Sunday, May 13, 2007

touristing, finally

May 12, 2007
An auditor came to the post to do … well I am not sure what exactly his purpose was, it was something to do with Terry and the tech stuff. He is a pretty cool guy and Terry and I had planned to do something on the weekend that would be difficult or impossible to get to without the car, just because we could. We invited him along, and ended up going to the Blue Grotto, Hagar Qim and the Mnajdra Temple.

As tourist sites go, the blue grotto was OK. You get down there and get on a luzzu (the Maltese fishing boat that, if Terry gets his way, will some day grace the waters of Harvey’s Lake) that takes folks into several caves along the way before entering the Blue Grotto. The water is clear and beautiful and the caves are, well, caves. Terry took some wonderful photos and it was nice on the water. You can click on the above photo to see the Blue Grotto photos.

Just up the road are two World Heritage sites, ancient megalithic temples that were built around 3000-4000 BC. The construction feats of getting some of these huge blocks of stone into place is a wonder. Between the tourists and Mother Nature the sites have taken a beating and now we are not allowed to go inside either of the sites. You can see a decent bit from the outside, but some of the informational plaques describe features that no longer exist. At least for these sites the trouble is not all caused by humans – the stones are limestone, so they are soft, and the air and water are salty, winds are high, and erosion can’t really be stopped.
Photos from Hagar Qim
Hagar Qim from Google Earth
Photos from Mnajdra
Mnajdra from Google Earth

For more information about the temples click here
Hagar Qim
Mnajdra.

For more information about the Blue Grotto click here
Blue Grotto

When you add in the time it took us to get lost several times on the way there and anticipating the time it would take to get lost on the return, by the time we had visited these sites it was time to go home.

1 comment:

Jimmy said...

Oh dogg, that's a totally sweet picture (the boats). I'll put up some pictures of my apartment if I ever get internet access at home. (The Brazilians are smart, all five wireless networks i can pick up around my apartment are locked down.)