Watchtowers – Light the fires…

Ok…first of all, watch this – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LGJ7evrAg

Now, there was a point to that wee clip.  Look at this –

This is the Wikipedia Link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul’s_Bay_Tower

And this is the story as I know it.  Not long ago I returned from a brief spell in Scotland and when I landed in Luqa (the town where the airport is) I was picked up by a lovely guy who runs an airport taxi service.  Seriously, this guy rocks, he was chatty and relaxed and in no way stand-offish like some of the cabbies in Edinburgh…

What I knew about these towers was pretty limited.  I got the general gist of things from the taxi-man, but not all the details.

These towers are watchtowers, with the first one built in around 1610 by the then Grand Master Wignacourt to keep an eye out for invasion forces.  About 50 years earlier they were forced to defend themselves in the biggest war up to that point in history – ending with the Great Siege of 1565 (more on that in another post…I mean, like, seriously, it’s so fricking difficult writing a post for here because there’s so much to mention that (well things that I find interesting) it can be very difficult to tell stories against the Ottomans).

Anyhow, rant over, the point in these towers was that if a force was spotted then a fire would be lit as a signal to all of the other towers (in the end there were about 30 of them dotted mainly around the coast) and so that Mdina (the old capital) could see.  From every tower, the plan was that you could see two others.

As I understand it, at this time Valletta was still in the process of being rebuilt from the Ottoman invasion so Mdina was still the capital pending the completion of Valletta.

Somewhere below, in one of the previous posts, is a picture of sunrise from one of the other towers (name’s escaped me…), but the tower above was the first one built.  It was built in St Paul’s Bay which is just round the corner on the other side of the peninsula from Qawra.  Which is pretty cool in itself.

 

Mosta Dome

Sometimes it’s a little bit difficult when there’s an elephant in the room that you don’t really want to talk about, but you know you’re going to have to at some point…mainly because it’s a big blooming elephant…

Mosta Dome is what the Rotunda of Mosta is commonly known as.  It was once the third largest unsupported dome in the world (until sports stadiums were included in the count) but remains an impressive sight in the centre of this bustling city.

First, the link to Wikipedia –> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosta

I like Wikipedia.  It’s pretty.  And sometimes full of crap.  It appeals to me.  As to the authenticity of the content?  Meh.

But here’s something it doesn’t tell you…sort of.

On the 9th of April 1942, during an afternoon air-raid, a Luftwaffe bomb weighing 200kg fell through the roof of the church in Mosta (see absolutely amazingly awesome picture below and bask in its awesome-ness) with  two other bombs also striking the roof, but bouncing to a safe distance.  The one that found it’s way through struck the floor in the middle of a busy mass – roughly 300 people.

Amazingly, it didn’t explode.  The churchgoers all escaped with barely a scratch.  No one was harmed.

Now this is where it gets even more interesting.  I’ve been told (and read) that both of the following occurred.  I have no idea which is true, but I’m sure it’s easy enough to find out considering that there’s a replica of the bomb sitting in the back of the church.  But anyhow, I digress.

a) After the church was evacuated, the bomb disposal team was called in and the bomb was successfully diffused.

OR

b) After the church was evacuated, the bomb disposal team was called in and started the process of diffusing it.  Once the outer cap was removed, a piece of paper fell out saying the words ‘Greetings from…’.  According to some, the bomb was produced in a factory outside of Germany which at one point went on strike.  Instead of stopping work, however, the strike was that the workers refused to arm the bombs – instead dropping funny little notes inside of the harmless shells.  The Mosta Dome was possibly hit by one of those.  (I sayharmless but in truth, if one of those big things happened to land on some poor soul…well…my money’s on the bomb coming out the better of the two.)

I do not know which one is true, but above the replica of the bomb in the church is a plaque explaining the story.  I’ve never read it because I like the mystery of it.

Sunrise/Sunset

I’ve been really lucky this last few years.  This year is no exception, because I’ve been blessed with some spectacular views from where I lived.  To put it into perspective (I’m recycling old photo’s here…I admit it) I’ve got 2 pics from my time in Edinburgh, and one from the garden in Malta.

This was taken from Calton Hill in Edinburgh, it’s of Edinburgh’s Disgrace just when the sun went down -

This was taken about 30 ft to the left on a different night, but again just when the sun went down -

I love a good sunset, I’m weird like that.  but I also appreciate a damn good sunrise, and I’m so lucky that I get a pretty awesome one in the garden! The pic is a little out of focus, but that’s just ’cause I was zoomed in at about 12x.  I complain that there’s nothing to do in Qawra…and I’m right, but the views can be pretty awesome -

That’s an old watchtower built to keep an eye out for invading forces.  There’s about 30 of them dotted around the coast, placed for the lonely watchers to scan all horizons for attacking armadas…

Qawra

Qawra…a city of…well, truth be told, foreign people.  I can’t really comment though, considering that I’m one of those foreigners.  It really is quite a boring place to live in if you’re a tourist, however it’s the main place that tourists stay.  Not visit, stay.

Qawra, Bugibba, St Paul’s Bay and Xemxjia all fall under the same locality of San Pawl il-Bahar.  There’s some pretty interesting history about this area, but that’s for a different day.

God…there’s so much I want to write, but it’s difficult prioritising them all.  Currently they’re all headed under ‘Misc’ in my noggin.

So…why Qawra?  Why move into to Qawra, with it’s elegant coastline, with it’s over abundance of…coastline, and it’s deep stock of more…well…coastline?  Simply put, I like it here.  There’s a decent bus station and I’ve got family close by.  (Plus it’s fairly cheap.)

There’s also a supermarket!  Which is useful.

Now I’m not being sarcastic here, there aren’t really that many supermarkets around, loads of mini-markets, but few supers.  So the fact that there’s a super one nearby is just great!

Anyhow’s, like I said, there’s not a lot to do here except enjoy the view.  This is it at night -

In the beginning…

Check this out!  There’s a good photo in the Times of Malta (online at – http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100910/local/thunderbolt-strikes-mistra)

So, here I am.  A few months down the line and finally starting to blog.  It’s taken me a while to get to this stage because it’s not all been plain sailing from arrival to now.  In fact, some of it has been down right irritating.

So…a blog about Malta.  It’s full of ticks (not the insect…the behavioral thing) but if you want to live here, you have to embrace them like family and accept them.

So, armed with a nice wee compact camera, here we go.

I’m gonna start with absolutely no logic whatsoever, I just like this photo.

Not far from Valletta lies the city of Birgu.  I was walking along the embankment one afternoon and snapped this one up! It’s a decent example of the place I call (third) home and sums it up quite nicely.