Ghastly hotels
Ghastly hotels
An old chap sheltering from the rain under a 5000 year old bus shelter
It was raining hard this morning (the first rain of the holiday and hopefully the last) so we got in the car and drove round the touristy areas in the east of the island. All resorts we might have stayed in if we had been lazy, big discounts, no hassle etc. They were all ghastly places, run down 1970’s hotels and scruffy promenades. I know most seaside resorts look horrid in the rain but these were truly awful, a lucky escape.
We then had an amazing experience: We arrived at another neolithic temple site, walked through the entrance gate and a curator came quickly over to check our tickets. We did not have any and there were no signs saying where they could be purchased or for how much. She told us that we had to buy them in the Council Offices, which she admitted were closed, or at a cafe a 10 minute walk away. She gave us a smart colour leaflet with an aerial photograph showing where the cafe was. So off we went to find it, via a very nice bar which did an excellent pint of beer. The landlord was a little surprised about our quest, he pointed across the road to the cafe where we were supposed to buy the tickets, it has been closed for some while and was having some serious structural work done on it.
A Victorian wall
It did have a sign on the wall outside saying “Buy your tickets here” but clearly selling tickets to an archaeological site were outside the builders comfort zone. Back to the site, the curator was most unhelpful and I adopted my super grumpy modus operandi and frightened her sufficiently that she went back into her hut whilst we walked round the site for free. A French party of four arrived and started to go through the same palaver but gave up, they did not want to see a pile of stones that much. The curator must be costing at least €10 an hour but is not trusted to sell tickets, what a carry on.
An idea the Romans had to control Britain was to build a wall right across the country. The Victorians were always open to new ideas so they built a wall right across Malta (it is only 10 miles) to make it difficult for anyone to attack the important naval yards in the south. The wall is called the "Victoria Lines" and is quite impressive. Tomorrow is my birthday so I might not post a blog as I might be tired and emotional. Anyone who is as old as me might know which politician was always described as "Tired and Emotional" - answer in the next blog, I bet you can't wait.
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