A shopping trip with a difference

BV moored by ‘La Macina’ building   

BV’s mooring in Dockyard Creek was right next to ‘La Macina’ which is in the process of being renovated into a 5-star hotel. Our friend Barry explained that it was famous as being the first machine built on the island. Whilst the renovations are in progress the crane parts of ‘La Macina’ have been removed but it was originally used to hoist up and fit the masts and rigging to the ships which had been built Galley/Dockyard Creek. The dry dock a little further up the creek (and the name Dockyard Creek) dates from the time of the British Admiralty but ‘La Macina’ dates from the era of the Knights of St John when they also had their dockyard in the creek (and the creek was called Galley Creek).

Recognising that we probably wanted to restock our fridge, Barry kindly offered to give us a lift to the supermarket. It was, however, to be a shopping trip with a difference because it also included some sightseeing to places we probably would never have found if left to our own devices.

Senglea Spur   

First stop was the Senglea Spur which we had passed on our way into Dockyard Creek.

Panoramic view of Valletta   

The fort here helped the Knights of St John to protect the port and a chain was strung across from this fortification to their main castle, Fort St Angelo, specifically to block and protect Galley/Dockyard Creek.

Fort St Angelo

View into French Creek and the working dockyard, with 2 oil rigs in residence undergoing maintenance    

The views from the lookout point were fabulous. We had a complete panoramic view across to Valletta.  Looking east we could see Fort St Angelo and to our south was French Creek which has the working dockyard part of the harbour. There are several dry-docks and the mystery of the framed towers was revealed: two oil rigs were in for refit in the dockyard.

Pastizzi   

Next stop was to a pastizzeria to get some pastizzi, which Barry and Catherine had told us about and had suggested that we tried. These mini Maltese pasties are made with layers of filo pastry and are filled with ricotta or, our favourite, a spicy pea mix. They are really tasty but not good for the waistline, tempting as they are at just 30 cents each!

Barry then took us to a small local graveyard and recounted a fascinating tale. Tucked in the corner is the grave of Thomas McSweeney. According to the local story, on 8 June 1837 Thomas McSweeney was the last Royal Navy sailor to be subject to capital punishment. His crime: that of fighting one of his ship’s officers who, during the fight, fell down a companionway (stairwell) on the ship and was killed. McSweeny was executed by hanging from a yardarm of the ship which, at the time, was moored in Kalkara Creek. The sides of the creek were lined with locals and service personnel to witness the hanging and shortly after it was completed several miracles apparently happened in the local area. These miracles were attributed to the spirit of Thomas McSweeney and to this day the locals show their appreciation by tending his grave with fresh flowers etc and keeping an oil lamp lit on it, in the hope that further miracles are forthcoming.

Infinity pool at the Rinella film studio   

To the east of the Three Cities area is Fort Ricasoli and beside it Fort Rinella which has a 100 ton gun just like the one we had seen in Gibraltar in 2014. Next door to that is the Fort Rinella Film studio. All the forts in this area are used as film sets and from the road we could look down on the studio’s 2 enormous infinity pools used for filming nautical-themed films. Surrounding them are the hulls of old wooden galleons which at one stage would have been floating in the pools for pirate films various.

Cappuccini Naval Cemetery   

Our last stop before the supermarket was the Cappuccini Naval Cemetery, one of the many Commonwealth War Graves sites on the island. The cemetery contains the graves of service personnel, their families and Maltese military contractors dating from several hundred years ago right up until the mid-1960s. However, as you would expect, many of the graves are from the epic siege of Malta in 1942. Most of these are RN and RAF and are entirely unlike any others we have seen elsewhere. Because of the very shallow earth crust here, many joint and collective burials have been made and the graves tend to be marked with a large flat tablet instead of the standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission upright tombstones.

As well as Commonwealth casualties from both World Wars, the Cappuccini Naval Cemetery contains Italian, German, French and Japanese war graves. We hadn’t realised that the Japanese had been involved in fighting in the Mediterranean during WWI but later discovered that the British Admiralty had requested assistance from Japan and that ships which they sent to the Mediterranean (3 cruisers, 14 destroyers, 2 sloops and 1 tender) were based out of Malta.

Sightseeing done for the day, and respects paid to the fallen service personnel, we headed back to BV via the supermarket for a mega food shop.

Valletta, Malta