Jackie's Blog

Best laid plans don't always come to fruition. We had planned to take the bus to go on our second hike but were luckily warned by the hotel the night before that there was a bus strike on Friday. So we ordered a car to take us there instead. When we went to the lobby to ask whether it had arrived we were met by a puzzled look. We had seen the concierge write it down but he had apparently written it on the wrong page. The hotel manager was informed and was most apologetic. He ordered us another one and said it was free which we thought was very nice.  The driver took us to the church in Marsascala where we found a small and very pretty harbour with a promenade all around it. The walk started by following the coast. We walked past old salt pans carved into the rocks. There was also a very long swimming area marked with ladders attached to the rocks for swimmers to get safely in to the water. There were several Maltese women taking the morning exercise in the water. It was very peacef...

After a long lie in, and breakfast on the fabulous balcony again, we decided to walk to Mtarfa and see if we could find the hospital I was born in. This turned out to be very easy as it was the large building we could see from the hotel. Originally the David Brice Royal Naval hospital, it is now part of a school.  We stopped off at a local shop and discovered how really cheap bottled water is when you are not buying it in a tourist spot!  After that we walked to see the Mtarfa clock tower.  Another stroll back towards Mdina and this time went to the Knight of Malta museum which turned out to be an audio tour of a waxwork museum with tableus of the most famous Knights and a summary of their deeds. Lots of the scenes were of dead and dying people and were quite gory! The Knights themselves were quite realistic and looked like they might come alive any minute. It was a bit cheesy.. It was followed by a film about the history of Malta which explained a little more. B...

Woke up late and had an excellent smoked salmon breakfast in the same restaurant as we had eaten dinner the night before. This time it was outside in the shade with fabulous views overlooking Malta. Having looked around Mdina the night before, we decided we needed to get some exercise and go for a long walk. This involved getting a local bus to Dingli- this was an adventure in itself as we were not exactly sure where we were going!  The driver dropped us off about a mile away from where the walk was supposed to start but we ended up seeing more of the coastline than we expected. We walked along cliffs and saw Mary Magdalene's tiny church sitting very close to the huge modern radar tower which turned out to be the highest spot on the island of Malta-even higher than the town of Mdina. The route was then a circular one along the cliff edge, past vineyards and tiny homesteads. It was vey picturesque, a little warm but we ended up walking about six miles. That was not the end of t...

Happy birthday to me! We were all up bright and early as it was a normal work/school day for everyone else. We grabbed some breakfast and then I had the chore of opening cards and presents :-) My mum had found the tag from when I was born. My sister had some cards made with photos on from when I was probably about 9 years old and some taken earlier this summer. We drove the back roads to Gatwick airport and dropped off the hire car in time to have a coffee and wait for the Air Malta flight. I'd not heard anyone speak Maltese and discovered that the flight crew spoke it very fast! It has some Arabic sounding words, and some Italian in there somewhere- probably Sicilian too but it's an impossible language to try and guess. The flight seemed to go quite quickly (2 hrs 40 minutes) and before we knew it we were walking off the plane to the terminal. Hotel entrance We were met by a driver from the hotel which makes the transfer so simple. He was a young m...

Sunday morning was breakfast and fond farewell's to Mike and Cathy. This was followed by the road trip to my sisters house just outside Farnham in Surrey stopping off for coffee on route. Jane is having some work done on their house, so it is a little like camping there at the moment but it was what we expected and exciting to see some of the changes. My mum and step dad Ron also drove down from Birmingham and all of us went for a walk with the dog down by the river to stretch our legs and make the most of another lovely day. This sign made me smile... Wish there were! That evening we went out for a lovely meal with the family in Farnham- complete with a surprise chocolate birthday cake covered in Maltesers- for my American friends, these are chocolate malt balls and a play on the fact that I was born in Malta.

A great night's sleep followed by a 'Full English' is the perfect way to start a day in a new time zone :-). The boys spent the morning fixing bicycles while Cathy and I went into 'Bury' (St Edmunds) to take a quick look around the local market, grab a coffee and do a bit of shopping. Where are we? Love this! Upon our return we all saddled up and set out to do the equivalent of our boozy bike tour (wineries where we live) by cycling around a couple of local Suffolk pubs. The weather was perfect and we managed two pubs and about 20 miles in a circular route in the beautiful British countryside. Dick was in heaven. Home to another cup of tea and crumpets, followed by a not so traditional soak in a hot tub with a glass or two of bubbly for me. Let the celebrations begin! Lovely Thai style curry cooked by Cathy, several glasses of wine and another relaxing evening. Great start to the holiday!

I'm not counting yesterday as it was basically a very early morning (due to Wellness screening at work) followed by crazy running around, a train trip to SFO and then the normal (though admittedly shorter than normal) flight to the UK. I do wish to note that I slept pretty well considering though! The  flight arrived a little early and the car pick up at Avis was simple. We managed to get a Ford Focus which also makes life easier when you know all the car controls. The drive was the normal craziness around the M25 but a longer than usual stop off to get coffee. Turns out that the one place we chose happened to be where people stop to wait for the cell phone call to pick up at Stansted airport. Took probably 20 minutes to just get in and out of the place! Got to Mike and Cathy's around 4pm- time for tea and crumpets :-) Then off to the pub for an early evening pint or two (Cathy knows us well!). A roast chicken dinner kept us going until Mike arrived home late from a confere...