Malta

Last November we spent almost two weeks on the Mediterranean island of Malta. This tiny independent country is located south of Sicily and north of Tunisia and Libya. Malta has an impressive history; different cultures changed the face of the island again and again. The humans of the late Neolithic left huge temples, pottery, mysterious grooves in the rocks and other relicts. The Romans built the cities with catacombs. The Arabs left their language – Maltese is the only Arabian language written with Latin letters - and their architecture. The crusaders and the Maltese order built churches, palaces and fortifications. The Italians brought the cuisine. And the British left driving on the wrong side of the street, more fortification and made the island an important trade place.

We stayed on the west coast of the main island Malta at a hotel in the Golden Sands Bay. There are not many buildings on the west coast, so it is a quite place, but since the distances are never big busier places are easy to reach. We did some hiking and visits to cities, monuments and other scenic points. I would like to share some of my favorite photos I took during the stay. In the cities and inside buildings I used quite often my wide angle lens Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4. It is not at all easy to take pictures that look natural with the wide angle.

View down to the Gnejna Bay during a hike starting at our hotel (click to enlarge)

The Gnejna Bay with the island of Gozo in the background (click to enlarge)

The Dingli Cliffs. A 200 meter vertical drop.

The temples of Mnajdra are today covered by a huge tent (click to enlarge)

The cart ruts can be found at many places on the island. It is not clear what the origin of the ruts is

Typical for La Valetta, the islands capital, are the gazebos…

…painted in all colors.

La Valetta is built on a rock, streets and stairs go permanently up and down. (Sigma 1:4-5,6 DL 70-300 - 230mm, f/8, 1/320s, ISO200)

The city is narrow, why not using a car to display goods.

And this car is owned by a cat. (Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4 - 19 mm, f/8, 1/15s, ISO200)

The St. John Co-Cathedral looks plain from the outside…

…but is one of the most impressive baroque churches I have ever seen. (Pentax DA 12-24mm f/4 - 12mm, f/4, 1/8s, ISO800, angle slightly corrected)

Over and over full with gold and paintings and the complete ground is covered with artful tomb slabs.

The other Co-Cathedral is St. Paul's in Mdina – the old capital

A very interesting detail Mdina offers are the artful door knockers - see the second blog post on Malta.

Hiking Cinque Terre

During our vacation at the beginning of September we spent a few days in Monterosso al Mare one of the five villages building Cinque Terre in Italian region of Liguria. The five picturesque villages became a UNESCO World Culture Heritage in 1997. The villages are more or less glued to the rocks like a eagles aerie surrounded by very step terraces were vineyards and olive trees are grown. There are several possibilities to visit the villages; for sure the car is the worst of them. To get from one village to another by car you have to take steep and winding roads. The road from La Spezzia to Levanto from where the access roads to the villages leave runs about 400-600 meters above the see.
Better ways to visit the villages are the train which is connecting all of them at least once per hour (one way ticket about € 1,50), the boat (watch for the sea condition, it is not running during high surf!) or hiking – all the villages are connected by a trail along the sea. For the hiking trail a admission fee has to be paid at one of the little booths, it’s about € 6 per day.

If you hike during the morning and noon you probably want to walk from east to west, the sun in the back gives a nicer light on the landscape. For the afternoon I recommend to hike from east towards west again with the sun in your back.

Riomaggiore

We stayed in Montorosso (the most north-westerly village) in a private apartment. We started our first hike on a late morning in Riomaggiore (the most south-easterly village) where we got to in about 15 minutes by train from Monterosso. The trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola is called the Via Dell'Amore ("Lovers Walk") and has an easy access at the train station, it is mostly concrete, totally flat and easily to walk for everybody even with a baby buggy. You need probably some 30 minutes to reach Manarola.

Entrance to the "Via Dell'Amore" in Riomaggiore

From Manarola to Corniglia the trail has some steps in, but it is pretty wide and there are no steep passages, this makes it another easy hike. After some 60 minutes you reach the train station of Corniglia. Walk along the train station and follow the signs to Corniglia. You will reach via a long stair where you have to climb close to 400 steps to get to Corniglia.

Stair to Corniglia

Knowing that the next leg to will take longer and will be steeper, we stopped hiking in Corniglia and took the train back to Monterosso.

Mystic situation at train station in Corniglia

On another day we started quite late at around 5:30pm from Monterosso towards Vernazza. This trail is totally different; it is narrow and steep, sometimes just wide enough for one person.

The small and steep trail from Monterosso to Vernazza

The trail leads to an elevation to more than 200 meters above the sea and is offering a great view back towards the bay of Monterosso. This part of the trail is by far less crowded as the convenient ones described earlier. You pass vineyards, olive trees and fruit gardens.

Olive trees give some shade for the hikers

Olive trees with nets for the harvest. The nets are spread on the ground when the olive fruits are ripe.

Take your time and enjoy the little details of nature: flowers, insects, spiders and lizards.

After a little more than one hour the village of Vernazza is appearing below on the coast. The whole trail from Monterosso to Vernazza takes about 1.5 hours.

Vernazza

We spent the evening in Vernazza in one of the restaurants, so we had a chance to enjoy the wonderful atmosphere of this village; with the boats in the main street and the little harbour.
The last train after midnight brought us back in a few minutes to Monterosso.

Boats in the main street of Vernazza

Harbor of Vernazza by night

Hiking along the Aletsch Glacier

Aletsch Glacier

The Aletsch Glacier is the biggest glacier in central Europe. It builds together with the world famous summits of the Bernese Alps (Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau) and the Bietschhorn the Unesco World Heritage Jungfrau-Aletsch-Bietschhorn.

We stayed in Fiesch, a touristic center popular for skiing in the upper Rhône valley. This part of the Rhône valley is also known as “Goms”.

Our first hike leads us from the top station of the Eggishorn aerial tramway to the summit of the Eggishorn (2934 m). From there we went down to the Märjelen-Lake and the border of the Glacier. We returned to the middle station of the Eggishorn cable car. If you take your time to enjoy the great views, the fauna and flora and if you spent some time taking pictures you might take 4-5 hours for the hike. The signs in the area show shorter walking times!

Trail to the summit of the Eggishorn

From the top of the Eggishorn you have a fantastic view on the Aletsch Glacier and you see on the horizon most of the summits with more than 4000 m of the alps, including: Eiger, Mönch, Jungfrau, Aletschhorn, Finsteraarhorn, Monte Rosa, Dom, Matterhorn, Weisshorn and Mont Blanc.

Aletsch panorama view (click to enlarge)

Details of the glacier surface

The way down to the Märjelen-Lake is accompanied by great alpine nature.



The Märjelen-Lake was formed in the 18th and 19th century when melting water was retained by the Aletsch glacier.

The edge of the glacier is quite impressive. Parts break down during the summer month.

Note the persons in the center right part of the pictures

On the way back to the middle station of the cable car you have a nice view towards the Fiesch Glacier, the second biggest glacier of the Alps.

Fiesch Glacier

The second hike on the other day started on the mountain station of the aerial tramway from Mörel to Riederalp, we spent most of the time in the area of the Aletschwald and returned to Riederalp.

The Aletschwald (Aletsch forest) stretches on the northern slope of the Hohfluh and Moosfluh mountains between 1600 m to 2200 m. Which are a part of the same range as the Egishorn and Bettmerhorn.


The forest includes some of the oldest trees of Switzerland, old larch trees and Swiss stone pines. The trails offer great views down to the lower part of the Aletsch Glacier whose glacier tongue is as low as 1700 m.

Hiking through the karst formation of „Gottesackerplateau“

The “Gottesackerplateau” is the widest karst plateau in the Alps stretching out several square kilometers. It offers fantastic rock formations and a wonderful world of mountain plants including orchids and the likes. The plateau is located west of the Kleinwalsertal and southwest of Oberstdorf, partly in Austria (Vorarlberg) and Germany (Bavaria).

This August we stayed with friends for one week in the lodge of our Skiing Club in the area of “Wäldele” in the Kleinwalsertal. This makes a perfect starting point for the hike to the Gottesackerplateau. If you stay elsewhere in the region you want to start the hike at the “Auenhütte” (base station of Ifen skiing area) which can be reached by car or bus.

To shorten the trip a little bit we took the chair lift from “Auenhütte” up to “Ifenhütte”. From the “Ifenhütte” the hike starts quite steep, if you are not warm yet, you will be soon. After half an hour we reached the edge of the “Ifenmulde”. “Ifenmulde” is a little valley in the shadow of the “Hohen Ifen”-mountain.

During the hike along the rock wall of the “Hohen Ifen” through the “Ifenmulde” I took several pictures of the “Hohe Ifen” to stitch them together to a panorama.

Hoher Ifen

The further hike towards the “Hahnenköpfle” which is the mountain north to the “Hohen Ifen” is accompanied by a variety of mountain plants including alp azalea and gentians.

Gentian

After around 1½ hours we reached the top of “Hahneköpfle”, this offers a great view over the “Gottesackerplateau”. Unfortunately from the west clouds were moving in covering the view towards Lake Constance.

Gottesacker from Hahneköpfle summit

After a rest for lunch at the “Hahneköpfle” and filling up our water bottles at the “Bergadler” we headed towards the “Gottesackerplateau”. The path is marked well every few meters and still it is strongly recommended not to walk through the plateau with bad weather since you have to walk over the rock and no obvious path is visible, you have to search your own way step by step, rocks are separated by gaps and cracks from some millimeters to dimensions that can swallow trucks.

Look out for this, not to get lost

And don't step in there

Even if we had to watch our steps permanently one can enjoy the strange rock formations, the gaps the columns forming this karst area. The name “Gottesacker” is a rarely used German word meaning cemetery! If you want, the area where the rock columns stand could be a turning point returning the way you came so far. That area is reached after 1 to 1½ hours depending on the time you spend enjoying the views.


After two hours of hoping from rock to rock and a little bit of climbing in between we reached the former “Gottesackeralpe” that is the intersection of several hiking paths. From here on we start our decline back to the valley. The way leads still over rocks through little canyons and is framed with a beautiful range of plants.


On the midway of the decline we passed an archeological site we some years ago scientists found tools, bones, fireplaces etc. from stone age 6000 B.C.
The whole decline took us another two hours it stays rocky almost to the end and stretches quite long. The whole hike including breaks, the time to take some photos etc. took us seven hours. The pure walking time is rather 5½ hours.