The hilltops in Malta are adorned with spectacular mini-cities of the most beautiful golden stone buildings and tiny alleys, and with highly ornamented church domes, towers, pyramids etc on the skyline, and each with a gorgeous and always violent history.
This tension - between beauty and danger - has pervaded our ill-timed little holiday. The tsunami of the new world plague (coronavirus) has overwhelmed everything. Each day has brought a rising tide of panicky news about regulations imposed by shops, councils, governments - and maybe airlines. We have already witnessed the local shopping madness - supermarkets limiting how many people may go into their stores: you can only go in once some other person has come out. Luckily for us we are getting our meagre supplies of say, wine, milk, bread, salads, cheese, etc. from little local epiceries, which are pretty amazing. The internet is awash with rumours, contradictions, certainties and anguish. The family is taking a strong line: that we should cut things short and get home immediately. Today is Sunday - trip to fishing market planned. Now considering whether to take all belongings with us and just decamp. Pros and cons: in favour of leaving early - the tourist experience has definitely diminished quite noticeably each day with closures of venues and services. It would be nice to know we can get home. I didn’t bring enough stuff to last more than a week - including my all-precious JuicePlus capsules! On the other hand, changing flights, relinquishing the apartment early, fixing it, may be time-consuming and stressful…. we both need a rest!
So today - we are trying to contact the airline, the landlord, decide what to do. Not so carefree. Boo hoo. It's hard to say if the curtailment of our planned activities is a good thing or not...
Yesterday we went to Mosta to see the Dome - but it was closed on orders of the archbishop. I drew it instead. Andrew sneaked a peek by talking to a builder.
We had lunch in Mdina - where lots of things were closed. The silent city was actually quite quiet, apart from birdsong. These places are full of spectacular buildings, grand, egotistical, heroic, splendid.
As in so many islands we have visited, the northern areas are by far the most beautiful, being less scorched by the summer’s heat. Our pretty view from our lunch terrace was over small fields and greenery, quite comforting and restful. The owner of a gift shop was looking very melancholy indeed. The rumours of lockdown are everywhere. Her shop - which would on a normal Saturday be full of people - was empty. She was selling loads of things at halfprice. The security man we spoke to at Xhaghra had said there were no coach tours. No doubt the boat-based tourist trips will all have to stop. It's an economic disaster for this island. This may be the only thing holding the Maltese government back from issuing lockdown orders......
We found the Victoria Lines - a bit of late 19thc British military engineering designed to thwart any dastardly enemies who might want to sneak in and seize the all-important naval ports in the south (especially after the opening of the Suez canal) by attacking from the north. So they built a 12km wall, not very high, but taking advantage of a natural outcrop or ridge of rock… It was never tested in battle, and is now a place of wild flowers, bees, peasant farms, hikers and and pretty views.
We ended our rather self-isolating wanderings by going to a beach... lovely clear water, a few fish, some boats.
Once again we found that the food portions served in restaurants is far too large - we shared one starter and one main meal - couldn’t finish it - came home at last and picked at an artichoke for supper.
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