The suitcases are packed, the passports are ready, the currency is stashed. Tomorrow is Malta day.
I go to Malta at least once a year. I love the place. I usually go alone, to the same hotel where there is no other habitation - just the sea and the Gozo ferry terminal. I feel safe alone in Malta as there is so little crime - what there is is usually committed by "foreigners". Gozo is even better in that respect there is NO crime at all there, honestly. The Gozitans leave their door keys in the locks, on the streets, quite safely. I know a taxi driver on Gozo, his name is Frank. He has 4 children, the youngest being a girl of 18. Franks says he doesn't have to worry if she's out alone at night because he KNOWS no harm will come to her. Wouldn't it be wonderful if England was like that?
I love Malta for its oldness, its lovely climate and its friendly people. I know most of the island well, now, and going there is like going to my second home. This time my younger daughter and my 5 year-old granddaughter are coming with me. We're going to a different hotel, on the beach in Mellieha Bay, with the little town above the bay. There's a bit more for Laura and her mum to do there. This hotel was recommended to me by a colleague who goes to Malta as often as I do and he says it is the nicest he's stayed at.
Mellieha has the biggest sandy beach on the island. The sea in the bay ranges from deep blue to pale turquoise and the sand is yellow-gold. Predominant above the bay, on the hill, stands a beautiful domed church. There are hundreds of churches in Malta, which is a fervently Catholic country, and all of them are attractive buildings.
There is a church in Mosta with a huge dome and a fascinating story. During the war, in which Malta suffered terribly, the people of Mosta were at Mass when a German plane dropped a large bomb which fell right through the dome. It landed on the floor of the church and rolled down the main aisle but it DIDN'T explode and no one was hurt. Of course, the Maltese regarded this as a miracle. Who knows?
The German pilot went back to Malta in the 1980s and talked to the Maltese. He told them he hadn't targeted the church, the dome of which was very visible from the air. He was being pursued by RAF fighters and had jettisoned his bombs, as was standard practice by both sides, to lighten his aircraft and give him more speed. It was pure chance. When I first used to go there the Germans were not welcome but a new generation regards the war as history and the suffering is, thankfully, forgotten.
And so, this time tomorrow I will be ensconced in my room in a lovely hotel and ready for 2 weeks of sun, sea, Maltese food (lovely) and wine (not so good - I'll be drinking Italian).
Bye for now, England. Please warm up before I get back.
I go to Malta at least once a year. I love the place. I usually go alone, to the same hotel where there is no other habitation - just the sea and the Gozo ferry terminal. I feel safe alone in Malta as there is so little crime - what there is is usually committed by "foreigners". Gozo is even better in that respect there is NO crime at all there, honestly. The Gozitans leave their door keys in the locks, on the streets, quite safely. I know a taxi driver on Gozo, his name is Frank. He has 4 children, the youngest being a girl of 18. Franks says he doesn't have to worry if she's out alone at night because he KNOWS no harm will come to her. Wouldn't it be wonderful if England was like that?
I love Malta for its oldness, its lovely climate and its friendly people. I know most of the island well, now, and going there is like going to my second home. This time my younger daughter and my 5 year-old granddaughter are coming with me. We're going to a different hotel, on the beach in Mellieha Bay, with the little town above the bay. There's a bit more for Laura and her mum to do there. This hotel was recommended to me by a colleague who goes to Malta as often as I do and he says it is the nicest he's stayed at.
Mellieha has the biggest sandy beach on the island. The sea in the bay ranges from deep blue to pale turquoise and the sand is yellow-gold. Predominant above the bay, on the hill, stands a beautiful domed church. There are hundreds of churches in Malta, which is a fervently Catholic country, and all of them are attractive buildings.
There is a church in Mosta with a huge dome and a fascinating story. During the war, in which Malta suffered terribly, the people of Mosta were at Mass when a German plane dropped a large bomb which fell right through the dome. It landed on the floor of the church and rolled down the main aisle but it DIDN'T explode and no one was hurt. Of course, the Maltese regarded this as a miracle. Who knows?
The German pilot went back to Malta in the 1980s and talked to the Maltese. He told them he hadn't targeted the church, the dome of which was very visible from the air. He was being pursued by RAF fighters and had jettisoned his bombs, as was standard practice by both sides, to lighten his aircraft and give him more speed. It was pure chance. When I first used to go there the Germans were not welcome but a new generation regards the war as history and the suffering is, thankfully, forgotten.
And so, this time tomorrow I will be ensconced in my room in a lovely hotel and ready for 2 weeks of sun, sea, Maltese food (lovely) and wine (not so good - I'll be drinking Italian).
Bye for now, England. Please warm up before I get back.