Wednesday 8 April 2009

Malta - more photos

Delayed...
Good bye Blighty!

We spent a day seeing the sights - from a geographical view point - rock formations, strata, etc...


...and the impact of tourism on the island...



Want to be a caveman?


Mdina from the outside.


A close up of the battlements.


You can tour the city in a carriage if you want to! Don't worry, the horses are all in amazing condition!


The main gate. Can't you just feel the history?


The top half of the co-cathedral in Mdina.


Not a clock - a calendar!


Fighting through the bamboo jungle.


The most dangerous stepping stones since Vlad the Impaler invented a new party game...

There IS a stream in there somewhere...


A strange mix of natural rock formations and dry stone walling to hold the fields in place!



One of the locals.



Given that there was an endless supply of oil drums from the old airforce bases on Malta, the locals made good use of them to fence off their fields. The government is trying to get them removed now, but a few still remain.

St Paul's Island. This is where St Paul was shipwrecked. You can just see the statue.

Part of the national garbage mountain. That is a truck on the top.


Some things cannot be escaped...



Finally, I found this on a bar wall in Malta Airport. Not a big fan of Styx, but it is a lovely guitar!


Hope you enjoyed that!
Videos to follow if I win the fight with them!

6 comments:

Ali said...

Beautiful shots!!! Except maybe Garbage Mountain - that's kinda eeeww :P

Rock Chef said...

Jeez, you must have been sitting there waiting for me to post! Don't shatter my delusions and say otherwise!

The garbage was very "eeeww!" 400,000 people, plus tourists, make a lot of garbage, and what do you do with it in a place that small? I guess they could use it to extend the island...

Jen said...

Was it hard to leave? I know there is no place like home (family), but it just seems . . . peaceful. I think it's awesome that they took junk (oil drums) and made a use out of them. Of course the rust now isn't so good, but at least at the time it was clever.

Minus the garbage mountain. I guess it can't all be paradise. Blehck.

Michele said...

Wow! That is a LOT of garbage! Did it smell bad or did the sea wind take the smell away?
The island is beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos. (Still shaking my head at the presence of a Burger King in such a historic place! Is nothing sacred?)

terri said...

What a beautiful place! I think I would walk around with my jaw on the ground at all the history and scenery!

Rock Chef said...

Jen - I could happily have stayed for another week, just plodding around doing my own thing, but it was great to get home again. I love the oil drum thing - recylcing at its most inventive!

Michele - I understand that it can smell bad - a friend of mine once stayed at a hotel nearby and the wind was going the wrong way... Oh, there was a McD's further down the road too, complete with a guy dressed as Ronald...

Terri - I think it is a place that you love or hate - if you appreciate history you would love it.