Holiday reading 3: what I read on my holiday

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What I didn’t read on my holiday:

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Poor Caine Mutiny has now traveled over 20,000 miles in my luggage since December and is still unread. Maybe next time.

What only got as far as Manchester because the case was too heavy when Andrea selfishly packed her stuff in it:

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And, okay, the books I bought in Malta:

books2In my defence, they were both remaindered, I’ve never seen a copy of the Lotz, and the Winslow was because when we were mis-sold bus travel credit, they refused to refund but would exchange, then mis-sold us different bus travel credit but on leaving the shop we checked online what they’d straight out lied to us about, and still they refused to refund, so we bought the correct bus travel credit and then spent ages finding a bunch of things we did not really want for them to have to ring up on the till (though, that said, the Winslow sounds like a great piece of trash, and so no doubt it will find itself packed in the luggage for another trip some time. But not until I’ve finally read The Caine Mutiny).

The absurdly large church in Xewkija seen over the dolmen of Ta’Cenc and…

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and the absurdly large church in Xewkija seen through the dolmen of Ta’Cenc…

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and the absurdly large church in Xewkija seen from the road above the Phoenician temple to Astarte on the cliffs at Tas Silg…

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and the absurdly large church in Xewkija seen from Gigantija, the oldest free-standing building in the world, …

 

and the absurdly large church in Xewkija seen past a Bronze Age hilltop settlement…

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and the absurdly large church in Xewkija seen from the Citadel at Rabat (aka Victoria)…

 

and the absurdly large church in Xewkija seen from a ferry leaving Gozo behind.

 

The absurdly large church in Xewkija, a village the size of a postage stamp, has the third largest (or highest, depending on your source) unsupported dome in the world.

Those wacky Knights of Malta

When penis-shaped mushrooms were found on the island in the background – now known as Fungus Rock – they were promptly believed to have aphrodisiac powers. In order to control access to the island and its priapic gifts, those wacky Knights of Malta built the fort in the foreground. Looking back over their history, this is not the maddest thing they ever did, but this folly deserves to be remembered as the one time they got close to seeming delightful.