Monday: 28th:
Drove to Birzebugga, never been as south on the Island - only to/from Luqa Airport. Birzebugga,
we discovered, isn’t worth a visit again because the Docks are situated there
with big containers being hurled into the air like little boxes. Funnily
enough, the beach is call ‘Pretty Beach’…clearly someone was ‘having a
laugh’!. Nearby is Ghar Dalam a prehistoric site that was discovered
in the latter half of the 19th Century with a series of excavations
unearthing animal bones as well as human remains and artifacts. The Cave is a
very important site for it’s Palaeontology, Archaeology and Ecology - it was
here that the earliest evidence of human settlement was found. We then drove to
a wonderful fishing village called Marsaxlokk…now this was pretty! I even chose
the fish for lunch…black bream (we watched the fisherman bring the fish in).
It’s well worth a visit there.
We got up early Tuesday, whilst we
still had car (until 1pm) so we popped to see some places locally. Although we
have walked to a Red Tower, on a hill above Mellieha before, we have never been
beyond it and boy, do you get some wonderful views of the Island from different
sides. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
(can you believe we are in May) we caught up with various chores and swam in
the pool. We did, however, book to go to
Sicily for 4 days by ferry from Valletta (Capital), in 2 weeks….. excited! Saturday, we
went to Valletta to collect ferry tickets with Marisa, our Maltese friend, but en route we stopped in Mosta to see the
progress of Marisa’s partner’s (Josef) house – who is renovating it. It is a terraced house with two storeys above,
one where Josef’s sister will live and the other, a penthouse for his brother. Marisa is overseeing the project while Josef
is at work. She has built and renovating
before with her apartment on top of our villas.
She’s good! She knows exactly how
to interpret Josef’s ideas and to make the most of the space. The house is long, with rooms going off on
the right from a long corridor. Spare
room first, then master bedroom with a huge en suite (the tiles are Italian
with a huge flower spanning over one wall. It’s all very tastefully decorated with paint
as they don’t use wallpapers. There are pictures of ‘The Madonna and baby’
above the beautifully adorned bed – with a white patterned silk duvet and
decorative wood furniture. The tiled floor, which is throughout the apartment
has a carefully chosen pattern and all comes together very well. I could
certainly sleep there! The next room on
the right is a second bathroom and then at the end a large open space with one
end being the lounge area and the other, the kitchen. Again, lots of beautiful wood furniture and
glass top table with a carved wood base.
Most of the furniture and kitchen crockery and glasses have come from
Sicily on their many journeys there.
Then out to the garden, all tiled with an amazing pattern around the
pool and Jacuzzi and outside kitchen area and BBQ – which they are working on
now and will be finished soon. It’s all been equipped, as houses are in Malta,
with easy to clean fixtures…I love that idea. It will be finished in about one month’s time
and we have been invited to a BBQ (the opening ceremony) before we leave for
UK. It will be interesting to see it finished……..a nice space. In the evening
we went out to dinner (and a boogie) with Marisa and Josef, it was a good evening and the entertainment first class. This is first time we have seen Josef as “his
work has been busy”. Sunday we lazed around,
after the night before, then took a short
walk around lunchtime and lazed around the rest of the day…it’s getting to the
stage that it’s hard to actually turn over on my sunbed!!!The end of another interesting week…..roll on week four – when we have our friends joining us on Tuesday until Sunday.
Mosta Church
Docks at Birzebugga
Poor parrot tied up!
Marsaxlokk fishing village
Views over Gladira Bay
Views from Red Tower, Mellieha
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