Rest of Monday

Lunch was 5 very small courses :

1. Nibbles   -  5 little dishes that included a broad bean dip , a taste of a soft sheep milk cheese, caponata and 2 more  . Plus nice bread

2. Aljota  - a traditional maltese fish soup

3. Pasta with Maltese sausage and sun dried tomatoes

4.  A little bowl of Rabbit  casserols with a few bits of roast potato

5 a small portion of peach crumble

All delicious and interesting.

By the time I left the restaurant it was after 3 so I decided that was it for the day. Time to start sorting photos. I am not yet back into my daily , when I am away , routine. I am  not yet sleeping properly and am more tired than I expected. Maybe I am a bit older than I was 2 years ago when I went to Europe last.

More Malta

 Another annoying thing about the trip here was at Franfurt. Now all incomers to the EU ( or Europe ??) have to have their fingerprints recorded. Frankfurt is a major hub for incomes. They have not got their act together. I was expecting German efficiency  to  be more efficient. About 45 minutes later, about 3 long queues and 1 bus ride around the airport, we got somewhere. However the guy behind the booth of my queue said his machine was broken  so I was told to walk through without my fingrprints being recorded. . He assured me it would not be a problem later on.  I will find out. Another bus ride to the airplane.

The hotel in Valetta that I am staying in has a lovely view over the harbour. I am on the 5th floor , high for Valetta so can see over rooftops, lots of church spires. I am away from most of the tourists, but only by a few blocks. 

On Sunday I went to Marsaxlokk ( x pronounced sh) a fishing village about 45 min bus ride away . They have a big fish and veg (and all the other stuff  you would expect) market on Sunday morning along the waterfront of a pretty bay with lots of small brightly painted fishing boats.  After battling my way through locals and tourists, I found there was a 50cm wide path on  the edge of a wall with water on one side and the markets stall tents' backs on the other which was very pleasant.

My plan was to get a bus or 2 to the next place on my list - the Hagar Qim archaeology site.  The major bus stop in Valetta is quite well organised, there are clear instructions of what buses go where and when. Not so on the roadside stops away from the centre.  I had a map of the routes, which I could not have done without ( google maps was completely wrong  once) . Timing is also a challenge.  I managed.  Chatted to quite a few locals. A few tourists.

Hagar Qin is a  called a temple complex, but they are guessing about the temple bit. Dated to 3600BC.  It has large outer walls of huge stones  that have been put in place , doorways so you  can walk in and around inner rooms. There are places where it is clear that the people were observing the moon and other constellations.   It is thought that there was a roof over at least a part of it. Now the whole thing is covered buy a huge tent like structure to preserve it.

Today I went , with a rather large number of others, to the Cathedral of St John, started in 1572 and finished 5 years later. It is very, very ornate, but it did not feel as oppressive  as some I have been in. Maybe because it was quite light. And I have a bit of an issue with churches, like this one, where the floor is absolutely  covered in tombs  - they are underneath and you walk on what is equivalent to the headstones.  Nevermind, I thought and silently apologised to the dead people for being disrespectful. But the main reason I went was to see the large Caravaggio altar piece in the oratory. the beheading of St John.  I had read quite a bit  about it and was a bit disappointed that I could not get a bit closer.

Later this morning I went by bus to the airport to try and upgrade my basic economy fare to a higher grade of economy fare that means I can carry-on  my carry-on bag. All the rules have changed since my ticket was issued and there was misunderstanding between me and my travel agent . But the answer was no, they would not change it unless  I paid 50  euros. . Ah well.  It will go in the hold  and if that means I miss my train to Florence,  I will get the next train and that will be less than 50

Arrived in Malta

 I left Cbr airport at 8 am Fri and arrived at Malta airport at 12 noon on Saturday, Malta time (8hrs behind) after 4 flights. Overall a smooth experience but with lots of oddities along the way.  Leaving Melbourne international airport now you go through those automatic passport controls. No matter which way I put my passport onto the machine,,it beeped rudely at me and said try again. After several of these messages it changed to ' find a real person' or words to that effect.  My mind raced ahead, of course, along a negative  route.  It took a little while for the real person to discover that  the machines had been programmed to reject people who arrived before  4hrs before the flight leaves ( or maybe check in).  I wasn't going away.  So explained it was the  2nd of 4 flights, I was not young any more and wanted to sit quietly , something about I had to be early because lots of mid dayish flights out of Canberra get cancelled, blah blah.blah, blah . she said ' wait there' and disappeared.  After a long while she returned  said 'it's sorted' . Which it was. I went straight to the Sing Air lounge only to find that it was not open either.   There was an American Express  lounge next door. Nothing ventured,... I thought. And gave the door lady some version of  my 'No longer young' spiel.' Which worked. 

In Singapore airport I discovered that the plane I was booked on was actually going onto New York.   A bit later, I found i was sitting in the  lounge next to a guy from NY who said he was going to NY, had the same flight number on his boarding pass and i must be wrong because he said he was not stopping in Frankfurt.  "suit yourself " I thought. He took his belongings and grumped off saying he was going to check.   To give him some credit, he did come back and said I was right about his plane stopping in Frankfurt. But he went onto say that there was another flight leaving 15 min later that went to Frankfurt that must be my flight.  

To be continued. It's bedtime. 

Just checking...

... that this space still works.  This time in 4 weeks I will be in the lounge at Melbourne airport waiting for a plane to Singapore, then I wait for a plane to Frankfurt, then I think I may have to rush to catch my plane to Malta. 

Manly - last few days

 On Sunday I walked around the harbour  along the Manly to Spit Bridge walk. In 2016 I did this walk,  about 10km from the Spit Bridge to Manly. Previously I had walked the same walk with my mother  and maybe father and some of my school aged ( i think) kids . This time I only planned on walking about 4 km  and  then returning to Manly. I got as far as Forty Baskets  beach. Apparently in 1885 a catch of 40 baskets of fish was sent to a contingent of Sudanese troops at  north Head quarantine station  from this beach. Hence the name.

Yesterday I walked in the opposite direction towards Little Manly beach, then on, up and down, up and down till I got to Collins Flat Beach. This is just inside the Sydney Harbour Foreshore National Park.  I was not far from North Head. 

Shortly my cousin arrives. She will spend the night here then  I go with her to her  home in Katoomba for a few days.

Manly

I want to have a record of the places i have been for the 2 weeks I will have been in Manly. 

For the 3 days Noel was here with me  we....

    Walked to Little Manly and then to the nearby park where there is information about and remains of a wharf where boats with coal were unloaded and the coal was turned into gas. And return through different streets with an interesting variety of housing.

   Walked to Fairlight beach

   Went to the Anzac Day service

    Pottered around the botanic gardens

For the rest of the time ....

    I have caught up with 3 friends and enjoyed 3 different but all delicious meals

   Walked to Shelley Beach, then up onto the plateau and walked along mostly bush tracks to North Head. Spectacular view. 

    Walked north along the coast to North Curl Curl stopping at rest spots, views etc.

    On the day I was meeting a friend at CQ I went into CQ early and walked to Barangaroo and caught the metro 1 stop to martin place.  The new underground  station was fascinating. Very light and open. You could stand at the bottom and see escalators above you. 

   Yesterday I had an interesting day. I wondered how many of the 10 ferry lines could i go on comfortably in 1 day. ( F1, F2, F6, F5 and F10)

Leg 1  F1 Manly to Circular Quay

Leg 2   F2 CQ to Taronga zoo ferry terminal

Leg 3  walk to Mosman Bay Ferry Terminal

Leg 4  F6 Mosman bay to CQ

Leg 5  F5 CQ to Neutral bay,  coffee and cake at wharf cafe

Leg 6  F5 neutral bay to CQ

Leg 7  F4 CQ to Pyrmont bay

Leg  8  walk to blackwater Bay Ferry terminal stopping at fish markets for lunch

Leg 9 F10 Blackwater Bay to Barangaroo,.  Tiny ferry looking like a bathtub with a lid

Leg 10 walk from Barangaroo  to CQ

Leg 11 F1 CQ to Manly . This maybe counts because it was the fast ferry and i started the day on the slow ferry.

I left Manly at about 8.30 and got back at 4pm. A day well spent. Lots of sitting, but I also walked a total of a bit over 11km.

 Today is a day of rest.

Wedneday in Botanic Gardens and home Thursday

 On Wednesday I did not venture far from my hotel , only as far as the Botanic gardens where I  pottered around some more and sat for a while.  I walked along some different roads. 

My return home was uneventful and my home was as I left it. 

Now to think and plan for my next trip. Maybe Florence?

Tuesday, more beach walking

Tuesday was a longish day. I walked to Prahan markets, but the shop I wanted was closed, so I caught the train to Elsternwick, as planned. There is a shop that only sells gluten free stuff that I tried to visit a week or 2 ago but it was closed. It was open, so I had a large piece of pizza and a blueberry muffin( the lightest gf muffin I have ever had) for breakfast . This was instead of a croissant. The owner told me to come back in a month and they would have gf croissants. They almost had the recipe and ingredients right. We had an interesting  conversation.

Next I walked west towards Elwood and the water and where I had stopped walking  south from St kilda on a previous day. Then I walked south along a path . It was a lovely walk in nice weather for a change, not very windy like it has been.   Water on my right and huge houses or parks on my left. The path petered out at the bathing boxes at Brighton but luckily the tide was going out so there was hard sand to walk along.  Then more path till I stopped at Brighton Beach where there is a train station close to the coast. And luckily close to a large pub where I had a lateish,  large but average lunch.. I caught the train back and stopped at Prahan and luckily the shop I wanted was open. I was a bit tired walking back to my apartment.  

Monday Fitzroy again

On Monday I went into the city for coffee at  a place i had been recomended. Another very small space into which not many people could squeeze, but I managed to. Then I walked a circuitous  route through the edge of East Melbourne to a different  part of Fitzroy, a very eclectic mix of housing, shops, cafes,bars . One of the streets I walked along was  the street that divides Fitzroy and Collingwood. I had an interesting conversation with a local man sitting on a bench with his dog. He reckoned there was a distinct difference in people between the 2 suburbs .  

I walked back to the city and spent a long time in Lincraft talking to a lady who was also buying embroidery threads. She was a textile artist and had stuff in an exhibition. Then back here.

Narre Warren North, SE of Melbourne

I usually quite like sitting in trains, despite my whinge about yesterday. I can switch most of my brain off. Today was a good day. Several trains and a bus to visit Noel's  delightful great granddaughter and her dads. She is delightful, growing fast, just started to walk. Then back here again.

Williamstown Saturday

I had a lovely day walking in   Williamstown. Getting there was a bit fraught. I had to change twice, despite the ladyin the train over the loudspeakers saying the train was all stops to Williamstown.  She was not having a good day because on one of the 3 trains she told us that the connecting train would leave from a different platform to the one that it left from. I walked from the station to the  beach that looks southwards, then around from there eastwards, then northwards along the coast to newport and train home. I stopped for food and drink at various places. One of the highlights was sitting on a stone wall on a pier eating 6 oysters from a fisherman's stall watching the boats around me and the contrast. There was a small very heavy duty tugboat- like fishing vessel near a beautiful, sleek racing yacht having its hull cleaned.

Wed Fitzroy, Thur Ivanhoe, Fri Prahan

I have a little book of things to do in Melbourne and in it there is a walk around Fitzroy, describing the history and style of some of the buildings. So that was the focus for Wednesday morning. It was most enjoyable, despite the rain, though my book did need careful drying out. I had a nice lunch at a small place serving Columbian food which was most enjoyable. There were corn based pancake like things or rice based dishes Lots of choice.

Yesterday late morning I left  here to catch 2 trains and then walk, to  the home of a cousin of John's who I haven't seen for 15 years. She has very similar aged kids and granddads and interests as me. We got on very well. It was lovely to catch up with her.

Today i have done nothing much, other than walk around more streets that I haven't walked on before in Prahan, just south of here.

Tuesday's Lowlight Melbourne Central

This mornings aim was to walk along Lygon St in Carlton and see an exhibition in the Melbourne uni. I got out of the train, as planned at Melbourne Central station. I tried to follow the signs to a road but I ended up in another noisy, flashy signs , too many people  etc etc shopping centre /mall/ emporium/?whatever. I got out, but it was the days lowlight. 

I enjoyed wandering up Lygon Street, but at 10 am I was a bit early.  But there was an open interesting cafe, more Greek than Italian, that was OK.  Then I went west to the edge of the Melbourne Uni campus. The  Potter Museum of Art has a new exhibition on  called 65,000 years : A short History of Australian Art. I really enjoyed the exhibition, though didnot take in all 400 works. It was well arranged.