This week, on our journey down some of Malta's less well-travelled tourist tracks, we made our way to the Malta Falconry Centre in Siggiewi.
The tourist hop-on/off buses come here via the Limestone centre, so it's not completely off the beaten track.
[first title card - 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941)]
Title Card: In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta, paid tribute to Charles V of Spain, by sending him a Golden Falcon encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels ~~~~~ but pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day ~~~
ahhhh.. No they didn't. Because there was no golden falcon, bejewelled or otherwise. You see 'The Maltese Falcon' by Dashiell Hammett is what we call "a story". It's based on some sort of reality though, except apparently the tribute was in the form of a live bird, payable annually, basically in lieu of rent for the islands of Malta. This is considerably cheaper than the rent now being paid for pokey apartments in Gzira, even allowing for inflation.
