31 January 2008             

Post #20: Quick Tour of the Dingli Cliffs

Today, Dave had a morning meeting at the University of Malta, which is just up the hill - a five minute walk.  (Visible in pictures taken from our apartment window in the first photo web album.)  The Fulbright assignment was for MCAST, but having found MCAST to be more of a technical college with some unique circumstances, he explored the prospects of serving the the U of Malta as well while here.  He had a good meeting and has arranged to present seminars each Wednesday for six weeks, alternating between MCAST and U of M.  He has also offered to do a presentation on technology's impact on society for the U.S. Embassy staff. 

He's feeling much better about things with his position here, now that he has the work ahead laid out for him.  He will also be teaching a course on Web Management – three sections of the same course totaling 12 contact hours.

Today, we called about the micro-van, hoping we'd get it back again soon, so we could make more island explorations, but they continued to say, “No, we do not have it yet.”  Without it, we are left to make many trips back and forth the hotel, since we don't all fit in the little Peugeot (sweet little speedy car that it is). 

We had hoped to take the trip on the ferry to Gozo, the northernmost island in the archipelago, while Dave had a day away from MCAST.  Since we had no van, we decided to split the group up a bit.  Dave stayed home with the boys, and DeDe, Rachel and Bobby went to the hotel to pick up Bill and Shirley for a little driving tour of Dingli. 

DeDe managed to find the place, though she didn't take the originally planned route.  Funny thing, the highway markers seen on the map are nowhere to be seen on the road signs.  Figure that!  She had to simply keep toward the southern sun, and hope she'd find Dingli.  She found some very interesting roads, for sure!  One was up between a couple gravel pits, which meant the single track road was to be occasionally shared by large dump trucks!  This made it a little harrowing, but by the grace of God, we met only two trucks on our uphill climb, and both were while we had a nice turn-out available right as the truck appeared on the horizon.  Whew! 

As we reached the summit of the highest hill, we had a feeling there'd be something to see on the other side, and they were not to be disappointed.  The photos taken don't do justice to the sights, and we didn't manage to get shots as we came up over the hill, because the view was on the left of the car, and the driver (with camera) was on the right, and the Grandma, (with another camera) was seated behind the driver.  They didn't feel good about stopping on the single track road, until they reached a view point that included parking space. 

As they got out of the car, wind blowing gently, they stepped over to the cliff, and took in the view.  It was really quite breath-taking.  Grandpa and DeDe went to stand in the foreground of one of Grandma's shots, and as they stepped off into the road side grass, all DeDe could think about was that viper that Paul, the apostle, met on the shores of Malta back in 60 A.D.  Holding her breath, she and Dad stepped to the edge of the cliff, to pose for a shot.  Not sure they were breathing again until their feet were back on the road. 

As they looked down to the rocky surface at the bottom of the approximately 100 foot sheer drop, they noticed many automobiles smashed among the rocks!  Hmmmm... hoping this was just the antics of some silly teenagers who decided to dispose of an already dead vehicle by making a show of sending it over the high-side!  Would absolutely hate to imagine anyone was in any of those autos when they took that dive!  You can zoom in on the photos in Picasa Web, and examine the wreckage for yourself.

We got back in our speedy little race car, and continued along on the cliff-side road.  At one point, there was a fork in the road.  Grandma suggested we remain on the right fork (further from the sheer edge) however, DeDe assumed that it was only for the on-coming traffic.  She has learned to keep left on all roads, so she took the left fork, which ran right along the edge of the cliff!  The road was none too smooth, so it was a bit of a treacherous route.  Eventually, it veered back to the right, through a gate, and then rejoined the other road.  And the passengers resumed breathing around that point.

There were a couple other viewpoints, however the senior passengers were in need of a restroom after the jostling that came with the previous fifteen miles, so DeDe ambled downhill toward the “city centre” of Dingli.  What a quaint little town it was, too!  So clean and quiet, compared to our life in Msida!  Bill and Shirley experienced the same feeling of decompression DeDe and Dave felt on their first excursion outside of the city limits.  We are just not city folk!  Not even those of us from Green Bay.

Since they didn't spot any public restrooms in Dingli, they continued on toward Mosta, where DeDe knew there were numerous tourist attractions, and likely some public restrooms, if not a nice cafe where they could sit a spell.  Dingli seemed like a ghost town, and then they realized it was between 1 and 4 in the afternoon, which seems to be a serious time-out for everyone.  Many shops close during this time.   We even saw a farmer sitting in the front seat of his fresh produce truck snoozing away. 

As we neared Mosta, and its central business area we found numerous pedestrians about.  We're finding most of the tourists here are Brits (from Great Britain).  DeDe was fortunate enough to find a parking spot just past a little cafe.  They stepped in and Bill and Shirley hit the restroom, while DeDe ordered some beverages for everyone.  She was tempted to finally try out some local treats, but the lady behind the counter was difficult to understand, so she decided to wait until she was at a place where someone could better explain what she might be ordering.

Directly across the street from the cafe was a landmark sight, The Mosta Dome.  This incredibly huge cathedral has a very interesting history.

We didn't explore it as it was getting late, and we wanted to sneak in naps before connecting with the rest of the gang, so we loaded up for the return to the Park Hotel in Sliema.

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