Malta June 3rd 2007
Malta Bound, Outward Journey.
I'm not going to waste a lot of time with the English bit of this day, except to say that setting off early to get a midday flight from Gatwick was made better by the lovely weather, something we have not seen a lot of since. Gatwick itself? Well anyone who has been there will know. For those who have not, well try it yourself sometime.
Anyway, just to get this bit out of the way quickly, parking, with APH was well organised and smoothly navigated, so too was Gatwick Airport actually, albeit somehow not quite able to cope with the warm weather.
And that was that . . . !
On to the Plane, an Air Malta Airbus A320, (I think, it might have been an A319). No problem here, I would recommend them to anyone. Ok, so no frills, but the aircraft was well presented & comfortable, the crew were polite & helpful and even the grub was good by airline standards, well, the sort us mere mortals have available to us. Overall the flight was pretty uneventful, which is good is it not. Kathy even let me sit by the window so that I could get my first glimpse of my place of birth for 47 years, not that I glimpsed it the first time around. Well not precisely my place of birth, that would be too small to see from up there, even if I knew exactly where to look, but the Island of Malta itself. I don't know what I was feeling at the time, a sort of a 'Ooh ! look I was born down there' warm feeling. Well it looked warm down there anyway.
We landed, a bit heavily I thought, at Malta International Airport, Luqa, at around 16:10 Maltese time. I reckon the ground was moving up too fast. Onto an airport bus to the terminal, (could have walked it in under 2 minutes, but I suppose you can't have people aimlessly wandering around parked aircraft?), got the luggage, (Daniel and Rosie fighting over both the trolley and bag retrieval which saved me and Kathy the hassle) and out through passport control, then quick, outside for a smoke. First Impressions? well the airport is excellent and a pleasure to pass through. The weather was a bit overcast though warm. I like it here.
It didn't take long to sort the Avis hire car out and so off we went. Silly little car though, a Toyota Aygo. Though to be fair it did the job quite well and was very well presented, even if Daniel and Rosie did have to sit in the back with one suitcase on thier knees, but that was only to and from the airport.
The journey from the airport to Mellieha was pretty uneventful, though struggling with written directions, (from the hotel), and an AA map does prevent you taking in everything as you go. Another thing is that when you are actually doing the travelling bit, the roads etc., do not look anything like they do on Google Earth. Kathy, who was driving by the way, did comment after a while, (and please People of Malta and Beirut do not take this the wrong way), "My friend Xxxxx, said It looks a bit like a Beirut Bombsite, it does a bit". Personally I don't know if it does or it doesn't, I've never seen a Beirut Bombsite? If it looks warm, dry and sandy coloured, then I suppose it could be an accurate description. I think it is really just a comment out of ignorance and the 'stereotypical' images we are presented with by the media.
We arrived at the The Pergola Club Hotel & Spa, in Mellieha soon after 18:00, without getting lost, cool. The apartment was, and probably still is, excellent, couldn't really fault it in any way. Yes there obviously were apartments with a better view, but the one we had was good, looking across the town center towards the Parish Church of Mellieha.
View across Mellieha from our apartment.)
Now comes our first and only mistake or more accurately our only oversight. It's Sunday, 7.0 o'clock in the evening and staying in a 'rural' part of Malta, three things that don't contribute to adequate food supplies when based in a self catering apartment. We did go out to see if any local shops were open, but, well, Oh Dear !, what a shame, we will just have to go down to one of the restaurants to eat.
So after a large quantity of white wine, a large & excellent 'Buffet' dinner, followed by, personally a few pints of the locally made, Cisk Lager, a table on a small balcony overlooking the town and the kiddies off in a games room somewhere, evrybody is happy. Also tried a taste of a soft drink called Kinnie. A fizzy drink made from bitter oranges and herbs and really quite refreshing. A very nice change from all of the other soft drinks that are normally readily available.
Time for bed, . . . . . . well got to get up in the morning, things to do, things to go and see and I am 50, so everyone keeps telling me.
Click here to read about Monday 4th June.
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