Northern Malta, Mosta, and Naxxar

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We woke up in the middle of the night again, listening to the sounds of the Mediterranean and talked for a couple of hours, too wound up and excited to sleep, and maybe still on US time as well. Finally we fell back to sleep, but woke up just in time to dress for breakfast and leave for our Northern Malta Tour with the group by 8:45.

The day was truly beautiful, sunny and clear, not too warm. The big tour bus is such a cliché, but it still is a good way to see a lot of a country in the first days of unfamiliarity. We traveled to the northern part of the island, driving north through St Julian and other coastal towns to go to the Sanctuary of Our Lady at St Paul's beach in Mellieha. The sanctuary has been a holy place long before Paul and Luke were there, a place where the local people worshipped their goddesses before Paul christianized Malta. St Paul healed a Roman official when he first arrived to preach Christianity on the island in 60 AD. He was actually shipwrecked on this beach and was stranded in Malta for 6 months! The chapel is carved from a limestone cave and the local people have pilgrimaged there for centuries honoring “Our Lady”. It is always interesting to follow the history of these cultures as they move from their feminine face of God to accepting the western version of God as a male figure, yet keeping the Virgin and Our Lady so dear to their hearts. The presence of the Virgin in Malta is everywhere, and the people love her and honor her, and the many images of Mother and Child are lovely. The grotto was beautiful, with a restored painting of the Virgin holding Jesus in her right arm instead of her left as is the usual tradition in these kinds of paintings, and seemed to be of great significance artistically. The painting was supposedly done in the 1st century, but later studies have placed it somewhere aroune 1000 AD.

Back to the bus to continue through the countryside to Mosta, where we visited the cathedral hit by a bomb during WWII. Miraculously, the bomb landed in the center of the sanctuary during a mass but didn’t explode. The church was newer than most and very ornate. There is a museum in the church where the unexploded bomb is displayed. I would imagine it’s been deactivated somehow, but it looked fairly ominous.

Back on the bus to the town of Naxxar where we toured the Palace Paridisio and gardens, a dramatic feat of Victorian and Rococo style, very ornate and heavy and a bit overwhelming. The palace cat was a treat, however, and she even came down to join us for a light “snack” in the cafe which was as big as any lunch we have had so far, including dessert!

The late afternoon trip back to the hotel was through very heavy traffic into Sliema, which made us both very glad we weren’t driving. It’s a little bit disconcerting to be one of “them” high up on the tour bus overlooking life going on so far below. Riding along the narrow roads we could see life happening on the roofs, where the water is stored in big cisterns and delivered to the houses by gravity. A woman hanging clothes in the brilliant cool light, looked down on our bus and waved at us.

After returning to the hotel, we napped a bit and then went to the Maltese language lecture at 4:45. English and Maltese are both official languages in Malta, but Maltese is unique in that it is somewhat of a mixture of several languages of the various countries that have occupied Malta. It is the only Semitic tongue officially written in the Latin alphabet, with 30 letters , which makes it a bit easier to read as well. The most interesting fact about Maltese is that it was a spoken language, and thought to be common, spoken only by the lower class, and never was a written language, since the higher born Maltese people tried to emulate the English, and encouraged their children to speak English. Only since the 1970's have the Maltese people taken back their pride in their langauge, and developed it as a written language.

Malta was settled first by the Phoenicians, followed by the Carthiginians, the Arabs, and in 1530 by the Knights of St John. The history of the Knights of St John is incredible, and too complex to write about here, but they came from several European countries, and most of their languages left an influence on the Maltese language, but to me it still sounds like a soft sweet mixture of Hebrew and Arabic, with Italian overtones. I loved this language, love the intonation, and really enjoyed speaking it as much as possible.

After the lecture, neither of us could drum up the energy to go out and eat supper so we just rested, ate nuts and yogurt, and drank our wine from the local Tower Supermarket and went early to sleep to prepare for the next day of adventures.

First explorations

http://picasaweb.google.com/kyotesue/December11ValettaAndTheThreeCities#

This morning we wakened to fresh cool somewhat humid air. The sea was crashing against the sea wall and was a dark Prussian blue with that dark dark line between the sea and the sky. Sailboats are out in the morning in waves so high the big boats would disappear into the swells.

We ate a buffet breakfast at the Four Seasons here in the hotel before we left for our morning orientation meeting with Stephan, our tour guide. Breakfast was certainly not memorable, and as we were to discover, Maltese food in general wasn’t that great. The English influence here is very strong, with very little spice and things like broiled tomatoes, some rather tasteless sausages, and mushy dry potatoes. After breakfast, we went to the Hong Kong bank across the street to try to change money but I only managed to change ‘3’ $20 bills because the window ran out of money, and Mo had to use the cash machine. Exchange is $2.86 so we are estimating about 3 bucks US per Maltese LIRA as an average for our stay.

After the group orientation meeting we walked down to the “strand” for a light lunch of bruschetta and cappuccino at Cafe Tigne at a sidewalk table. The Strand was the main way to see the busy Maltese city life up close, with many people walking and talking and shopping. Most noticeable were the women’s shoes. Everyone seems to have taken on the Italian way of dressing, with Italian television shows now available in Malta, and very high very pointy stilettos are the shoe of choice for most women. Mo and I still wonder what in the world they did with their toes in these shoes! The cappuccino was good and the energy of the strand was high as usual, with lots of conversation and happy people all in a rush.

In the afternoon we joined an included tour for our group of the Three Cities, and to see a video movie called the “Malta Experience” in Valetta. The history of the heroism and trials of the Maltese people during world war 2 was enlightening. The history of the Grand Harbour and how it affected so many challengers to Malta was a theme that was repeated throughout our stay here, and began with this informative show.

Later, the bus toured around the Grand Harbor to Vittoriosa and we walked through old limestone buildings where people lived underground during WWII. Then more town walking and a visit o the Maritime Museum. For me, since this was my first trip to Europe, it was an incredible thrill to be walking these narrow winding streets, with uneven stone pavings, a thrill to be somewhere so completely new to me.

After the horrendous destruction of the bombings in WWII the local people left the old town, and eventually public housing replaced the grand houses that used to be here. Only recently have people started to return and fix the town up a bit as young families establish the old neighborhoods into something workable for this time.

As the day drew to a close, the sunset was truly breathtaking with domes and steeples silhouetted against the sky. In the dark we returned to the hotel to regroup and go back down to the Strand for dinner at Newman’s Place and conversation with the owner and John Rossi, a fellow traveler from Grand Circle. Stopped in at an Internet Café on the way home to check email and we were very happy to be in our own room by 9pm. The hotel room is completely comfortable, with an amazing view of the ocean looking north west, and the setting sun in the early evening. The hotel is even surrounded by a moat, now how European is that!

Traveling to Malta

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We are on our way at last. We left Klamath this morning just a little bit after 10AM, Thursday December 8. Klamath wasn’t too bad, but HWY 97 was a solid sheet of ice all the way north and it was snowy to Oakridge on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. Very slow going, for sure! We drove straight through and got to Dan’s (Mo’s brother) house around 4pm, visited a bit and then went to the Olive Garden for supper. Home to bed by 830, getting ready for the big travel day to come.

And big day it has most certainly been. It’s all running together at the moment, sun shining in this Air Malta Airbus while we wait for takeoff. We have been awake now for more than 24 hours. It is noon here in London, center of the world, zero hours Greenwich Mean Time. Funny. I’m losing track of time it seems. Still waiting, the variety of humanity in this airport is amazing, all kinds of people. There is a whole plane load of family going to Ceylon, and another planeload of people who know each other going to Malta. It was an experience boarding this aircraft, lots of Muslim women with children. The Maltese language sounds melodic, somewhat Arabic, I think I will like learning this language

The flight from Portland to Chicago was fine, except for landing on the icy snowy runway, which just a little nerve racking. We made our connections to the big 777 to London, didn’t dawdle at all, only to sit on the plane for 2 hours before it would actually take off. Some story about fuel and maintenance. Don’t they get tired of repeating the same tired excuses? They gave us water and a really bad oat bar, but once we were airborne we did get free wine with our dinner. It was amazing to watch a long night pass in a few hours and we managed to get to London in time for our Malta flight in spite of the delay. Finally airborne, on the way to Malta. We just crossed the English Channel and will arrive in Malta at 4:30 this afternoon. I have completely lost track of exactly how many hours we have been traveling, what day it is here, what day it is at home, or anything else for that matter!

Thanksgiving trip to California

Just a quick note to anyone following my blog, I am not sure if this post will show up in all your blog rolls or not.  I am backtracking here a bit, and decided to put some old journals and photos into the blog so that Mo and I could have our travel history all in one place.  More times than once lately, we have wondered when we did something and gone to the blog only to realize it happened “pre-blog”.  So any of you reading, if this pops us with a date of 2005 or even earlier, don’t worry, you aren’t time traveling and it isn’t a mistake.  My actual hope is that it won’t show up at all.  Guess I will find out if anyone starts commenting! You might notice a different “MoHo” and a different dog.  Molly left us in 2006 and we didn’t pick up the new “MoHo” until December of 2007 on our cross country winter travels that year. I still lived in Klamath Falls and was working full time and Mo lived in Rocky Point.  We started traveling together back in 2003, so eventually I hope to all our trips right here.

My kids are scattered around the country, and this year we decided that everyone didn’t need to make the long trek to Klamath Falls for Thanksgiving and Mo and I could go on little MoHo trip. I took off work early on Wednesday and Mo picked me up in Klamath.  The MoHo was rolling along toward California by 3pm.  It was our first attempt at boondocking at a Wal-Mart.  We wanted to get far enough into California on Thursday to find a nice restaurant for dinner.  It was dark when we arrived and we didn’t see any signs saying we couldn’t park, so settled in, turned on the lights and within an hour an employee security person was knocking on our door saying we couldn’t stay there. Redding evidently has some laws about store parking that we didn’t know about.  He was nice to us, however, and told us that we could simply move to the east of the official parking lot into the dirt and safely park there.  We put up the TV antenna, hoping for some diversion, but for some reason nothing worked.  We walked Molly around the parking lot before going to sleep.

It was a bit of a restless night, but not bad, and by 8:30 on Thursday morning we were coffee’d up and ready to hit the road.  We decided to travel west to the coast via Highway 299 through Whiskeytown and then along the beautiful Trinity River. The day was cloudy but a balmy 55 degrees, which felt warm after the cold Klamath fall air. Whiskeytown and French Gulch were pretty little towns we visited along the way, then crossed the mountains to Highway 3, to Highway 36 and finally to Highway 101 on the coast.  At the top of one of the passes we saw a large cat-like black animal streaking across the road and up the hill beside us.  Later I searched the internet and finally figured out that we had seen a fisher, a rather rare animal in this part of the world.  I glad we both saw it.

The roads were narrow, winding and long.  It was raining hard when we reached Fortuna on 101 and we decided to eat our Thanksgiving dinner at Peppers.  It was a nice turkey dinner with all the trimmings and certainly not expensive.  We even had leftovers to take with us, which of course are necessary for a Thanksgiving dinner. 

Even in the rain, the town of Ferndale was interesting to visit.  Most of the stores were closed because of the holiday and it was a bit drab in the rain, but I would love to go back there someday and shop.  Later we took the road to “Centerville” which turned out to be nothing more than an empty beach.  We followed a very narrow winding road up the steep hills south of the beach for a distance before deciding to turn around after talking with a local who said the road eventually came to a dead end with nothing to see.

Returning to Highway 101 we traveled south toward Humboldt Bay, looking for a place to camp in the Redwoods.  the Burlington Campground showed up just after dark, and there was a space for us.  We tucked the MoHo into the small spaces between huge redwood stumps and settled in for the evening.  Some of the stumps were actually as big as the MoHo! It was a surrealistic place, and in the dark even more so.  I went to camp headquarters to pay and managed to lose the MoHo and myself for a time before finding my way back.

We slept great in the deep dark forest, with the sound of the pouring rain keeping us in bed until quite late.  Even at 9am the forest was still dim and dark as late evening.  I made omelets for breakfast and we took the slow beautiful drive along the Avenue of the Giants, stopping at the visitor center.  The displays were excellent, with stories of a man named Kellogg and his van made entirely of one redwood log.

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We drove south all day on the winding highway 1, through many dark and winding forests, and many signs that said “road narrows”.  It was hard to imagine how the road could get any more narrow.  Eventually we emerged from the forest to the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  The Mendocino coast was wild, rugged, and beautiful, but the roads are incredibly narrow with very few places to pull over, and no shoulders at all.  I was car-sick most of the way and was very happy to finally get to the little town of Mendocino.  We did stop along the way to hike the half mile down to the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, beautifully restored.

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Continuing through town just in time to settle into space 11 in the Van Damme State Park just as darkness settled in.  Our late lunch of leftover turkey sandwiches at an ocean overlook should have been plenty, but Mo started a campfire and wee cooked burgers.  They were great! Venus was huge and brilliant over the ocean and Mars glowed red through the redwood branches, forecasting a sunny day to come. I knitted while Mo read until lights out at 9 or so.

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The next morning we were up at 8 and after a good home cooked breakfast we packed up to go explore Mendocino.  It was a gorgeous clear day, but cool and windy.  we walked the town, checked out the Art Fair, I found some wonderful yarn at the perfect little yarn shop, and had a delightful cappuccino.

We decided to travel south on Highway 1 until we found a place to spend the night.  Instead we saw a sign that said “coastal access” and followed it to the tiny perfect little hamlet of Point Arena.  Supper at the restaurant overlooking the ocean was perfect, with rock cod and a perfect salad.  Beautiful.  Our plan was to continue as far south as Sea Ranch before heading inland but we hoped for someplace along the beach.  Sure enough, high above the ocean, we found a wide turnout in the road, level and safe, with no signs saying we couldn’t park there.  As we were settling in, a man drove up and let his dogs out of his car.  Suddenly the peace was ruined by a huge tussle of dogs with his aggressive animals attacking Molly, who ended up scared, shaking, and limping a bit.  I was furious!  Thank goodness he left. 

The evening settled into a peaceful sunset with music on the stereo, Mo reading while I wrote and Molly sleeping peacefully.At dawn, the skies over the ocean were all shades of pastel pink and lavender and the rising moon was visible in the east.  We tried out the new toaster oven with some corn muffins which tasted ok, but I burned them a bit too much. Driving all day east from Gualala through Annapolis where the signs said “no rv’s” but with our little 21 footer and no tow car we did just fine.  The road was really steep and curvy but not much worse overall than all those curves on highway 1!  Continuing to Clear Lake and Williams we hit the interstate by 1pm to take us back north to Oregon.  Stopped for a steak dinner in Redding before the last long leg into Klamath over highway 97, leaving the interstate at Weed. It’s a long stretch to do in a day, but since I had to be to work on Monday morning, it was necessary.  Mo is retired but I am not, so sometimes these little trips with me are much quicker than either of us would like.

10-17-2005 Work Trip Road Trip to Winnemucca and Elko

Transcribed from a very sketchy journal of our trip to Nevada.  I was going for a work training class in Winnemucca and we took a few extra days to go as far east as Elko and some of the surrounding area.  Mo had her white Blazer at the time. 

We left Klamath Falls around 10:30 AM, driving 140 to 95 to Winnemucca.  Visited the Sheldon Wildlife Reserve, dinner at  Model T Diner. Checked into Gold Country Inn Best Western around 8:30 pm.

Tuesday October 18 2005

Sue to Class.  Mo traveled north to Windy Gap and the Humboldt NF and had a flat tire.  Sue’s great granddaughter was born at 2:15 EDT.  Dinner at Red Lion

Wednesday October19 2005

Sue to class.  Mo east to Rabbit Hole and Sulphur mine and Rochester.  Sue and Mo up Water Canyon.  Dinner at Model T Diner.

Thursday October 20 2005

Sue to class.  Mo to Unionville.  Afternoon Sue and Mo on a town walk.  Basque dinner at Winnemucca Hotel.  Since 1863 oldest operating hotel in Nevada.

Friday October 21 2005

Breakfast at the Red Lion.  Leave for Elko at 10 AM  Gas at 2.56 per gallon.  Shouda had the MoHo with us.  We got our room in Elko at the Motel 6 after going to the museum and visitor center.  Drove to the Ruby Mountains and up Lamoille Canyon for the afternoon. We hiked a ways into the wilderness area but it was getting dark so we drove back down the canyon.  

Went to the Red Lion Casino for dinner where they had a great seafood buffet for $17.95, but it was too much so we just ate some good sandwiches.

Saturday October 22 2005

Up for breakfast and Sue got Starbucks and a pastry and Mo had her McD sandwiches before we drove north to Jarbidge, a tiny town of 16 people where a nice guy gave us gas even though the station was closed.  $4.00 a gallon!  It was 47 miles over dirt roads to get to the town.

The aspens had mostly lost their leaves except for a few places.  Someone said that first week in October is probably best.  Left Jarbidge and drove along the canyon over some empty wild country and then went north from Wildhorse Reservoir to Mountain City.

Leaving Mountain City we were planning to go the long lonely road to Midas when the second flat tire of the week changed our minds.  Right on a curve! and it was very sudden.  Mo had it almost done when an inebriated cowpoke stopped to help.

We drove back to Elko, and had Les Schwab was closed but WalMart was open and even had a set of tires at a good price.

My guess is we drove back home on Sunday since I no doubt had to be to work on Monday morning.