Graham
On the outgoing flight to what I now know will be my one and only
visit to Malta, I found myself sitting next to a lady who was a frequent
visitor to the island. Her words were memorable, she said that we
would either love it or hate it. You are obviously in the former
category and I am in the latter. I would have guessed that you would be
a frequent visitor, given your interest in military history. I also
have an interest in the subject, but most of the things which light my
fire have wings on and, preferably, large piston engines attached. As
an almost lifelong wannabee engineer, I still marvel at some of the
machinery that was created before they started fitting aircraft with
hairdryers. That also goes, in varying degrees, for loads of other
engineering triumphs.
No, I didn’t visit the gun; I didn’t even know it was there to be
honest, an impressive bit of hardware nonetheless. Rosalie and I have
very different interests, so compromise is the order of the day and I
don’t think she would have been too pleased to spend time clambering
around a fort, even one as impressive as that. The climate in Malta is
too hot for me, anything much more than a 70 degree English summer day
is uncomfortable from my point of view. I think George V1 gave them the
medal, not for resisting Axis attacks, but just for putting up with
everyday life! As for the booze, whilst I’m not tee-total, I got out of
the habit of drinking years ago when I was doing out of hours cover for
B.T. so it doesn’t mean much to me.
Regarding the Alps, the trick with mountains is to get in amongst
them, use cable cars, funiculars, rack railways or just plain walk,
flying over them or riding along the valley floors doesn’t really do it.
I came to realise in our early trips abroad that the lower the
population density, and the prettier the scenery, the more I liked the
country. I think top of my list so far is Norway, not Alpine I know,
but very scenic, thinly populated and even the yokels spoke good
English. I think the language thing is because of the TV, it’s not
worth sub-titling or dubbing over English language material for just
about 5 million people, as a result they almost appear to learn it
subliminally.
Switzerland is at least three countries in one, German, French and
Italian, which one did you find boring? I think Interlaaken was my
preferred choice, the railway trip to the Jungfraujoch, and the eventual
emergence onto the Sphinx Observatory platform with views of the Monch,
the Jungfrau and the Eiger as all part of the experience was pretty
absorbing I thought. The engineering hardware of part-time and fulltime
rack railways and the achievement of laying a track to over 11,000 feet
above sea level is surely worthy of a mention too. Most of the track
construction is over 100 years old.
We have also stayed in Montreaux too, not a patch on Interlaaken
in my opinion, but trips to nearby Chamonix and Mont Blanc via the cable
car were similarly impressive. And finally, we went to Locarno on a
day trip from sunny Italy. Not much difference between the two
countries there really, that part of Switzerland was very Italian.
Like Steve says, it’s a good job we don’t all like the same
thing, otherwise Malta would be even more crowded than it already is.
Regards
Don
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