Mdina is much quieter than Valletta and a bit smaller. Out of all the places we went, it was Simons favorite. This is the Mdina city gate:
When you first walk in and to the right is the entrance to the Mdina Dungeons, which are below the Palazzo Vilhena. There's a series of tableaux, recreating scenes of torture. I won't post them here, as I don't want to risk any minors seeing them. There's a complete album on my FB. It was fairly interesting,and the dummies were well done. Well worth the €4 admission.
We just meandered around the streets, avoiding huge tourist groups and looking in shops. This one is outside the entrance to the Natural History Museuem:
Everywhere you go, there's artwork/sculptures on buildings.
One of the favorite ways to get around the cities is by a horse drawn cab. We preferred to walk, but here's a shot of one:
After wandering around, we decided to grab something to eat. The guidebook raved that the Fontanella Tea Garden had views that were second to none, so we headed over there. The food and service were great. The only problem we had was when we took the check to the till to pay. No credit cards. Once again, information you may want to let people know from the get-go. This wasn't the first or last time we encountered this problem, so we got into the habit of checking places out first. When we go back, we'll make sure we always have cash on us.
And the book was right, the view was fantastic.
Walked back towards the gates and headed across the street to Rabat to see the Catacombs.
Now, before I go any further I have to say that neither of us cared for Rabat. It's on the creepy side. You know those movies with those empty foreign streets that when you do see someone it's like they're looking at you as if they wish you'd get the hell out? That's Rabat. I couldn't wait to get out of there.
First we looked at the ruins of a Roman Villa behind the Roman Architecture Museum:
It took awhile going around those streets to find St. Pauls Catacombs, as the streets aren't marked, we just had the map in the book. Along the way, Simon made a friend...
I stopped to pet him, and he smelled the sandwiches in the bag Simon had and followed him all over. Think he managed to lose him in a group of tourist. When we came out of the ticket office for the catacombs, an employee was shooing him away cause he was trying to follow people down into them.
The catacombs were constructed because Maltas Christians didn't believe in the Roman law stipulating cremation, so they copied the Palestinian Jews by carving out these labyrinths and using them as a burial ground.
Not much else to say about Rabat. We were going to check out the Roman museum, but were too tired, so we just went back to the hotel. It's on our to do list the next time we go back. Fortunately, it's right on the outskirts of the city, so we won't have to wander around again.
When we got back to the hotel, within minutes the entire block lost power. The elevators were working, and they had power to the lobby. We had a drink down there and then went back up to the room and sat on the balcony. When the power came back on there was a huge amount of cheering from the street. Oh, and I did review Paprazzi, the one where we got dirty looks for just having coffee, on tripadvisor.com. It's not posted yet. I couldn't find a web site for the restaurant, but I did find an email address for someone connected with it. I sent them a copy of what I'd wrote on TA:
"My husband and I stopped at Paparazzi on March 21st around 5-6 p.m. We liked the menu, so our plans were to have a coffee in your outdoor area, walk around a bit and come back for dinner. Below is a copy of the review I have sent to Tripadvisor.co.uk. All I can tell you is that our server had blond hair and a serious attitude problem.
"My husband and I were in Malta around the 20th of March. After a day of sightseeing in Valletta, we decided to find somewhere for a coffee, walk around a bit then go and eat. The menu posted outside Paparazzi looked good, so we figured we'd have a quick cup then come back later for a meal. When we were sitting down, a server came up to us with menus, but I told her we just wanted two coffees. This netted us a dirty look. She came back with them and that was the last we saw of her. She didn't come anywhere near us again until some people sat down at the table next to us. She met my eyes at least 3 times and not once asked if we needed anything and took off quickly each time. Tired of trying to get her attention for the bill, I met the eyes of another server who came over and asked if we needed anything. I replied that we were fine and ready for the check.
10 minutes later we were still sitting, despite our original server going back and forth around us. I finally cornered her at the bar and told her we had asked the other server for our check and were still waiting. Her reply was that we'd told the other girl and not her. I said I would have gladly told her we were ready had she bothered to ask us if we needed anything, and that she had looked right at us several times and still couldn't be troubled.
I cannot review the food as there was absolutely no way we were going to eat there after this. I can only assume that, as we were there around the dinner hour, she was upset because she wouldn't be making any big tips off of us. Well, she was right...she got nothing."
Basically, we spent 15 minutes drinking our coffee, and another 20 waiting for our servers attention. I'm sorry if our wanting a simple cup of coffee is such a problem for your restaurant."
I've not gotten a response (probably won't), but at least the email didn't get bounced back as invalid. I did find a couple of other reviews of the place, neither favorable. One said that when they got their food it was cold and they could tell that when it was brought back it had been microwaved as there was virtually no flavor. They also said that a bartender up the street had warned them not to eat there, but they figured they'd see for themselves.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment