Category: Travel

Carnival and Churches

  A few tourists but mostly Maltese pour into Gozo for Carnival. The usual population is elderly but Carnival is for the young and thirsty. Robert and I must be the only people who didn’t have a drink – but we didn’t stay long. The parade hadn’t started which made it easy to take these… Continue reading Carnival and Churches

Martello Towers

The coastline of the British Isles was defended in the 19th century by Martello towers. One, in Aldeburgh in Suffolk, belongs to the Landmark Trust – you can rent it and stay there. James Joyce stayed in another Martello, in Sandycove near Dublin. Why are they called Martello? Signore Martello was a Venetian architect who… Continue reading Martello Towers

Indian Summer and Belisha Beacons

The tortuous and blood-stained road to Indian independence and partition is uncannily like the path taken in other countries. The most important political leaders are Mahatma Gandhi (Inner Temple), Mohammad Ali Jinnah (Lincoln’s Inn) and Jawaharlal Nehru (Harrow, Trinity College Cambridge and Inner Temple) …  and Lord Mountbatten who, like my cousin Richard, went to… Continue reading Indian Summer and Belisha Beacons

Building on Gozo

The buildings on Gozo are mostly built in warm, honey-coloured limestone. They often have elaborately carved balconies, columns and pediments although many were only built in the 1980s and 90s. Perhaps this is because there are strict planning laws and to retain Gozo’s reputation as a heritage island? Where does this limestone come from?

Living on Malta

Who wrote this to his wife? I wish I knew how to flirt with other women, and especially with my wife. I wish I’d sown more wild oats in my youth, and could excite more than I fear I do. I wish I wasn’t in the Navy and had to drag you out to Malta.… Continue reading Living on Malta

First Gozo Walk

On 2nd April 1951 my aunt was about to give birth to her first child. Richard was born the following day. On Gozo in Malta the Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, was doing a spot of sightseeing. She visited The Lace House and saw a demonstration of traditional lace-making.

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South of Tunis

It’s that red pin again.. This morning it marks Gozo, one of the twenty-one islands in the Maltese archipelago. Having never been here before and erratic Geography it comes as a surprise to see that I am south of Tunis.

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A Place in the Country

People often talk of having “a place in the country” a splendidly non-specific expression that means anything from a castle set in 10,000 acres that has been in the family since the reign of Elizabeth I to a rented potting shed. My place in the country in the 1990s was the latter.

A Tale of Two Banks

Martin Vander Weyer writes in The Spectator about Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. It comes close to the top of a few league tables: Italy’s third largest bank, Europe’s weakest bank, the world’s oldest bank.

Fingers on the Button

If you live in a democracy it’s a good plan to have the casting vote (just in case). Votes cast for watching University Challenge at home are exactly 50% in favour but I don’t have that casting vote, so it’s a treat to be on my own for a few days and to indulge.