Day Five Malta. 5/17/22. Tow Trucks and Towers

Hope all is well.

What started out as a really laid back day headed north to the “wild” areas of Malta turned into a wild experience for us, but not because of the natural currents.

We had breakfast at the hotel and headed out to get our car at the garage; following yesterday’s fiasco, today was a breeze—found the car quickly and set out for the day. Mike is now quite good at British style driving and I’m the official navigator. We were headed north to the area around Mellieħa whose landscape is different from the other areas we’ve visited. All went well, except for a few glitches of missing some turns but those were quickly corrected and we arrived at Paradise Bay, where signs told us there was no nude bathing (so we obviously had to change course) and then we were just outside Mellieħa. We saw a sign for the Red Tower and decided to investigate. When we arrived at the top of the hill (pretty high up), I mentioned to Mike that there was a parking spot on the left side, but Mike chose a spot on the right side; there weren’t any markers for parking so it was a bit of a scramble. It was a dirt parking area and there were very very few cars. We then climbed the stairs up to the Red Tower and were greeted by a very chatty 80+ year old who clearly likes his volunteer job.

He inquired where we were from and told us his daughter lives in San Carlos and had worked for FaceBook for several years and then went to a startup with even better salaries! Her husband works for Apple. And then he began to explain about the history of the Red Tower which is also called Saint Agatha’s Tower. FYI Saint Agatha was apparently a feminist and is the patron saint of breast cancer and wet nurses. Because of her “activism” her breasts were cut off and in many paintings of her you can see her breasts on the ground. The story of the Tower is complicated—it was built between 1647 and 1649, and its design is quite different from other towers built at the time. It was the last large bastioned tower to be built in Malta and has clear views of both Comino and Gozo islands and at the time could also see eastward to the line of other watchtowers along the north shore of Malta. It was the Knights’ primary stronghold in the western part of Malta, and had enough ammunition and supplies to withstand a siege of 40 days. 

Anyway, we climbed the spiral staircase to the top and got really great views of the coast and the land below. And then we headed out on our journey to visit several coastal villages and areas. We got into the car and Mike inched forward and then into reverse to turn the car around to leave the parking area. But the car didn’t go anywhere and the tires sounded like they were spinning. I got out to see what the problem was and saw immediately that the left tire was suspended in a square hole that was about three feet deep, about two feet wide and about a foot long.

There also was a very large rock wedged between the underside of the car. There was no way for us to get out of the lot; no way to move the car. Additionally there must have been some kind of plastic barrier that was “announcing” this ditch-like situation, which we never noticed or thought it was merely announcing a parking space on that right side. If it wasn’t such a mess, the whole thing might have been pretty funny.

A young couple immediately tried to help. I think they were Scandinavian. But they didn’t have a rope and only had a small rental car like us. Then a woman from Malta came to help and she phoned the rental car company figuring she could do a better job of explaining our location. At this point, Hertz said they would send a tow truck but they are based at the airport at the completely other side of the island. It would take at least an hour. We resigned ourselves to this solution and went back inside the red tower because it was cool and there were chairs. The guide we met when we entered was leaving and the second shift (another 80-year-old guy) had just come on duty. We explained what happened and I said “I’m really glad I was not the driver.” He responded, “I just heard him whisper that it was all your fault!” Later when he saw me photographing the tow truck and the car’s situation, he stated to Mike: “Uh oh… she’s going to post all of this on FaceBook!”

We hung out near the 10-minute video of the history of the tower and I think we “saw” it about 8 times (although neither of us paid much attention). Finally the Hertz guy showed up with a huge flat-bed truck, tied our car to his truck with a cable and pulled our car out of the “ditch” and away from the rock…. And we were on our way again, just about two hours later than planned.

We decided to eat at a beachside place called Munchies. Given the options, this was the best place. We only had salads and they were actually OK. By then it was about 4:45 so we decided to head back to Valletta to avoid arriving in the dark and encountering any more problems. We parked in our now “usual” space (which we now know exactly how to find) and strolled along Republic Street. 

By the way, yesterday we stumbled upon a demonstration about a journalist and assumed it was tied to the Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist killed by Israeli forces, but it turns out it was about a corruption journalist who was murdered in 2017. Daphne Caruana Galizia had uncovered all sorts of corruption in Malta’s government. She was killed by a car bomb. A recent report conducted by a group of judges released last week  says that the state “failed to recognize the real and immediate risks” to the journalist’s life and “failed to take reasonable steps to avoid them.” According to the Guardian, “Her death was met with outrage across Europe and embroiled Malta’s ruling Labor Party in a political scandal.” The report concluded that the assassination was either intrinsically or directly linked to Caruana Galizia’s investigative work. There is a lot more to the story and I’m sure you can google to find out more. Caruna has been described as a “one woman WikiLeaks.” 

Then we headed to Rubino’s for dinner. Rubino’s is a little family-run restaurant about 7 blocks from our hotel. You enter at ground level with the restaurant being on the first floor of a building that has upper floors. There’s a small dining room on that level with about four tables and then another room at the next level down, also with about four or five tables, and then another level below there is an additional dining area with one long table, for probably about ten or twelve diners—a family. The food was really good. We started with stuffed zucchini flowers and moved on to orecchiette with an Amatriciana sauce and spicy Maltese sausage. Then we shared the blue ling fish that was cooked in parchment with white wine, herbs, and lemon. The fish just melted in your mouth. Potatoes and veggies accompanied the main course. With this we had a bottle of Maltese wine.. the Marinisi which we’ve grown to really like. And we ended with a homemade cheesecake that was smothered in fresh lingonberries. Chatted a bit with one of the owners and headed on our walk back to the hotel.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow we leave our little home away from home at 66 St. Paul and head to Xara Palace Hotel in Mdina (they use a lot of consonants in Maltese). It’s only about a 30-minute drive, but we decided to stay two nights in central Malta to see what it’s like. Mdina used to be the capitol… 

Best-

Fern