Monthly Archives: January 2015

Gozo, Malta

On to Malta

Travel day Sunday, Jan 11 (Go HAWKS!!)

Norberto arranged for his regular taxi driver to pick us up at 5 a.m. (Aurg!). 15 minute ride to airport and search for Ryan Air’s ticket counter.

NOTE : Ryan Air (a big Boeing customer) is a budget carrier.  Our 2.5 hr flight to Malta on a 737-800 was $60 each.  The reverse trip will cost us $45.  What you give up for that price is:

  • a seat that reclines
  • a seat back pocket and it’s contents,
  • an assigned seat. You can pay for the privilege, or get their random pick for free.
  • an email reminder the day before the flight.  You can chose to get it for a fee.  See a pattern here?
  • music and tv/movies. The armrests are totally free of buttons, plugs etc.
  • complementary anything – nothing on the food cart is free, including water.
  • a heavy carry-on.  They have weight limits  for carry on bags.

Dave’s suitcase, which fit as carry-on flying to Europe (and within the states) was larger than their max carry-on size, so it had to be checked – for a fee.  If you make the mistake of thinking your bag WILL fit as a carry on and it doesn’t, that fee is double at the gate.  We did witness 2 young ladies in this bind – trying in vain to squish their hard shell bags into the little measuring box. 🙁  There are more restrictions, all of which are detailed on their website.  Ryan Air and Easyjet are great options for budget travel, just be advised to do your homework to avoid surprises.

Back to Sunday!

Flight was uneventful – we flew over the north coast of Africa, and arrived in a cloud-covered, windy (palm trees swaying) Malta.

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Took local bus from the Malta airport..

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to the ferry dock at north end of the island.  The 30 minute ferry ride (cars & walk-ons) took us to the island of Gozo.

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The island of Gozo is a part of Malta, just a little smaller and greener (less populated)  island than the main island.  Our lodging  host (Joe) picked us up at the ferry terminal.  We could have taken a taxi, or 2 different buses to get to the town of Xlendi, where our 1 week rental is located.   Graciously he offered to stop at a supermarket for us to get provisions, as our little beach town of Xlendi has no grocery store – though it does have has 18 restaurants! – Laura

Madrid Jan 2015

Our Apartment in Madrid

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We only drink wine with corks…You can’t really tell but this pepper is huge

This is the link to the airbnb site posting of the place we stayed in in Madrid:

https://www.airbnb.com.mt/rooms/2788425?guests=2&s=U9oZ

Some notes about constructions style that most of you probably don’t care about.

1) toilet water is fed to the top right of the tank rather than the bottom left as they are in the states

2) the apartment heating is a modern radiator with gas fed boiler.  The boiler heats all the water both for sinks/showers and the heating radiators.

3) Instead of our typical front door locking door nob and deadbolt, their doors have a lock insert that is inset all the way up and down the door.  You turn the key several times around and each time a dead bolt like protrusion extends further into the door jamb.  The main difference however is that the “deadbolts” are three sets of three deadbolts, one set at the top, middle, and bottom of the door.  Each of the three deadbolt sets has three 1/2 inch round deadbolts about an inch apart.   In addition you have to turn the key to get into the apartment as there is no door nob to turn to unlatch the door.  So three revolutions of the key, two to unlock the deadbolts and the third to unlatch the door.

4) washer and dryer are combined in one unit and frequently located in the kitchen

5) in all of the airbnb posts I have never seen a dishwasher

6) the refrigerator/freezer in our unit was probably a foot taller than we see in the states but a little skinnier as well and very quiet in operation (made by LG).

7) most residences have metal roll down blinds/shutters outside of the windows and they use them, although I don’t quite know why.

8) our fairly new apartment did not have a closet in the bedroom and I believe that is typical.  One buys an amour to put in the bedroom for clothes. -Dave

Madrid Jan 2015

Palacio Real

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Looking up the staircase in the Royal Palace

 

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The Royal Palace in Madrid

 

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Almudena Cathedral faces the Palace

 

I visited the  Palacio Real (The Royal Palace)  in downtown Madrid.   It was built from 1738 to 1755.  The Spanish royal family does not live here today instead living in another palace on the outskirts of town.  This palace is now used for special occasions.  There was a music room in the palace that contained 5 Stradivarius instruments in display cases (two violins, one viola, a small cello and a normal size cello) which is the only complete Stradivarius quintet in the world.  Another impressive room was the dining room with the table set for what looked like about 100 people.  It is hard to imagine daily life living in this 3418 room 1,450,000 square foot home. -Dave

Madrid Jan 2015

Reflecting on Madrid

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Madrid is a large city, and we only saw a little slice of it, which was probably typical of the rest of the city.  Lots to see and do. The people are delightful and willing to help when asked, and we had blue skies every day.  The only negative I would note is the litter 🙁

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The Spaniards LOVE their ham (jambon).  It’s the most common sandwich, and there are many stores that sell just ham and sausages.

IMG_1038The Spanish seem to exercise their right to peaceful protest often. We saw 3 different protests – all very organized.  This one was against some changes (firings?) at the Coca Cola plant.

Ten delightful days into our adventure and we’re off  to Malta, and some musings about low cost air carriers. Laura

Madrid Jan 2015

Caixa Forum Museum – updated

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Added 2 interior photos of the staircases in this unique building, the first was stone, the second steel:

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This is a really unique building – the center core supports the building, with most of it cantilevered.  One can walk under it through to the other side.  Note the brick lower 1/2 and the steel plate facade on the upper 1/2.

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We toured the museum, and then had a coffee break on the top floor.  From this inside shot, you can better see the pattern cut into the steel façade. – Laura

Madrid Jan 2015

Images from our Saturday stroll

IMG_1051This is the soccer stadium that is 3/4 mile from our apartment, though it sure sounded closer when the game was going.

IMG_1056Did not see one of these in action, but mopeds, motorcycles, scooters are understandably popular, with the parking challenges.

 

IMG_1049Nope – we didn’t do it!!  This is a mail box, comparable to our blue boxes. Laura

 

General info

Planning

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We have been planning our next steps.  Before we left Tacoma we booked flights from Madrid to Malta at 6:20 on January 11 and our first place to stay on Gozo.  Malta is an archipelago but from a population standpoint consist of two main islands, Malta itself, sometimes called Valletta which is the capital of Malta, and Gozo.   Gozo is about 26 square miles and 38,000 people.  It is about 8.7 miles by 4.5 miles – not a very big Island.   The main Island of Malta is 94 square miles and 400,000 people.  We will be in Malta for about a month, the first 8 days on Gozo and the remaining on the “big island”.  Today we looked at the bus schedule and found we can take the 1X bus from the airport to the le-Cirkewwa ferry dock where we will travel on to Gozo.  The proprietor for our Gozo place said he will pick us up at the dock if we let him know our schedule.  Looks like the ferry leaves about every 45 minutes.  You can buy a bus ticket for all day for 1.5 euro and the airport buses allow for luggage.   We also just booked our first place to stay when we return to the big island.  We booked two weeks but told the proprietor we may stay a third.  This particular place is only 20 euro a night ($24) a pretty good price but did not want to commit the whole time without seeing it.  The proprietor said he would reserve the third week just in case.  Malta is interesting in that it is an amalgamation of every society in the area.  It was of military interest due to its central location in the Mediterranean and as a result, everyone conquered it at one time or another.  Since control shifted from one country to another over the centuries, the culture retains aspects of  both Europe and north Africa.  We took the picture above and added it to the “About Us” link at the top of the blog.  -Dave