-
Malta. I'm going at last. I rarely confess to it but I enjoyed the 1983 film Trenchcoat with Margot Kidder. Sort of a spoof on film noir and male detectives, Margot Kidder stars as a mystery writer on vacation in Malta who becomes involved in her own real life mystery. It's a dry comedy, rather silly but it made me want to go to Malta. Given that at the time I was young and poor and had never left the country, I pushed it all to the back of my head until about a year ago. Finally the time has come and in about 10 weeks (Oct. 29 to be specific) I'll be there. It took a wide variety of airports to get the price in my range and I can only say that I'm glad I have free hotel nights or I'd never be there at all. Even with all my hotel points I don't have enough for a full stay and I'll still have to gasp a little bit for the price I did pay. $238 per night but I upgraded to a full breakfast and dinner plan. This is at the Intercontinental and other hotels were double that price. So now I look and realize that it has been 2 hours of my intense hotel mix and match hunt (including the final night free stay in Munich) and it is time for a beer and to watch some E!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Innsbruck - here despite it never being on my to-see list

-
Image
First the backstory. In about a week I'll be boarding a cruise ship (this year's Cruise Trek) in Romania. When I booked the flight many months ago, I had a brilliant idea to go in a week early to Vienna and use it as a base to spend a few nights each in Albania and Bosnia. Fast forward to 6 weeks ago and the Covid restrictions, flight schedules, and hotel prices made me give up. Changing the flight to Vienna would result in penalties and possibly fare increases so I made the best of it and thought, where can I go in Austria where I've never been? Innsbruck, hmm. Can I get a free flight from Vienna? Yes! Can I get a free hotel room? Yes. Check! The city is picture perfect though. Nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges, it's green, colorful, and everything you could want a place to be when the purpose is total work decompression. No major sightseeing, no expectations. You, a city and a view. It's walkable and small. You've got to look up, left and right, ...
Read more

Dusseldorf - continued

-
Image
The sun slowly gave way to clouds then rain. This is not a city for walking in the rain. Before it was time to shelter and stay dry, I did one last walk around the area. The business district and surrounding areas are clean and little graffiti or murals. Found this flamingo? near the old  city.  While the leaves probably congest the waterways, they do look cool floating on the water.  Ornate door entrance. Soon after this was taken, the clouds and mist lowered and the top of tower stayed obscured for the rest of my stay. I decided to pass on paying to go to the top when there was no visibility.  Back in my hotel room I saw this rainbow emerge right before the rain started pelting down.
Read more

Iron Man 2

-
Iron Man 2 starts off the traditional summer movie launch when we are still filled with hope of what is to come before being beaten down with crap. The second weekend in May is the the home of The Mummy, Van Helsing and the like of which Iron Man 2 now belongs. IM2 is everything that is cliched in a sequel. If the audience liked explosions in the first move, make more explosions. Flying super hero suits? Make more! Not enough hot women and wrestlers? Add in cheerleaders and Mickey Rourke and you have a popcorn movie! The plot is not hard to follow. One dimensional bad guy Mickey Rourke wants to make Iron Man suffer for family honor. Dweeby jealous Justin Hammer wants respect. (His whiny voice was overdone and I found myself wishing for a remote so I could hit mute). Tony Stark/Iron Man wants a life. So why was this so hard for people to grasp?  This is one of those movies where if you have a friend who always is asking you "what happened" or "why" during the mo...
Read more