Euro Spring 2015 - Part 18 & 19 - A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That

Where Our Heroes

• Partake of the Sabbath
• Find Kris has feet of clay
• Have an oenological revelation
• Escape the public transit dragnet
• Prove once again the superiority of TripAdvisor over Google Maps even in the Neolithic
• Dig deep for the truth about the Knights
• Find a worthy challenger to Sarcophagus World
• And confront their worse nemesis face-to-face

And on the 7th day he rested...and so did we.  On Sunday we declared a 'day of repose'.  It was a lovely morning.  The wind was down and the sea was like glass.  The sun was so warm on the patio that we went out and had breakfast there.

About the only thing we did all day is go out to Sunday lunch.  And we went to our the same place we've gone twice before Ta Kris.  We had another lovely meal but I must say things weren't perfect.  The chef had a ton of specials on the menu and as a result I think the attention slipped on some of the basics.

We started with a trio of dips that included an aioli, a bean dip, and a dip of bread, tomatoes and herbs.

I had a mixed grill of beef, lamb, and three sausages

The beef was cooked really well, the sausages were very tasty, the mashed potatoes excellent but the lamb was a bit over spiced and overcooked.

Wife had a trio of fish - two local along with a scallop in a sauce

The fish were excellent as was the sauce for the scallop (you may remember what I said about his sauces last time we were here).  But if you look at the roasted potatoes (that were superb the last two times) they were clearly over done.  And we noticed the vegetables that were also high points the previous two times, were not quite as sharp.

All that being said, we still enjoyed our meal and the lovely service.  It is unusual to go to a place a number of times in row and be content and we are still happy about.  I suspect we'll take our last meal in Malta here.

Let's talk about wine...Maltese wine to be exact.  Wife and I have given Maltese wine the good college try.  We've had numerous bottles at our apartment and loads at the restaurants we've gone to and we've come to a conclusion.  Maltese wine is the 'New Mexican' wine of Europe.  This is not a complement.  We had a bottle of Italian with our meal Sunday at Ta Kris.

After lunch we went for a stroll on the Strand

The Maltese love their birds and evidently there have been problems with people having their dogs attack them.

 

Monday it was back on the tourist trail.  We took the bus to the Tarxien Temples another neolithic site.  On the way the Slightly Powerful, Phoenix Kitty God of Maltese Public Transportation had a surprise for us.  At one of the stops the local public transit officials came on board and checked to see if everyone's tickets were valid!  We were legal but they got one guy and fined him 10 euros on the spot.

The Tarxien complex is another of these crazy "you mean people have been here for 5500 years" experiences.  We had a little trouble finding it.  I thought it was on a map in our guide book but it wasn't.  I resorted to Google Maps which as usual took for ever to load and then didn't give me the detail I was looking for.  Fortunately, I remembered the TripAdvisor app has attractions so I searched for attractions near me and it came right up as did the map.  Doesn't TripAdvisor use Google Maps?  Maybe not.  All I know is that it has been much more reliable to us.

We walked back and caught a bus back to Vittoriosa.  We'd missed one of the attractions there on Saturday, the Malta Maritime Museum which is on our Malta Heritage card.  Got to get the full use out of the card you know.  Again the TripAdvisor map was our guide.  I have been reading a lot of naval history in recent years and this gave vision to much that I'd been reading about.  There was even an acknowledgment that the Knights of St. John had been professional 'Corsairs' that is to say legal pirates.  But it was okay you know because it was mostly against Muslims and they're the devil.  (Other histories will tell you that the Knights were a little free in their definition of who was a devil in their corsair activities.)

We had lunch down on the waterfront

Now I know you may be thinking that de-I is getting a little morbid with all this expansive monumental funerary planning.  Fear Not!  For in Vittoriosa, Malta we have.....

...World O Yachts!

Yes.  You can't just claim that you're an up and coming megalomaniac by only having a castle like residence and phenomenal place for your remains.  You need a yacht.  I'm not talking about some nice big power boat readers.  I'm talking a statement yacht.

How about this for well stated elegance?

Or maybe...

Perhaps this would better suit?

But I think not.  No if I'm going to do a yacht Wife says...

,,,it has to have its own helicopter and landing pad.

But I don't want you to think that Wife and I are going to be going around with our nose stuck up in the air.  We like to make sure that there is a bit of that human touch around even our yacht.

We were just getting ready to head for home when suddenly it tried to pounce on us.  Our nemesis, the demon...

...Cruise Ship

Fortunately we were able to beat a retreat before it could send out its attack tour buses to overwhelm us with mindless groups wired to their guides trampling over every unfortunate other tourist who might be happening to try and see a site.