Whoever Started Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tours was a Genius!

Josh and I have found that when we don't have a lot of time in one place that the hop-on, hop-off bus tours are fantastic.  I can hear the groans as you read this... "what, they are soooo touristy!".  Yes, they are totally touristy, but when I'm on vacation, last I checked, I am a tourist.  And often if we don't have much time, these buses (and sometimes boats) are the perfect way to hit all the hot spots that often lead us to that locale in the first place.  Now, it certainly doesn't take us to where the locals go, but it covers most of our bases.

I didn't expect there to be a hop-on, hop-off bus in Malta.  I was picturing the island to be more like Menorca which to my knowledge has nothing at all like this.  I always expect these types of tourist attractions in the bigger cities.  But given that Malta ended up being more city than we had anticipated, I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised.

Josh was on-board with the idea of doing the tour.  Since the island was more urban than we thought and they drive on the opposite side of the road, he really didn't have an interest in driving if he didn't need to, not to mention the obvious challenge of finding parking on an island that has the fifth highest number of vehicles per capita in the world!!

After talking with the concierge at the hotel, it was decided that we would do the south part of the island tour first and then if we had time, to do the north.  The south would take us through some historic areas but most importantly to us, to the Blue Grotto, an area famous for it's crystal clear waters and caves.

The bus took us thru Valletta which is the capital of Malta.  It was a pretty city with several harbors that boasted some centuries old buildings that were a beautiful accent to the yachts and small Maltese boats in the water.  We also passed by Manoel Island which is where Josh did some diving the day before near a WWII wreck.

Harbor in Valletta

Interesting fact about this church and many on the island - there are two clocks.  One with the real time and one with a fake time.  It is supposed to confuse the devil.  Who knew?

The kids on the bus... Liam listened to the tour for about 15 minutes before he requested his itouch.  I don't think Aidan even made it that long...

Valletta Harbor from another angle

Another harbor... in the forefront is a Chinese warship that was docked

This is where Josh did his diving

More harbors (there are a lot of harbors on this island)

View of church from the distance

Valletta Harbor

We didn't hop off as much as I thought we would.  Many of the locations just didn't intrigue us.  And many of the towns felt very run down.  I found it interesting that many were dated in the 1980s and 90s and looked like they could have built 100 years ago - yes, they seemed that decrepit.  In hindsight we wish we had gotten off at a fishing village right before we got to the Blue Grotto.  I don't think we anticipated that the Blue Grotto wouldn't take all that long.

Church and cemetery in the distance

Chinese warship

Yet another church

Vittoriosa Harbor

More of Vittoriosa Harbor

And more... it was really pretty though.  

Church at Vittoriosa Harbor

Building as we were driving along...

Marsaxlokk Fishing Village - this was our only regret on the trip, we wished we had gotten off the bus here to explore...

The fishing village with some of the traditional Maltese fishing boats...

More of the fishing village

So pretty!

Some of the little bit of countryside that we saw in the interior...

However, the Blue Grotto was pretty amazing.  Natural caves and water so clear you could see to the bottom of the Mediterranean.  We took a traditional Maltese boat and Aidan was pretty thankful that it was a quick, 20 minute tour of the caves (as impressive at they are, he tends to get pretty bored on these boat trips which then means lots of whining).  I must say that these are some of the most impressive caves that I've seen.  They were huge!!

As we approach the Blue Grotto

Huge falcon sitting on top of the roof

Look at how tall Aidan is getting...

Traditional boats in the grotto

As we head toward the caves... Liam was holding on to me with a death grip

Caves were much bigger than the pictures show

How gorgeous is this water???

The only other stop that we made in the south was at the Malta Falconry Centre.  We knew that the kids would love this part of the bus tour.  We made it just in time to catch part of the live show.  Unfortunately the part we missed was the part with the falcons but we did get to see some vultures and owls and got some one on one time with the owner.  The kids loved seeing all the birds and getting to even touch some of them!!

Cat that Liam took a picture of while we were at lunch...

This is Hagar Qim Temple - we had lunch next door.  But then we decided we weren't motivated enough to explore it with the kids since they wouldn't appreciate it.  They date back to pre-historical times (this temple is under that dome in the distance that protects it from the elements).  For actual pictures and information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%A6a%C4%A1ar_Qim

Liam as we wait for the bus to take us to the Falconry

Aidan with one of the owls

Vulture flying

And here he is in front of us... this particular vulture gets pink in the face when he is excited and otherwise has a white face.  

Eagle

Another owl

Falcons

Turtles

Up close to the falcon

The eagle is not very happy to be there...

After a relaxing night at the hotel, we decided that the best plan for our last day in Malta would be to do the bus again.  With all the traffic and so much congestion, we figured it would just be easier to hit our last few places using the bus.

Shortly after sunrise on our last day... view from hotel room

Near Valletta

The entire street was lined with buildings like this - just couldn't get the right shot with from the bus

Old aqueduct

Our first stop was the Mdina Glass - the kids got to see glass blowing for the first time.  Liam didn't have the attention span to watch it for long but Aidan was pretty fascinated by the assembly line process that the glass blowers had going.  We got some marbles for the kids and an ornament for our Christmas tree and were on our way to our next stop.

Liam in his world... he was done with the glassblowing...

The second stop was also the last that we did on the bus tour (other than going back to the hotel of course) - it was the ancient city of Mdina.  We could see it in the distance as we were driving which shows it's elevation as much higher than it's surroundings.  Along the way we passed the Mosta Church which has the 3rd largest unsupported dome in the world.

Mdina in the distance

Mosta Church

The Dome from a distance as we drive towards Mdina

We finally made it to Mdina.  Mdina was the original capital of Malta and dates back to around 700 BC.  It is located up at the highest point of the island, with views of the water and the ability to defend themselves from intruders.  Much of the walled city was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1800s but was rebuilt.  Today there are about 300 people that live in the walled city.


We did a horse and buggy tour of Mdina and it's neighbor Rabat.  For 35 euros it was the cheapest horse tour we've done, which is the reason we did it... normally at 100 euros or more, it's not worth it.  But for 35 we didn't really care if it ended up a rip off.  And while it wasn't as long as other tours we've taken (guess that explains the price difference) nor did the tour guide offer up much to say during the ride, it gave us a really nice perspective of the entire walled city.  And it didn't hurt that it was fun to just trot around in a buggy :)

This is what you do to naughty children.... too bad they weren't tall enough to stand on their own (I had to hold them up)

Feeling a bit windblown from the bus tour

Me and my boys at the Mdina Gate 

Liam in a tree... 

Liam with Georgie, the horse we did the tour with...

Museum in Rabat

The boys on the horse tour

As we enter Mdina

Very narrow streets

Like super narrow

And very tall walls

Our horse and buggy

View of the Mediterranean and surrounding lands from the edge of the walled city

 

Church in Mdina

Not so great restaurant that we had lunch at in Mdina

Liam on Georgie

In front of the walls of Mdina

Doors of Mdina

We had thought about hitting up some of the beach areas that the tour bus went by before heading back to our hotel to pick up our bags.  But as the day went on, our beautiful sunny 65 degree weather was replaced by darkening clouds and winds (which made me super excited for our flight home as you can imagine!).  And so we opted to just head back to the hotel and hang out in the lobby until it was time for us to head to the airport.

Overall, our trip to Malta was a fun time.  While the island wasn't what Josh and I had anticipated, we didn't let that bring our trip down.  At the least, we can check off one more country to our list :)  No more trips planned, believe it or not, in the immediate future!

Besos,
Julie

Swimming with Dolphins!

The kids woke up this morning and the first thing they wanted, not totally unexpectedly, was to go to the indoor pool.  The boys are not doing so well in the art of compromise.  And were less than thrilled when we told them that we weren’t going to swim until AFTER the dolphins.  They don’t seem to get that they were getting what they want while Josh and I get what we want.  Something to keep working on I suppose.

View from our room on our first morning... not to shabby!

Liam and I hanging out on the balcony of our room

A daytime view of our car without hubcaps ;)

Regardless, we had a few hours to kill before leaving for the dolphin swim and so we decided to walk around St. Julian’s for a little bit.  Malta from what I can tell is very much a mix of modern and ancient – with a big shopping center next to what must be a centuries old building.  Also something to note that I only found out the night before we left – Malta has more people per square mile than Washington, DC.  That’s a lot of people on one tiny island and it shows.

I have no idea what the purpose of these slabs of concrete on metal spikes are supposed to be for, but they made great impromptu surfboards!

Cool building near our hotel - no idea what the purpose of it is, but I liked the way it looks...

Liam told us he was going to run across the beach and meet us on the other side - that lasted less than 2.3 seconds before he yelled that he had rocks in his crocs!

And I have to say, for what little bit I’ve seen, it’s also not the cleanest island.  Trash everywhere and when we went to a little inlet of rocks by the water, there was broken glass at every step (and I even found a few condoms, ew!!).  Not what I would call island paradise.  However, giving the benefit of the doubt as I’ve heard there are some stunningly beautiful parts to this island, I’m just going to guess they are not in St. Julian.

St. George's Bay

Aidan playing along the (scary, glass covered, rocks)

But he can make any setting look good ;)

Near a little inlet

My two handsome boys!

With my other handsome boy... 

Me taking a picture of Josh taking a picture ;)

While walking we also came across a guy for the hop-on, hop-off bus.  Given that there are so many places for us to see in just a few days plus not being really sure of what the parking situation is in many parts, this may be our ideal.  Since we couldn’t do it today and with Josh diving tomorrow, we’ve put this in for a possibility on Wednesday.  It will be easier with the kids than us having to find our way around the island and give us the chance to see a lot of things. 

But the big part of our day was Aidan and Josh getting to swim with dolphins.  Now, I’d looked on TripAdvisor before booking this excursion and I’m glad I did because I wasn’t let down.  As expected, the park itself was pretty run down and really had not much to offer beyond the dolphins.  We went to the dolphin show before the interaction that we had scheduled.  It wasn’t anything to write home about (and yet here I am, writing home) – I’ve seen much better shows.

However, you would have thought that Liam had never seen dolphins or a dolphin show before because he was absolutely in his element and so excited.  I also think that getting to see the dolphins beforehand got Aidan excited – I could tell he was a bit nervous about the idea beforehand.

Liam in awe of the dolphins

Look at her jump!

Josh and Aidan getting ready to swim

Josh and Aidan touching the dolphin

Look at that smile on Aidan's face

The dolphins were swimming all around them and when Josh and Aidan put their heads in the water, they said they could hear the dolphins "talking" under them.

Aidan hugging the dolphin

Aidan can barely control how cold he is here... what a trooper!

Josh hugging the dolphin

The only downside to today’s swim was the weather.  Now I know my friends back home won’t appreciate me complaining about temps in the early 60s, but add in 20 mph winds and not only did it not feel like 60, but of course, they had to get in the water too!!  Aidan was a total trooper and I think loved every moment of it. 

Ok, I normally don't buy the pictures these places take but I have to say, these all came out awesome, so we had to buy them!

So while the marine park wasn’t all that great, the swim with the dolphins was well worth the money.  Josh, I could tell, also loved it.  We kept this as our one big thing for today, keeping the day relatively low key and not overdoing it with the kids (we’ll do that on Wednesday!).  And in the end, the kids also got to swim in the hotel pool, putting a perfect end to the day!!

Besos,

Julie

Easter Break Trip to MALTA!

Even though it has only been 4 weeks since our last trip, for some reason it feels like months.  Maybe it’s because February and March aren’t always the best times in Barcelona – the weather is chilly and it’s the “rainy” season.  So this month has just dragged in my mind.

But this is a good thing because it made me all the more excited for our trip to Malta!!  “Why Malta?” a lot of people have asked us.  Well, why not?  It’s an island, it’s only a 2 hour flight (located just south of Sicily and slightly east of Tunisia) and it has about 7000 years of history.  A trifecta of fun in my mind!  Add that to a hotel chain that we like with a 50% off sale and reasonable flights and it seemed like the perfect place to go to for the kids’ Semana Santa (Easter break).

The only bad part in my mind is that we had to fly.  I think I’ve mentioned this before but I seem to have gotten a bit more anxious as I fly these days.  You would think it would be just the opposite since we fly so often and it’s not like I wasn’t flying for years before we moved to Barcelona too.  But it gets worse and worse with every flight.  I haven’t let it stop me from travelling but regardless I can feel my heart pounding in my throat during takeoff and any little bump of turbulence is enough to have me white knuckle the seat.  Maybe I need meds…

Anyways, I digress… the flight was a bit bumpy, not my cup of tea.  I’m at about minus 10200 in my solitaire game which I only play when I fly.  Can you tell that I just need some kind of repetitive distraction???  But we made it and we made it safely. 

Seriously, you are already trying to take my picture??  I don't think so!!

But I love having my picture taken mommy!!!

Why won't you leave me alone??

I'll keep you company!

 

Malta Airport is pretty small and so it didn’t take long to get our luggage and our car.  We had gotten a really great deal on the car, I think it was less than 100 euros for 5 days… I should have known better.  When the guy at the Thrifty counter said that the car was missing it’s hubcaps because often they get stolen, that should have been a sign.  Go with what you know – and we usually use Sixt.  And let me tell you, I have yet to see another car on this island without hubcaps.  I also think that even when Josh and I bought our first cars, they were nicer than this car.  But it’s getting us from point A to point B and really that’s all that matters.

Our car, minus the hubcaps...

Our hotel, the Corinthia St. George Bay, was, as expected, excellent.  We have a room overlooking the Mediterranean – can’t beat that!  And with our late arrival at 9PM, the kids were super excited to have room service for dinner.  While the dinner was lackluster in my opinion, the trip is off to a good start.  And it doesn’t hurt that tomorrow, Monday, Josh and Aidan are going to swim with dolphins – I can’t wait to see!!!

Besos,

Julie 

The Rules of the Road

While I'm sure there are plenty of worse things that can happen, for today, there was nothing worse than coming out of my parent/teacher conferences to find that my car was no longer where I parked it.  It actually took me a minute to even realize it wasn't there.  I actually crossed the street over to another campus building, passing by the side of the street where my car was (no longer) parked and didn't make the connection that there was not a single car on that side of the road.  It wasn't til Aidan asked if he could wait in the car while I helped Liam's friend gather his things in his cubby that I realized that, no, Aidan, you can't wait in the car because the car... it's not there.

Ahhh Spain!  Because it's not enough that the kids didn't have school Friday or Monday because of conferences, but my big plan to have both kids have friends over so I could work while they were entertained was very quickly turning to dust.  I surprisingly took it all pretty well because I figured that this happens regularly up at school and they must know where my car was.  I immediately delegated Aidan to help Liam and Logan get Logan's things and I headed up to the school office to see if they could help me.  

So why was I towed?  Well, there is no parking lot at the school.  Everyone parks along the side streets next to the campus buildings.  These are not official city parking spots but with several private schools in the area, beggars can't be choosers.  And from what I know, and I could be totally wrong, they don't tow during drop off or dismissal times.  But it has been a concern for me on the days that I pick Aidan up and then have to wait and hour to pick up Liam - the only good thing is that the school up the road gets out at 5 so my hope is the tow trucks don't bother with the cars during those times.  

But today I wasn't there during drop off or pick up times - I was there at 9:30 for conferences that would take me til 11:30.  Regardless, it was totally unexpected and not the way I was planning to spend the rest of my morning.  

The good news is that, as expected, the school is used to this and not only had a piece of paper with all the details on where I needed to go, but also called a taxi for me as I not only had my two kids but a friend of Liam's with me (and we still had to go pick up a friend of Aidan's!).  The taxi arrived pretty promptly and we were off to the Dipòsit Municipal.  

Thankfully the school was prepared!

It was pretty straightforward thankfully - they asked for my license plate number which I don't know.  I described the car and he told me where it was and that I had to bring my registration back for them to confirm everything.  So I hunted down my car in the lot, got the registration and then back to the payment counter.

It took him forever.  It wasn't a complex process, but he had to copy all of my registration info, all my license info (good thing I had that!) and then the computer froze and he had to do it all by hand.  About 15 minutes and 147 euros later, my little car was free!!!

It felt really good that I didn't freak out and knew that somehow I would find my car despite not being able to communicate totally fluently.  It was just an ahhhhh Spain kind of moment that I knew had to sneak up sooner or later!!  Right now, my car is safe and secure in her little spot in my garage and there she shall stay for the rest of the day!!

Logan, Liam and Aidan ready to leave the tow lot!

Besos,

Julie

Walk This Way

Before moving to Barcelona, the closest that Josh and I had ever been to living in a city was when we lived on Chestnut Street in Waltham, just a block off of Moody Street.  We used to walk down Moody Street a lot, to restaurants, to bars... and....um, that's it.  We drove everywhere else.  But it was likely the closest experience to city living that we've had up til now.  And that was 14 years ago...

Fast forward to 2010 when we moved to Barcelona.  First off, we had no car (and didn't for just about 3 years), we were living in the center of the city and suddenly we were walking EVERYWHERE!  Our options, walking and public transportation.  And often times when it was just Liam and I, which it was for the first 9 months here, we opted to walk.  We walked everywhere.  We walked just about everyday.  And we probably covered miles just about each day.  The only times we stayed home was if it rained.

Barcelona is a totally walkable city.  It's not as big as it appears and Liam and I spent a chunk of time those first nine months just exploring every inch of it.  The climate is great for walking all year round, except of course in August when just getting the one block to the grocery store is a challenge.

I used walking as a way to entertain Liam.  It was also a time where I hadn't quite gotten my bearings as far as where to shop for what products - something that I have since become uber efficient with.  And so we had spent a lot of time doing our errands, walking to the beach, walking to the park, etc.  I wasn't working as many hours since he was home with me.  Once Liam headed off to school in the fall of 2010, I found myself not needing to walk as much.

My walking didn't stop entirely, just slowed down a bit.  If I was walking 3 miles a day before, then I was down to maybe 2 miles a day.  My social life picked up when Liam left for school and so I would meet up with friends for lunch, some shopping and often would walk home from the center of town.  Just being out and about in the city center meant I was walking quite a bit.

But in the last 6 months, my social life has taken a significant hit - I still have friends here but we all have different commitments in our lives these days leaving very few days to get together.  I've also increased my work load quite a bit, thereby not leaving the house as much as I used to.  And as I mentioned, I've also become more efficient in my errands, not needing to do much more than go to the grocery store and perhaps the fruit/vegetable stand around the corner from me daily.  Beyond that, everything else is done when Josh takes the kids to tennis on Saturday morning.

I didn't realize how little I've been walking though these days. Not until this week at least.  Spring has finally arrived in Barcelona.  I know, I know... I can't complain about the weather here.  But winter is still winter and it's brisk and chilly here and not always very sunny.  And it does not motivate you to get out and about to walk by yourself much.

But with the arrival of spring the other day, all I wanted to do was to get out in the city and... walk.  And I did.  A lot.  My feet hurt after.  It's been a long time since my feet hurt after walking - I thought I was immune to that after all the walking I did here for those first 2 1/2 years.  But apparently you can reverse that process.  I walked from home to Placa Catalunya and all around.  Placa Catalunya is only about 1 1/2 miles from me, but it was an intense walk - and one where I just took in everything around me.  That night, I walked to meet up with a friend for dinner - about 3/4 mile from me which I could have reduced by taking the metro but didn't.  We continued on to dinner and then I walked home from dinner since it wasn't too late - which added on some more milage for my day.  And it felt good.  Ok, the fact that it started to rain on my way home wasn't the best, but overall, it felt good to be out and about again.

So while I go to the gym 5 days a week, I've been feeling lately like that just isn't enough.  But my thought is that I need to get back to my walking.  I need to get my blood flowing again and be out and about in this city.  It's a beautiful city and I have forgotten to appreciate my time here while I can - it's become home and often with home, we forget that there were reasons we moved here in the first place.

My new commitment.  If I'm not going to be out socializing like I used to be, I also cannot sit behind my desk for several hours a day... I need to inject some exercise in the middle, above and beyond my morning work out.  And so my new goal is to start walking more again and exploring the city, there are always nooks and crannies that I haven't seen.  Because some day we will be back in the US and back to driving everywhere.  I need to get back to walking while I can.  It needs to become a habit again.  I'm afraid to make a commitment as to how much extra walking I can do and still get my work done and all other daily obligations, but I can definitely see myself adding more.  We'll see how it goes!

Besos,
Julie