My Andalusian adventure continued down to the coast. If you missed the previous episodes, you can check out Seville and Granada by clicking the links. We detoured back west again — around the mountains and down past Jerez — to the Costa de la Luz. It’s that bit of Spanish coast to the west of Gibraltar. It’s on the Atlantic rather than the Mediterranean, so I thought it might be colder. But there...
There’s a 34m tall lighthouse on a rocky headland just a few towns east of my rented apartment on Spain’s Costa de la Luz. At night I liked to sit on the balcony with a glass of wine and watch its spectral eye flash a warning through the inky darkness. The cape has a long sandy beach that’s a favourite of hippies and windsurfers based in the nearby town of Los Caños de Meca. But this unassuming...
My Andalusian adventures continued in Granada… We left Seville in a rented white BMW. After a short stop in the ancient Roman hilltop town of Carmona for an espresso and a brief poke around its fortified Seville Gate, I pointed the nose east across an open country of low rolling hills and olive groves. I miss taking road trips since I relocated to Malta. The roads are cramped there, the...
I had an opportunity to go behind the scenes last week at one of Malta’s most important megalithic sites: Tarxien Temple. It was an after hours members-only visit to examine the most recent archaeological excavations, and to learn a few things that aren’t on the normal tourist itinerary. The megalithic temples of Malta were built during three distinct phases between around 5,000 BC and 2,500 BC...
A few weeks ago I sent you an email about the end of the Palazzo Years. And I shared some photos of the amazing 400 year old house I was renting in a village called Zejtun in the south of Malta. As it was prophesied, so it has come to pass. The Palazzo Years have ended, and I’m now looking out over the rugged valley of Wied ta’ Isperanza from the terrace of my new place. But we were able to toast...
I’ve got a cool video to share with you today. It’s of a passenger jet taking off at Gibraltar Airport last week. Voice from another room: “What’s the big deal about that?” Well, I had just finished walking across the runway, which is also the main road… Gibraltar is unusual because the runway is so close to the city centre — right next to it, in fact. And it also intersects the main road...
I’ve been on the road in Spain for the past couple weeks, exploring a small corner of Andalusia. It’s not a magazine trip or anything like that. I just needed to get off the island for a little while. And I’m always scouting out potential locations to use as my next base. I’ve developed a pretty clear set of criteria when it comes to finding my “ideal” place. And I’ve learned what to avoid —...
Last week I had an opportunity to visit a historical site here in Malta that isn’t open to the public, and I’d like to share a few photos with you. It’s right around the corner from where I live. I drove through it many times on my way to and from Birgu, but I had no idea what it was apart from its name: the Notre Dame Gate. This massive baroque gate, decorated with a bust of Grand Master...
Istanbul is a city of memory. The past permeates every street, shop, iconic edifice and passing face. As I walked through its streets and explored its buildings, I began to detect the city’s dominant themes. The theme of Topkapi Palace is seclusion. A graduating depth of shadows. Deeper shades of obscuring darkness. Privacy nestled within privacy like Russian dolls, visible in the layers of...
The theme of “finding hidden places in my own backyard” continued. But this time I was traveling the local scene with an actual explorer… I met Mark Borda in Khartoum, Sudan. We were both on the same expedition to Jebel Uweinat, deep in the Sahara desert. But it was only after we returned to Malta that we realized he lives in the same building as my landlord’s father, and that he’s known...