Author archive
3 August 2023
Above: Mdina soon after take-off. Getting to Istanbul Today we begin our big trip back after over five weeks of summer. I’m bound for hometown Kuching whereas Kim will plunge into the depths of winter in Auckland. We set the alarm for 0600 but I had woken at 0500 anyway. Getting a rideshare to the […]
2 August 2023
Above: Decorations for the festivities. It’s an easy day today, moving ourselves from Gozo back to Valletta. First up was the 1000 bus to Victoria, followed the 1045 ferry to Valletta. That tight connection was very easy and there was no stress at all. Once in Valletta, we were going to take the lift from […]
1 August 2023
Our accommodation came with breakfast supplied at the café opposite, ordered from an extensive menu. We ordered the most complete version, a very big English breakfast and we will not repeat it tomorrow! Today, we have an excursion to Blue Lagoon which is between Comino and Cominotto Islands, which is in turn between Malta and […]
31 July 2023
Moving to Gozo Today we head to Gozo, the smaller island off the main island of Malta. This had been on our plans six years ago when we had a rental car and the queue to get across with the car ferry (from Cirkewwa) was far too long. Since about 2 years ago, a passenger […]
30 July 2023
Getting a rental car We managed to get a rental car online at short notice for the day, from Sicily By Car. The price was only EUR18, picking up from its airport location whereas whatever available in the old city was far pricier. The downside was that we had to get to and from the […]
29 July 2023
St John’s Co-Cathedral Despite the one-hour time change from Larnaca, we had a lazy start to the day, making our way to the St John’s Co-Cathedral at 0900 when it opened. I had pre-booked the tickets online but there wasn’t much of a queue, so it was really unnecessary. For me, this church packs such […]
28 July 2023
Flying to Malta We left our Nicosia hotel around 0815 by rideshare-ordered taxi for the Kapnos shuttle on the edge of the city where we would change to a shuttle to Larnaca’s airport at 0900. I had booked the shuttle online, which was just as well as there was only one spare seat. Getting to […]
27 July 2023
North Nicosia With no natural light in our room, we were rudely awakened by my daily 0700 alarm. Then my hope to doze for a few minutes were dashed with problems with a tenant’s garage door at home. Our hotel supplied an awesome breakfast and soon after that, we departed for a walk on the […]
26 July 2023
Above: People dining on Farenomeni Square. Today we return to “the south” or the Republic of Cyprus. We departed our lovely apartment in Gazimagusa’s old city around 0930 for the 1h drive to Ledra Palace Crossing. We managed to find parking without too much difficulty or circling around. Once parked, we waited for the car […]
25 July 2023
Ancient city of Salamis Our plan for the day was to go to the ancient city of Salamis as early as possible, then swim in the evening. Information on Salamis’s opening hours were hard to find but I guessed it would be 0900. Getting there soon after 0900, I noticed that it was 0800. While […]