Hi all 👋🏻
Today I want to take you along on a day out we had on the island of Malta 🇲🇹 When older family members were visiting and we showed them around some highlights.
I will guide you through my photographs as I will follow the time stamps.
So you can walk along with me and look at all the surroundings I show you 😎 and tell you a bit about this part of the world… as if you would be right there with me.
Photos are taken with my iPhone on 13 March 2020.
At that time we were living in Malta for a year as some of you already know.
I visited these 2 locations on other days with my DSLR camera and will post those photographs at a later time. So stay tuned for them 😉 you will see much more details… but this post is still worthy of being written and to show you a quick visit around. Hope you agree… 🤓
Are you ready to join me today? 😁
Today we are visiting the island of Malta itself.
The island(s)of Malta look like this, you see a few islands as they are archipelago’s.
Main Location we visit before our visit to Popeye village is the BLUE GROTTO:
locations marked in Google maps
POPEYE VILLAGE is located here:
Let’s start our day!
As we are driving all along the coast, we do stop at a parking lot before we reached the Blue Grotto. We park our car and go on foot further.
We have these views. A gorge that opened the rocky cliffs side. This is a parking at the “TRIQ IL-WIED” road.
TRIQ does mean road in Maltese.
Let’s have a closer look. We see housing right on the edge. I know there are also a few restaurants there you can visit.
We walk on the sidewalk a little bit further and we see these farmers fields. Layers going down along the cliff side. You see this everywhere in Malta.
Now we reached almost the BLUE GROTTO.
Are you ready for it? It is stunning to say the least. 🤩
We follow a pathway off the road towards the cliffs edge. Looking back we have this view. Left top you see the wall from the road. And another gorge we are walking on one side of it.
I present you THE BLUE GROTTO
One of Malta’s mayor tourist attractions.
You can take a tour, from the buildings I showed you before, in a boat to go through it. As you see the little boat do. I included boats so you can see the dimensions better.
I am standing here right at the edge at a railing that prevents you from falling down, as it is really high.
Beautiful isn’t it?
More information about it you can find In This Website!
It states:
”The Blue Grotto (Maltese: Taħt il-Ħnejja) refers to a number of sea caverns on the south east coast of Malta, a short distance from the fishing harbour limits of Wied iż-Żurrieq, of Qrendi, Malta. Wied iz-Zurrieq, the blue grotto and neighboring caves, are all located within the Qrendi village confines.
Both the Wied iz-Zurrieq harbour and Blue Grotto sea caves are located on the coastline opposite to the small uninhabited islet of Filfla, which is a bird sanctuary.
The location of the caves lead to the seawater reflecting shades of blue on the cave walls and ceilings.
The location has been used many times by filmmakers in big screen and TV productions, namely Hell Boats, Troy, twenty-fifth season of The Amazing Race, "Cadbury Milk Tray" chocolate adverts, and the Rai 2 travel programme Sereno Variabile, amongst other smaller commissions and photoshoots.
We walk now back to the car and drive along the coast to our next destination: POPEYE VILLAGE.
There is a parking lot we park our car. We get out and walk a sandy path.
Next to me I see these beautiful bright yellow flowers 🌼🌼🌼
The sun ☀️ high above shining very strong.
Did you take sun protection? We do need it on Malta.
Let’s look closer to these beautiful flowers. The contrast is stark with the sky and sea 🌊
A last close up.
We walk further… come let’s go!
I find this flower 🌸 with it’s purple petals.
Another flower 🌸 in some larger vegetation.
And finally… we reach the edge of another gorge and bay.
Opposite us we see Popeye Village.
Look at those cute houses… 🥰
I zoomed out a bit so you see it in it’s entirety.
You must be thinking… Popeye Village? What is that?
Do you have more information about it for me?
Of course I do… 😁
Let me give that to you.
In this website you find more info!
It states:
”Popeye Village, also known as Sweethaven Village, is a purpose-built film set village that has been converted into a small attraction fun park, consisting of a collection of rustic and ramshackle wooden buildings. It is located at Prajjet Bay/Anchor Bay, 3 km from the village core of Mellieħa, Malta.
It was built as a film set for the production of the 1980 live-action musical feature film Popeye, produced by Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall. It is open to the public as an open-air museum and seaside resort.
The construction of the film set began in June 1979. A construction crew of 165 working over seven months was needed to build the village, which consists of nineteen wooden buildings. Hundreds of logs and several thousand wooden planks were imported from the Netherlands, while wood shingles used in the construction of the roof tops were imported from Canada.
The set was completed in seven months, and filming commenced on January 23, 1980 and wrapped later that year on June 19. The film, based on the comic strips by E. C. Segar, is set around the fictional village of Sweethaven, where Popeye the sailor arrives in an attempt to find his long-lost father. Although the film had mixed reviews, Popeye Village remains a popular tourist attraction.
Let me show you a bit more from it now from a distance.
We walked opposite down a sandy track, into a gorge were you can put boats into the water and acces to the swimming area is, to find the following views:
Let’s walk to the edge.
No I’m not jumping in hahaha 🤣 not today 😁😉
The view of the village from down here.
It looks pretty cool 😎
Some rock face details…
In the water in front of us we see these jellyfish.
Do you see them?
Last look of the village:
After we got into the car again we drive a little bit inland Malta now to look at THE VICTORIA LINES.
When we parked and walked towards it we see them:
Beautiful sight… you can walk parts of it as a walking route. But not everywhere is maintained.
More information You find here!
It States:
”The Victoria Lines, originally known as the North West Front, are a line of fortifications that spans 12 kilometres along the width of Malta, dividing the north of the island from the more heavily populated south.
When built by the British military in the late 19th century, the line was designed to present a physical barrier to invading forces landing in the north of Malta, intent on attacking the harbour installations, so vital for the maintenance of the British fleet, their source of power in the Mediterranean.
~Do have a read about it, there is much more information in above’s website if you are interested in it.
As our family members didn’t want to go far onto it from this side, I take only the following photographs. I did walk a little bit onto the wall… you can see the path is quite rocky.
See what I mean… you don’t want them to fall on a Holliday. 🥰
So I take the last photograph and we go further.
We are driving towards the coast line again to continue our drive along it. We get out at another gorge.
We have a look as far as we can go… and follow a path with steps down.
We have beautiful views. 😁
After walking back up again we see at the top some more beautiful flowers.
And these views over Malta.
Beautiful old buildings, dominating the scenery. 🥰
Next to us we see the layers of fields… I talked earlier about. This time they are fully green farm lands.
The rocks underneath us are very sharp so we are careful where we walk. But with views like these… it is worth it walking that little bit further.
Don't you think?
I zoomed out further… for you to see.
More towards the left.
And with this last photograph I want to finish my post today and our visits together 😊 it was so nice that you joined me!
Malta is a beautiful Island and really worth discovering. It has lots of hidden treasures to discover… like the ones I showed you today! 😎
Until next time 😎 stay tuned for a more detailed post about the main locations 😇
Hope you enjoyed my photos of this day out and going along with me. Thank you for looking and reading 😊 🙏🏻 Really much appreciated!
Any questions or comments, let me know. Always happy to help.
Have a great day all 😎
Grtz Jackie
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Unless stated otherwise: All art and photos used in my posts are taken, created and owned by me. If you wish to use any of my photographs, please contact me first. As I have used some commercially myself. We don’t want that you or somebody else gets into trouble 😉 So please don’t use them without my consent.
!pinmapple 35.959906 lat 14.340996 long A day out in Malta ~ quick visit to “POPEYE VILLAGE”, the “BLUE GROTTO” and the “Victoria Lines” 🇲🇹 d3scr