We were making good time on our day out, having finished with the temple hopping by 11am, and so we moved on to the next part of the day; visiting M'dina. We are getting the hang of the bus system as the trip there was relatively easy, although we were made to wait a bit in Mosta for our bus. This was quite uncomfortable as there is no shade anywhere, even in the clear perspex bus shelter, to get out of the sun, so you have to sit there and boil until the bus comes, and you can cry with joy at the air conditioning inside...
M'dina is known as the silent city as it is an old citadel with narrow roads meaning traffic can't get in to it. As if to make up for this fact the traffic just outside it was extra busy and noisy as scores of tourists got out to visit. It was a sharp contrast from the temples. That said, it is a lovely place and well worth seeing.
A bit of history about the town, it was once the old capital of Malta, and has seen occupations by the Phoenicians, Fatimids and Normans before being handed over to the knights of St. John. For the geeky amongst you, this town was used in the filming of the HBO series Game of Thrones, as well as being referenced in the Antony Horowitz novels about Alex Rider.
The entrance to M'Dina - horse drawn carriages are for the lazy, it really isn't that big!
The town itself is quite small being a citadel, but it is bordered by the town of Rabat (which I am informed is the Arabic for suburb). We wandered around the perimeter of the town before venturing inside.
The perimeter walls of the citadel - impressive
The moniker 'the silent city' is something of a misnomer as the place is full of tourists jabbering in a multitude of languages, and despite the roads being narrow, there are some cars allowed to enter. Residents drive up and down these streets with reckless abandon - I kid you not, the width of some of these streets is barely 6 inches wider than a car meaning you probably have to get used to scraping your side panels quite often....on one occasion we had to seek shelter in a doorway to avoid being taken out by a van!
Narrow streets, I could stretch out and touch both sides
There is a lovely church in the centre of the town, but it was a) too hot and b) too expensive to enter for me to warrant buying a ticket to go inside. I guess I am old fashioned, but this whole trend in people paying to go into a place of worship is rather distasteful to me. Yes, they could ask for donations, but not force people to pay. I would say the same thing about Kings College chapel in Cambridge and Westminster Abbey too, so it is certainly not a Maltese thing. OK, mini rant over.
Once we had our fill of M'Dina, we crossed over the road to Rabat, as there are some really old catacombs there. Sarah is not a big fan of enclosed spaces underground, whereas i must be part hobbit as I love clambering around in dark holes. Therefore Sarah agreed to wait outside and sun herself while I toured the catacombs.
It was a welcome break from the sun for me, but there is a traditional dank and musty smell down there, which is never the nicest. That said, the catacombs were extensive and well worth the money, as just when you felt that you had visited every area (I am a completist, and so never like to think that I have missed an area) another side passage revealed a whole new section.
The final part of the day was to visit the remains of a Roman villa, which mercifully was not too far from where we needed to catch our bus from. We popped inside, but I have to say it was a trifle disappointing for me, as I have seen Fishbourne Roman palace and the mosaics there which are mightily impressive. This was just really a small house with a couple of small mosaics.
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