February 24/25 – Balzan, Malta

Sunday was laundry and relax at home day. We got two loads done, the machine did a great job. No drier so we used the rack. Sunday was also cook at home night, the coq au vin turned out really well. We also roasted potatoes and brussel sprouts – yum, yum. It rained lightly on and off pretty much all day and the wind was still fairly strong, we could tell by the movement of the TV aerial on the roof of the houses opposite us.

About to enjoy our coq au vin

Today we planned to see two things, the Hypogeum, an underground burial complex from 3600BC. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and we did read, more than once, that admittance is limited so you have to get tickets in advance. However, our collective memories failed us and we did not book in advance and arrived at the site to find that tickets were currently being sold for the end of March ! We could have got last minute tickets for 40 euro each if we wanted to wait until 4pm. But aside from not wanting to wait to 4pm (this was around 11am) which meant coming back later in the day, we also didn’t really want to pay 40 euro. We went to an outdoor prehistoric site that was nearby called the Tarxien Temples. It was a bit like like the Temples on Gozo, very interesting and the way the one was guided around the site was really well done like it was on Gozo.

Temples at Tarxien, person in background gives idea of scale

Next we hopped back on the bus to head to Marsaxlokk, which is a fishing village in the south east end of Malta. The harbour was full of colourful fishing boats but we were a bit disappointed that other than restaurants, there were no other shops in the harbour. We had a delicious lunch in the harbour, pricey but really good, we shared fresh sea bream and red snapper – yum. It was overcast so the harbour didn’t look quite as charming as it would have in the sunshine.

Back at home now after two bus rides and will need to make our plans for tomorrow.

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