Spandau Citadel, Mdina, batteries and forts at Valletta and Santa Maria’s Battery on Comino. July was a good month for cannon and fortifications. I hadn’t done anything in the UK though so today I fixed that.
A three hour drive got me there at lunchtime, and I set out across the shingle under a blistering sun. Half an hour later I reached the glorious fort, its 16th century core a distinct style and colour visible as you approach. That original fort was finished in 1544 and built in a beautiful elegant efficient design. Three bastions surrounding a central keep, all of them highly defensible, laid out in symmetrical form. The fort saw very little fighting but remained in active service for over 400 years.
They still have several of the 32 ton rifled muzzle loaders added in the 19th century. Those are some big cannon!
There’s a boat service for people that don’t want the walk. That delivered a lot of small children who had fun exploring the fort. Many of the walls are open, various shell stores (at ground level and in basements), powder stores, bastions and main buildings within the keep are open to the public, and it took me a couple of hours wandering to see it all. Well worth the fiver to get in, and even the walk across the shingle both ways to reach it.
My car is visible in that photograph, on the far side of the lake, around four pixels in size. It’s around 2km away in a straight line, if you want to wade through mud and swim to get there. Taking the slightly longer drier route is why I’ve walked 7km today.
Today’s post almost had no photographs because the hotel I’m in was lying when it said ‘free wifi’. What it meant was ‘free frustration, irritation, multiple attempts to access a single web page and zero chance whatsoever of uploading a photograph without an error’. There was also no mobile phone signal in the entire village. A quick speedtest showed download rate is software throttled to 1Mbps and upload rate is so low that the speed test errored out, telling me there was no upload. Given that it’s also configured to drop your connection every half an hour until you re-register, the only reason I managed to get pictures was waking up after a 2 hour nap (at 11.30pm) to find a zero bar mobile connection that despite the low strength turned out to have decent data speeds. Hurrah!
While struggling with the wifi I did through to some pages, including a grim reminder of one reason I’m not waiting until I reach retirement age to do all this travelling.
The hotel is really just a village pub in a small village in Dorset. Sat in the bar waiting for dinner I listened to the locals discussing the Cypriot law on selling thrushes in restaurants, and hoping the UK leaving the EU will fix the laws on fishing. Three different people had their dogs with them, a mix of leads and loose; they come over for a sniff, disappear again. Everybody knows each other. The barmaid has tattoos down both arms, up her legs, on her shoulders, a large one surrounded by smaller ones on her back, and several on her fingers. They’re a mix of designs, including a very evil cat on one shoulder. No photograph, it would feel like photographing a painting or another photograph.
For a small village it’s a very busy pub, locals lining the bar and spilling over into the pool room, regulars and visitors ordering food and sitting outside.
I discovered the concept of ‘dry fasting’. Not for me, not today. Today is chicken goujons to start followed by beef brisket on a spring onion mash.
The brisket was fantastic, although the gravy attracted half a dozen flies. A lady on a nearby table saw them assault, shared sympathy. Sadly when I left the flies moved over to her, and her food hadn’t even arrived.
The hotel room is small, narrow, a wide open window letting in the only respite from the heat and (at just gone midnight) sounds from the bar. Quiet enough now, I’ll sleep well.