes. This was really nice and tasty and fresh as the herbs were coriander and mint and it had some lemon in too. Then a roasted butternut squash, lentil and Dolcelatte cheese dish which even myself, the meat eater, enjoyed.
However, the highlight for me so far has to be the lamb and feta meatballs! Oh wow, these were amazing!!!!! They go so well with the above cous cous salad.
And what’s even better is that there are cakes and baking in the book too. I’ve only made one so far……………….a blueberry, lemon and almond cake with a drizzle of frosting on the top. However, it’s had 10 out of 10 from numerous Christmas visitors and has had to be made lots of times over by special request.
So today’s recommendation has to be my new cookery book……………Ottolenghi ‘Simple’……………………it’s amazing!
However, what you’ll be wanting to know is have I been on an adventure or did I behave myself! Well, what do you think!? I went on an adventure of course. 😆 But instead of going after Christmas I went just before. There was only myself not working and my big one had not arrived home. So I thought, “Wait a minute, I’m going to try something different.” Usually just before Christmas I spend 4 days whizzing around making work and stress for myself and getting myself in a complete flap over Christmas because I do the dinner and all the preparation.
So I thought “I’m not doing that this year……………..it’s not what Christmas is about.” I reckoned if I prepared properly I could sneak a little three night solo trip in just before Christmas, be back in time for Christmas Eve final preparations, all refreshed and ready to go and still be able to put on the table a fantastic Christmas dinner. All of the food was ordered, I only needed a day to pick it up, prep and set the table. The presents were already wrapped and under the tree so I hatched a little plan.
24 hours later and I was on a Ryanair £35.99 flight from Manchester to Malta! I’d been driven to the airport by the best looking taxi driver ever (Mini Me) for the price of a new set of car mats for his new car he’s saved for and bought for himself. The return journey cost me a wind shield for it!🤣 It’s gradually getting ‘pimped up’ to a mere tiny resemblance of its former self!
Why Malta? Well, I’ve never been and I’ve always wanted to go. And at between 16 and 20 degrees it’s a lot sunnier and warmer than at home. Perfect for sight seeing. It’s had such a varied past and there is so much history on that one tiny island. I was so excited to go and discover some of its history, culture, food and architecture. It’s also the sort of place that only I would really enjoy, so I was better going alone. In fact, even on the way to the airport he kept reminding me of the one week cultural immersion to Rome I took them on around 15 years ago which to this day he swears will never be topped as “the most boring holiday of all time”.😂 Well, it would not do for us all to like the same thing would it?…………………..and to be quite honest, I was ready for a bit of respite on my own!
So I’m going to tell you all I know about Malta, what I liked, what I didn’t, where to go etc.etc. But in short…………………it’s amazing and I’d go back in a heartbeat. And the fact that anywhere in Europe is never much more than three hours away, it’s a bonus.
This was a sightseeing and city break and was just three nights long. I had almost four full days in Malta. It’s a very small island, 27km x 14.5km, but it was still a very full four days and if I inspire anyone to go then I would recommend five days to do it at a more leisurely pace and fit a few more things in that I did not get the chance to do. Ideally if you go when it’s slightly warmer and you want to visit the neighbouring islands of Gozo and Comino and the beaches then take a week.
It takes three hours to get there from the UK and the budget airlines have direct flights from a number of airports. I flew Ryanair from Manchester outbound and Easyjet to Liverpool return. Both flights were good, cheap and on time, I have no complaints.
I stayed in the capital Valletta, as that is where a lot of the history is located. It’s also a very lived in and beautiful city. If you are going for the history, culture, food and architecture, Valletta is really the only place to base yourself. From there you can get a regular bus from the main terminal to anywhere on the island. You don’t need a car. If you are on a relax, swim, drink, sunbathe holiday then you may be better in one of the resorts or even the island of Gozo.
I had a really special stay which I booked on Booking.com. There is all sorts in Valletta……………..big fancy expensive hotels, apartments, small boutique hotels…………..you name it and you’ll find it. However, if you fancy something a little different I can recommend Casa Rocca Piccola where I stayed. The house is 400 hundred years old. It was built by Don Pietro La Rocca, an Admiral and Knight of Malta and is a 16th Century Palace of a Maltese noble family. The family (Nicholas 9th Baron of Budach, 9th Marquis de Piro and his wife the Marchioness de Piro) still live there but in order to help maintain the legacy and upkeep on the house they have opened it as a museum which you can visit during the day from 10am, and one floor they have converted into a very small B&B of five rooms. I don’t know whether it was because it was a last minute booking but it was really good value for money and not at all expensive compared to some of the other hotels in Valletta and it was absolutely perfect for what I wanted. You really did feel like you were staying in a family home, as it is very ‘lived in’, except it’s a mini palace!
First impressions were good. I was led though the marble hallway and past the sculptures …………………………..
and up the spiral staircase and along the corridor to my room…………..
It was very beautiful. Not the choice of decor or colour that I would have in my bedroom at home but perfect for inside a real life palace! The bed was so comfortable and the marble bathroom was huge.
In the hallway there is a coffee machine which you can use whenever you want and a jar of Maltese iced lemon cookies baked by the Marchioness. These were lovely!
You can also help yourself to fresh fruit whenever you want.
By the time I had unpacked and had a short nanna nap it was just before lunch time so I had the afternoon to explore somewhere. I decided to walk down to the Grand Harbour in Valletta and catch the ferry across to the ‘Three Cities’.
The Grand Harbour is a UNESCO World Heritage site. On one side of the Grand Harbour is Valletta, but on the other side of the harbour are the ‘Three Cities’. The three tiny cities are Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua , which were there long before Valletta, which was built much later by the Knights of St John.
These three cities are fortified, walled cities and were the original base of the Knights of St John. They played a vital role in Malta’s defence. The ancient forts of St Angelo, St Elmo, and the British Lascaris underground War Rooms, from where the battle strategy was hatched and executed, are over here. For history buffs this is the place to be.
On the walk down to the harbour you’ll not fail to notice the colourful overhanging Maltese balconies on the houses.
When I got to the harbour I had just missed the half hourly ferry. However, If you are not scared of water and can swim (I’m not recommending you swim across 🤭) you can be transported across the harbour from Valletta to the Three Cities in a traditional Maltese boat, known as a Luzzu, which I’ll explain more about later. The cost is roughly the same as the ferry at 3 Euros but the fun is double! You might get a bit wet as it bounces over the wake of the bigger boats but it would be my preferred option after hopping in one and bouncing across. If you are doubtful, just wait for the ferry.
So who are the Knights of St John who based themselves in the three cities and established Malta and later built Valletta? They were a Catholic military order formed in 1070, made up of noble men. They were founded in Jerusalem to care for sick and poor pilgrims. They were gradually pushed out from Jerusalem and made their way to Greece, Rhodes to be precise, where they were eventually pushed out of there and had no base.
However, by now they were a strong military power and Malta was seen as a stepping stone to Europe for the Turkish Ottoman and Muslim empires. Charles V, who at the time was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily realised the need to stop the Ottoman Empire in its tracks so granted the island of Malta to the Knights of St John for the fee of one Maltese Falcon a year, a nominal rent knowing that they could still pay this if they lost everything else in battle. Their task was to defend Europe from their base in Malta.
Charles V’s premonition materialised and in 1565 the Great Siege of Malta took place when over 40,000 Turkish troops from the Ottoman Empire tried to invade Malta. They outnumbered the Knights with a ratio of 10 soldiers to 1 and the siege lasted from May to September. Eventually, with support from Spain, Italy and other European countries who realised the threat to Europe, the Ottoman troops were defeated. The Knights of St John stayed on in Malta and immediately after this siege decided to build a new capital city, Valletta, which remains the capital to this day. They ruled Malta until 1798 when Napoleon invaded Malta and it came under French rule for 2 years.
The Maltese people rebelled and looked to the British to help expel the French, which they did so in 1800, and it became a British Crown colony in 1813, confirmed by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. It remained under British rule until gaining independence from Britain in 1964 and becoming a republic in 1974. The last of the British Navy fleet left in 1979. So that’s a very quick history of Malta!
Although, like in any handover, there can be tensions, the British exit from Malta was peaceful. Maltese people generally have very positive relationships and feelings towards the British and there is a lot of shared history and cultural values. I was certainly made to feel very welcome……………….and most of them knew exactly where ‘Yorkshire’ was and uttered “oh what a beautiful place” when I told them where I was from (so they got top marks from me!) 😂
The shared culture is very evident, it’s a really unusual mix and it’s difficult to put into words. Does, it feel British? Absolutely not. I would say it ‘feels’ very Italian. It looks and feels very similar to Sicily. It’s only 60 miles from Sicily, there is a huge Italian influence in the gastronomy, there are very many Italian speakers and it has a huge amount of Baroque architecture. Its Grand Harbour very much has the appearance of the Grand Harbour in Venice. It looks nothing like Britain.
However, in terms of culture it feels quite British in that it feels safe, people are overly polite and courteous, football is the main sport, they drink as much ‘English’ tea with milk as they do coffee, they have a traditional family ‘Sunday Roast’ dinner, they drive on the left, English is their official language in addition to Maltese and their political and educational structures are modelled on the British system.
As you walk around you’ll spot the odd British legacy!
Anyway, onto the ‘Three Cities’. If you like military museums you’ll be there days. You can look around the war rooms, forts and a whole host of other museums. I don’t like military museums, I’m more art museums and buildings. So my afternoon was just spent wandering through each city. They are all small and interlinked.
You will get lost, and that’s the joy of it, but worry not you will eventually find your way out of the narrow streets and there are the occasional signs pointing the way.
The Parish Church of St Lawrence is worth a look for its ceiling frescos and dome.
There is a beautiful harbour full of super yachts……………….
Lots of military monuments…………………………..
And I found a Camino marker……………………..only 3,493km to Santiago! 🥵
But my top discovery was a little cafe hidden down a street which sold Sicilian Cannoli……………………not the rubbish you sometimes get at home filled with that horrible sickly, oversweet buttercream stuff………………………………..no this was the real deal with ricotta based filling………………and it was huge! And it was delicious. Come over for the Cannoli if nothing else!
I caught the ferry back across to Valletta and just had time to look around the twinkly Christmas lights, which are gorgeous, before making my way back to the B&B.
I was so tired after my first day as my flight out of the UK was at 5:30am so I had left home at shortly after 2am. So it was no surprise that I was tucked up in my extremely large bed at 7:30pm reading my book, for all of 2 pages, after which I fell to sleep. I slept like a log for a full 13 hours, not waking until 8:30am for my breakfast. But that’s ok, as I was on holiday, and part of the objective of the break was to catch up on some long overdue quality sleep!
Breakfast is served in the very lovely courtyard all year around unless it is raining. It’s a lovely little space. Very green, tinkling fountains, and citrus fruit trees which were bursting with fruit at this time of year.
This is where you can meet the Marquis’ pets. He has two turtles in his fountain (both girls, one of which is an amazing escape artist apparently)………………………
and also Kiku who I absolutely fell in love with! Kiku is a blue and gold Macaw. He sleeps inside the Marquis and Marchoiness’ quarter in his gilded cage at night, but he is carried out into the courtyard every the morning by the Marquis where he likes to meet and chat to all the guests and museum visitors. He’s very well taken care of, is free to roam and even leave if he wants to, but of course he does not want to because he likes it there on his perch meeting everyone. He will wave at you when you walk into the courtyard, always says hello and is quite happy to chatter to you from a distance while you have your breakfast.
Breakfast is lovely, continental in style with meats, cheeses, eggs, cereals, granolas, fresh fruit, dried fruit, yoghurts, fresh orange juice from the garden oranges and the most delicious home baked cakes (an orange and almond cake was particularly nice). Then there is as much fresh coffee or tea as you would like. And of course, very pleasing to me, was that it was served in a lovely English china teacup and saucer……………….but then it should be, I’m a pretend Princess in a palace for 3 nights!
My plan for that day had been to go to the walled ‘Silent City’ of Mdina and neighbouring Rabat but my plans had to change because with it being the Sunday before Christmas, the lady serving breakfast in the B&B had advised me that the cathedral in Mdina, which was the main reason for my visit, was closed to visitors for various masses which went on throughout the day. So I switched my itinerary and decided to visit the colourful fishing village of Marsaxlokk where the Sunday morning fish market takes place.
Marsaxlokk is ‘traditional’ Malta. It’s in the South of the island, 30 minutes from Valletta on the bus and is probably its most iconic and picturesque fishing village. The majority of the inhabitants are fishermen by trade.
The harbour is very pretty, having both traces of Arab and Roman rule. It is here in Malta where you can see the extremely colourful Luzzu. These are the traditional Maltese fishing boats which bob about in the harbour.
They are painted in bright colours and often have a pair of eyes (The Eyes of Horus) painted on the bow to protect the fishermen while at sea, which is an ancient Phoenician custom. The majority of Marsaxlokk fishermen still favour the Luzzu as their boat of choice, and there are hundreds of them in this harbour, which really does make it look so photogenic.
The harbour bustles on a Sunday morning with it being the market. Boats come and go, and fishermen sit on the quayside mending their equally colourful nets.
There’s plenty of fresh fish on sale too if that is what you are after.
Octopus, razor clams, fresh fish, squid………………………………………………………………
And fresh fruit and vegetables too, as it doubles up as a farmers market.
Set back from the harbour it’s also worth wandering around the streets. There are lots of pretty, old doorways, over which are rusting, ornate, iron balconies.
Eventually you will come to the Church of Our Lady of Pompei. This is also worth a quick look. It does not look much from the outside but inside it’s quite a nice little church with a dome and some very pretty ceiling frescos.
Just time for a quick coffee in a café full of fishermen where I felt and looked a bit out of place 😆, before I hopped back on the bus to Valletta.
It was only just after lunch so I decided to hop straight on another bus to take a 20 minute ride in the opposite direction to the town of Mosta. Mosta is a vibrant town and I’d come here for one reason only……………………to see the Mosta Dome, often referred to as the Mosta Rotunda. This is a Roman Catholic church and basilica dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. It’s quite imposing from the outside, but it’s the inside that I’d come to see.
Its design is based on the Pantheon in Rome and it has the third largest unsupported dome in the world. It is Malta’s largest Church.
The entry fee is not excessive and it is worth it because you gain admission to climb the spiral staircase up to the roof to access the dome at balcony level. It was just about doable for the likes of me who does not like heights or confined spaces. It’s seventy steps up one tower and the same down the other tower to get out. There is a window half way up to let light in and the stairs aren’t too narrow with one way traffic.
But from up here you get a really good look at the dome.
You can then go into the museum part of the church to learn about the ‘Miracle of Mosta’. Now I’m not really into tales of divine intervention and put it down to pure good luck, but on 9th April 1942, during the siege of Malta in World War II, a German bomb pierced the dome and landed in the middle of the packed basilica during Mass. It failed to explode and everyone escaped! Divine intervention or not, you can view a casing of an exact replica bomb and learn a little more of the story in the museum.
Tired from another day of exploring I bused back to Valletta where I found a lovely little trattoria where I had some chicken parmesan and a glass of wine before wandering the streets with an ice cream for my dessert. Back in bed for 8:30pm again to get some book reading done and a good nights sleep as I had a another full day planned for the day after!
I’m not always quite so boring. 😂 I do like a good party and late night. But when I travel on my own to cities I’m not that familiar with I’m always cautious about being out and about wandering the streets on my own late at night. But that’s the world we live in these days and I’d rather be safe than sorry! Plus the fact a day exploring with me, and I challenge anyone to not need their bed by 8:30pm, I like to pack a lot in and leave no stone unturned!
The following day was going to be a full one. I had booked a food and history walking tour of Valletta as I’d not really explored it yet. Food and history, two of my favourite things, so I thought it would be perfect.
It was three hours long, around 3 miles walked, with various food stops along the way. We met our lovely Maltese guide Marissa outside the Parliament House, just inside the new city walls. This is the new meeting place of Malta’s Parliament and was opened in 2015. It’s quite an impressive building designed by famous architect Renzo Piano, architect behind London’s ‘The Shard’ and ‘Centre Georges Pompidou’ in Paris. It’s an impressive building with carved limestone blocks on the exterior which resemble a cheese grater. The effect is to filter the sunlight and reduce the heat inside the building…………………..very clever. It’s a zero emission building using photovoltaic panels on the roof for energy. However, whilst the design is impressive, I’m led to believe the build and construction quality is not that great and they’ve had numerous issues with water ingress. The building overlooks the square and sits alongside more traditional Maltese buildings with their pretty green balconies.
We set off and passed the Auberge de Castille, which houses the current office of the Prime Minister of Malta. This was formally the residence of the Knights of St John from Castille (Spain)…………………………the Knights from each separate country had their own Auberge where they resided together.
At the side of the building is a statue of St John de Valette, after whom Valletta was named. He was the Grand Master of the Knights, and of Malta, at the time of the Great Siege, after which they decided to build the new city which they consequently named after him.
Our first food stop was at a street food vendor known to sell the best ‘Pastizzi’ in Malta. Pastizzi are flaky, buttery layers of pastry, folded into a sort of pocket shape, and filled with either creamy ricotta cheese or curried peas. I chose ricotta……………………it was delicious. Really light and flaky. These are sold everywhere in Malta and are traditionally eaten for breakfast or in a café as a quick snack with a tea or coffee.
We walked some more while Marissa pointed out various historical buildings and points of interest. Some of them you might almost miss, like this World War II era ‘Victory Kitchen’ sign. During the war the island was heavily besieged, and getting supplies in an out were difficult. ‘Victory Kitchen’s’ were opened up in various places across the island to feed the starving population. By 1943, up to 175,000 Maltese and troops were being fed by the Victory Kitchens, but all that is left of them today is this sign, tucked high up on one of the back streets of Valletta.
Next stop was a really quirky eatery called Grano. He we sampled two staples of the Maltese diet. One is the Ftira. This is a sourdough flatbread. It has a thick crust and is very crunchy. It has been recognised by UNESCO as part of the cultural heritage of Malta. They use it mainly to make sandwiches and pizzas and it is here at Grano where you will see it used perfectly. On the visit we had a piece of Ftira filled with a tuna, olive and tomato filling. It was superb, so much so that I went back the following day before going to the airport and had a full sandwich. I chose the ‘Spilinga’ which is basically a Ftira bread filled with salsiccia, nduja sausage, mozarella flor de latte, black truffle paste and rocket leaves. It was AMAZING!
They also do lots of nice wines, beers and soft drinks. I had a lovely bottle of Mandarin and Prickly Pear soda which was good, but the purpose of our visit was to try ‘Kinnie’. This has graced most bars in Malta since 1954 and it is their national soft drink. It is made with bittersweet oranges and aromatic herbs. It has a really distinct taste, a bit love it or hate it, and I would say at least half the tour really did not like it. I however, thought it was great, because it tastes just like Campari……..except it’s non-alcoholic! And I love a Campari, or a Campari based drink like a Negroni. You can either drink Kinnie on its own or you could equally use it as a mixer with something like gin, which it would go really well with.
Next stop was the Museum Cafe……………………..an iconic old café on the streets of Valletta. Here they are well known for the Imqaret. This is a thin crisp pastry, filled with dates, citrus and aniseed paste. They can be baked or deep fried. I tried both and definitely preferred the baked version, you could taste the filling better, whereas with the deep fried version the taste was lost a little in the taste of the oil it was fried in. I can recommend the Imqaret, perfect with a cup of coffee.
We wandered around a little more, learning lots of detail about the history of Malta before making our way to our final stop of the day…………..Cafe Jubilee. Here they serve traditional Maltese food, old family recipes prepared in traditional ways. You can’t come to Malta without having ‘Fenek Imtektek’, unless of course you are vegetarian or could not eat a pet animal. You see in England the rabbit is a pet these days. It is still in eaten in rural areas where they hunt, like at home in Yorkshire, so as a result I don’t have much of an issue with it and wanted to try it. I haven’t had a rabbit since I was a little girl and I used to visit my Grandad who often had a rabbit or pheasant hung up that he’d procured from somewhere! Fenek Imtektek is a traditional dish in Malta and is a slow cooked Maltese rabbit stew, cooked with orange rind, spices and red wine. It was delicious……………..very tasty! The only downside with rabbit is the meat to bone ratio is low and you seem to spend ages scratting about looking for the meat amongst the bones.
So after 3 hours wandering around Malta eating I was ready to pop like a balloon. I needed to gradually walk it off so took a bus to visit the silent city of Mdina and neighbouring Rabat for the afternoon. They are around half an hour from Valletta on the bus and can be visited together as they are adjacent, a road being all that separates them.
Mdina was Malta’s former capital, prior to Valletta. It is a walled, fortified, medieval, car free city, full of palaces and Baroque architecture. It is really lovely to wander around. What did I like about Mdina? Firstly it has a really lovely entrance gate called the Mdina Gate, built in 1724 it is very grand and fitting for the entrance to somewhere quite special.
Inside the walled city it is just nice to wander around. There are lots of lovely tightly packed streets built in golden stone. For that reason alone it it nice to visit later in the afternoon because when the sun starts to set it casts a really lovely orange gold glow on the stone.
The main point of interest in Mdina is St Paul’s Cathedral.
It does not really look much from the outside, it’s a little plain. However, inside it is beautiful.
There is lots of gold gilding, painted frescos, domes, and some gorgeous Persian rugs which would look lovely back at mine 😆……………
……and it’s just generally a nice cathedral to have a wander around.
You can also walk around the city wall for some really long distance views over the island to the sea.
Once I’d exhausted Mdina I wandered over to Rabat. I loved it here.
Rabat is a more lived in, modern town just outside the walls of Mdina. It’s really vibrant but still has its fair share of churches. St Paul’s Catacombs are the main sight to see in Rabat, but being underground in a Catacomb isn’t really my thing so I gave them a miss and went to a café instead. There are so many nice cafes and restaurants in Rabat but I was still quite full from my food tour in the morning so I just needed a coffee and a little something sweet. I couldn’t decide which something sweet I wanted out of a choice of two, so I had both! 😆 They were both traditional Maltese cakes. One was a traditional honey biscuit filled with a mixture of molasses, honey, spices and semolina. The second was like a coconut and almond type ball.
Just what I needed to finish off my wanderings around the streets of Rabat while the sun set and cast its golden rays on the yellow stone.
One thing I did notice about Rabat, more than anywhere else, were door knockers and colourful doors. Everyone seemed the have a different coloured brightly painted door and a shiny door knocker, and they were all of varying designs. Just take a look at some of them, they were so pretty.
It was getting late so I caught the bus back to Valletta and just had time to call in another well known place in Valletta for a little nightcap before I went to bed. That place is Caffe Cordina. It started as a humble tea shop in 1837 over in the Three Cities but today is one of the most well know cafes in Valletta, very fancy with chandeliers, barrel vaulted frescoed ceilings and gold detailing. It is always heaving with people and is open all day serving everything from breakfast, lunch, dinner, cakes, and in the evening…cocktails! I can’t go on my jolly holidays and not have at least one cocktail……………………..and it was half way between the bus station and my accommodation so there was no reason to not call in to try the Maltese take on a cocktail.
So this is the ‘The Pink One’. It’s the traditional Maltese Bajtra, which is a Prickly Pear Liquor, mixed with Mezcal Tequila, lime and soda. Served of course with a little bit of salt around the rim of the glass. It was really nice. The only disadvantage of travelling alone is I can’t take advantage of the two for one cocktails in happy hour as there is no-one to help me navigate my way back to the accommodation so I politely declined my free one and just stuck with the one.
The next morning was my final day in Malta, but I did get almost a full day as I did not need to leave for the airport until 5pm. And it started very excitingly! When I had checked in three days before the lady checking me in said the Marquis had asked if I would like a private tour of the house at 9am on the day of my departure before it opened to visitors. Well of course I did because I’m nosey and interested in anything like that! So I had my breakfast early and waited where I’d been told to wait at the side of the dresser in the corridor. What I did not realise was that it was the Marquis himself who was going to show me around. I think he likes to show all his guests around at some point during their stay but I was the only one checking out that day.
He’s a couple of years younger than my own father, in his early eighties, and he was so interesting. It was lovely to hear him talk so lovingly about his house and show me all his marvellous collections………………….he’s a great collector of many things. He had everything from a stool that his mother sat on at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, a 16th Century Maltese lace petticoat, a 15th century glass breast pump for expressing milk, a silver button collection and an old Bentley car!
There was lots to explore……………………..he’s even got his own evacuation bunker underneath the courtyard from the World War. He was such a lovely man. It’s definitely worth taking up his offer of a look around as you will get so much more information that you would if you looked around on your own, as all the items are personal to him and have their own story which he will gladly share with you. He kept stressing all the way around that it was a house and not a museum, and it does feel very loved and lived in. So much so that I didn’t take many photos as I thought it would seem a bit rude. However, when I saw his dining room table all dressed for Christmas dinner I did ask permission to take a photograph for my Mum, and he was only to happy to oblige. Now there are no ’emergency chairs’ here. You know the one’s I mean, where your dining table only really seats four but you’ve invited eight for Christmas dinner so are frantically scouring round for anything capable of being sat on! No, they are matched perfectly, I really must up my game on the ’emergency chair’ front!
I bid him farewell and thanked him for letting me stay, put my luggage into storage in the basement, and went off on my last day of adventures. First of all I went a walk around the inside of the city walls to reach the Siege Bell War Memorial. This memorial commemorates all those who died in World War II in Malta between 1940 and 1942 and was unveiled by Queen Elixabeth II in 1992…………………50 years after the siege which took place in the war. It’s a nice monument but unfortunately I could not get too close up to it to have a really detailed look as it is closed for restoration, so a photograph from behind the railing had to suffice.
Following this I walked to St Pauls Co Cathedral in Valletta. This is an Anglican Cathedral and is a Co Cathedral because it shares the official seat of the Diocese of Malta with St Paul’s Cathedral in Mdina, which I had visited the day before. This one, whilst also looking pretty unremarkable from the outside, is absolutely amazing on the inside, far grander and more opulent that Mdina’s cathedral, by quite a long way.
The vaulted ceiling is just astounding. Arches of ornately carved gold stone, with beautifully painted ceiling frescoes between each arch.
All around the cathedral walls are panels of intricately carved stone covered in gold leaf. The carving is so fine that at first glance it appears to be wood, but it isn’t, it is stone, which makes it all the more remarkable.
Elsewhere on the ceiling of the side chapels there are intricately painted domes and arches…………………
And with it being Christmas the steps leading to the alter were covered in the hugest red Poinsettia plants.
For anyone into art the Cathedral is a must visit as it contains two original Caravaggio’s……………………’The Beheading of St John the Baptist’ and ‘St Jerome Writing’.
Whilst they are both beautiful paintings ‘The Beheading of St John the Baptist’ is the one that most people linger over. Often cited as being one of the greatest works of art of all time it is quite special and is a perfect example of how Caravaggio used the technique of chiaroscuro with the contrast of the deep red of the fabric and the yellows of the flesh with an otherwise dark contrasting colour palette to give the artwork depth. It is nice to be able to get a really close look at a piece like this to look at the detail.
I made a quick dash after the Cathedral to the Upper Barrakka Gardens. I like a nice garden and this one is no exception. It has some lovely plants and trees to shade you from the sun, and a lovely fountain in the middle which looks onto the Stock Exchange Building of Malta.
You can also get some lovely views over the Grand Harbour and the outskirts of the city from the perimeter wall as you are at the high part of Valletta here.
It would be a really peaceful place to sit…………………….that is, unless you come at 12 noon or 4pm. Because the gardens overlook the Saluting Battery, where at these two times a cannon is fired to honour maritime events and mark the historical time of the opening and closing of the city gates. I had come to watch the 12 noon firing. You can pay to stand on the battery itself, but I would say that the view is better from the gardens, a level higher up, which is free, but then you can make a donation on exit to one of the soldiers wielding a bucket. The view over the Grand Harbour is also excellent from up here. But oh my goodness it was loud! And even though you know that the cannon is going to be fired at noon, and you are poised for it, I still jumped out of my skin, it was deafening! Definitely worth a look though.
I just had one more place I wanted to visit in Valletta before my departure…………….The Grand Masters Palace. This was built in the 16th Century and housed the Grand Master of the Knights of St John. It was the British Governors Palace until 1964 and the seat of the Parliament until 2015. It is now where the offices of the President of Malta are situated. On the way there, outside the library, you will spot a statue of Queen Victoria, whom the Maltese look upon very dearly as representing a period of stability and growth.
The Grand Masters Palace itself is a huge imposing building overlooking one of the main squares. On the exterior walls their are some interesting plaques, one of which honours the George Cross awarded to the people of Malta as a thank you for their heroism, acts of bravery and devotion in World War II, awarded to the island in 1942 by King George VI.
They are so proud of their George Cross that they display it on their national flag to this day.
The inside of the building is nice and you can visit the state rooms, the armouries, and see all the portraits of the Presidents of Malta.
Sadly, my visit to Malta had come to an end. I retrieved my suitcase and made my way to the airport using the public transport bus, which was really easy and cost the grand fee of 2 Euros. I’d had an amazing 4 days but was ready to see my boys on my return. Even though I’d seen so much, and fitted so much in, I’d had some lovely food, lots and lots of quality sleep and plenty of time to be alone with my own thoughts and relax. As a result I came home really looking forward to Christmas and completely unstressed by it all.
And guess what, the table got set (complete with emergency chairs😆), and a wonderful dinner was served! We might not be Casa Rocca Piccola but we had a lovely set table, bone china Royal Doulton dinner service, a lovely prawn and avocado starter, two grey chairs, two foldable chairs and four wooden chairs and the best looking wine waiters in Yorkshire! 😂😍
So the message to myself this year is ……………………… don’t succumb to the hype and stress about Christmas. Go away just before, come back refreshed and relaxed, prioritise a bit of self care, don’t over commit, and Christmas will just happen as it’s meant to . Because at the end of the day it’s not about the dinner, the presents and creating overwhelming stress for yourself…………….it’s about love, peace, and connecting with friends and family, be they near or far.
