Month: March 2025

The days are short now in Regensburg, and there is less activity on the streets. The only festivity to break up the routine is the eating of Krapfen (donuts) to celebrate Karneval or Fasching. The surge of sugar makes everything more bearable. But if you need something more to get through the Winter, you can also just . . . escape. So we headed to Malta.

There’s something comforting about Malta. The language is a combination of Arabic and Italian but plenty of English is spoken. The English influence is seen also in the traffic, with driving on the left, the red phone booths and post boxes, and the three-pronged electrical plugs. I felt surprisingly at home there. It is a land of forts, each one telling stories of the battles fought from their high walls. It’s also friendly, lively, and . . . cheap! I know we were there in the off-season, but the cost of our accommodations was a steal—and not because I booked us at an Ibis near the airport (we were quiet close to Valetta in a cosy boutique hotel). A bus ride anywhere on the island is a measly 2 Euro. And I was particularly chuffed at the 1.50 tea in the picturesque Upper Barrakka Gardens. We were delighted also in watching the feral cats taken care of by the city. We first encountered this practice in Cordoba, so it was no big surprise. But we were a bit perplexed about the free range chickens …