welcome to Malta hi my name is Steve I’m a 58-year-old guy 6’5 around 250 lb who loves getting out on the bike and going cycling well that and eating lots of baked goods if you’re interested in seeing what Malta looks like from the back of a road bike ridden by some spandex wearing old dude sit back and relax this is ride 328 today is Monday May 20th 2024 and I’m heading out for my first ride in Malta it’s around 10: a.m. and the temperature is about 24 C and I have a 28 km wind to deal with my first order of business this morning is to stop at the local bike shop and get my tire pressure checked I like them to be around 100 PSI and I cannot get that pressure with my hand pump there do not seem to be too many bike shops on the island but I was quite surprised to find one close by if you’re not familiar with Malta the country is made up of three Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea between Sicily to the north and Libya to the South Malta has about 520 20,000 residents and it seems like just as many vehicles thanks to Britain people speak English but they also drive on the left side of the road something I am not used to doing so you may be wondering why am I in Malta well the answer is quite simple actually by but before I answer that let me first say that I have never thought about visiting Malta if you watched my last video ride 326 you may recall that I mentioned that my mother had flown out to Malta to start a tour a couple of days after she arrived on the island while she was touring an ancient pile of rocks she managed to lose her footing fell down and broke a hip she had a partial hip replacement surgery the following day and I flew into Malta a couple of days later since I am expecting to stay here for several weeks while she recovers I brought my bike along in case I could find time to get out cycling for the next few weeks I will be staying in mosta a very residential Town located in the middle of the island mosta has one major tourist attraction the sanctuary Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady commonly referred to as the mosta Rotunda you saw the rotunda at the start of this video as I normally do I checked online to see what people thought about cycling in Malta after a quick search it seemed that the overwhelming view was that cycling in Malta was dangerous and people were best not to bother and over the couple of days that I’ve been here so far I think I’ve seen one local riding a bike and that was yesterday on a quiet Sunday it made me wonder if I was crazy for wanting to cycle here [Applause] so for this ride I really just want to get out and carefully see what cycling is really like here so I’m going to head south to mdina and rat I thought these were two separate places but I discovered that they are actually the same place aminaa is an Arabic word meaning Fortress and Rabat is an Arabic word meaning suburb you can see mdina up on the hill to my right Rabat is the town that built up around mdina on its South and West sides [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I wasn’t sure what was going on but I was really suffering and that made no sense to me I was barely a few kilometers into this ride and I already needed to pull over I know this is an incline but it isn’t that steep or particularly hard I was quite confused I know it’s a little warm and I am quite heat sensitive but I shouldn’t be feeling like this after a couple of minutes of rest I got on with my ride as I went through the roundabout and started up that steeper section of the climb my heart started fluttering and I looked for a place to pull over I now knew the problem I was severely dehydrated I’ve experienced those heart fluctuations before and have since learned they are a symptom of dehydration now I just need to finish this climb and quickly get hydrated I needed water or Gatorade and probably lots of it [Music] eat e eat do [Music] [Music] [Music] I was happy to see that restaurant I stopped grabbed a table and ordered a large bottle of water and a chicken salad the water was great the salad was good but the chicken was was dry and stringy I’m sure we’ve all had that restaurant experience close to a major tourist site overpriced average quality food oh well it’s the price I had to pay to recover after consuming all that water I felt much better but I decided I should probably stay close to home so I started cycling back North I think I ended up on the route that I originally intended to ride today but in the opposite direction a [Music] n [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] one thing I did learn on this ride some of the road signage is good and I could generally find my way around but then there are times when the necessary signage is absent like here I wanted to head to mosta and I figured that I’d go through that roundabout and be directed accordingly but nowhere along this road did I see any sign telling me to get into the right hand lane to enter the roundabout instead the left lane automatically diverted from the roundabout and traffic was directed West and of course being in the bike lane that’s where I was sent but that’s not where I wanted to go so I had to turn back and find a way to get into the roundabout the thing with roundabouts here traffic comes from the right and that traffic has the RightWay I found most vehicles on my left yield it to me but I was always quite attentive and signaled my intentions [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] I could see the Rotunda straight ahead but this being Malta I couldn’t simply ride straight there the island has lots of one-way streets so I had to turn East and then find a way through the twisting roads back home [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] I could have turned left and probably quick the end of this ride but I was feeling better so I turned right instead to go explore the area those win do we have [Music] [Music] he [Music] [Music] spe [Music] riding through this area I could no longer see the Rotunda and I wasn’t really sure where I was but it’s a small island and I figured I couldn’t really get that lost so I just kept riding [Music] [Music] [Music] I was quite happy to see that store I was very hot and sweating profusely it’s time for more water I asked the woman behind the counter how do I get to the Rotunda from here she said just ride that Street South down the hill and you can’t miss it I kind of Chuck to myself because if there’s one thing I’m quite confident about it’s my ability to get lost on such Clear Directions especially in these streets like a good tourist I dropped the empty bottle in the bin and then started down the hill [Music] in [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] though I did have to make a few turns here and there to get down the hill I was quite happy to see the Rotunda it was like finding the North Star well this was a short but eventful ride I only got in 18 km and 239 M of climbing but I did get some experience cycling in Malta and I managed to avoid any serious complications from dehydration I also found a small store a couple of blocks south and went and loaded up with water and Gatorade I was going to stop over there for a beer but that wind put me off so I crossed the street to the aan Lebanese restaurant instead where there didn’t seem to be any wind at all every ride there after I would stop for beer at alwan to celebrate my effort and of course I’d be back there every night for dinner the aleo chicken was awesome and I needed my daily fix [Music]
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