Photo taken by Mr C
The buffet breakfast was excellent with a full selection of both continental and cooked breakfast options including traditional Maltese options. Also available were items that needed cooking to order such as pancakes, omelettes and fried and poached eggs.
Photo taken by Mr C
Photo taken by Mr C
Comfortably replete, we left the hotel and walked down the hill towards the Templar Memorial and the siege bell which we had seen from above when we first walked into Valletta the previous day. The mid-morning heat led us stop for refreshment along the way. I chose to try the local drink, Kinnie, which has an orange and herb-based flavour. I found it very refreshing.
Photo taken by Mr C
Rather than continue along the harbour, we cut through the town where we ended up in a food hall checking out options for both dinner and lunch. Mr C got tempted by the mention of pancakes, expecting to have a lemon and sugar option but it was not listed on the menu option. I ordered my pancake from the options available and was told by server that she would try; she hadn’t made one for a while and that if it didn’t work, she would throw it away… I sat down and waited and when it arrived it was delicious. Mr C’s second choice of pancake was also not available so he ended up choosing a pancake with no topping at all! He also ordered a milkshake which, when it arrived, was a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a tub!
Photo taken by Mr C
After this bizarre experience we decided to visit St John’s Co Cathedral but on arrival the queue was extensive so we flexed our plan and visited the nearby National Museum of Archaeology instead. The museum has an excellent display of the Neolithic period including some items found whilst excavating the Island’s Neolithic Temples. I was particularly taken with the minute carving ‘The Sleeping Lady’. In addition to this, there were galleries displaying Bronze Age and Phoenician artifacts as well as galleries displaying other things of interest.
Photo taken by Mr C
After our visit we sat and chilled out in a nearby café where I enjoyed freshly pressed orange juice before exploring Valletta further. This led to us finding the main foody street giving us options for evening meal choices. Our travels led us to the terrace above the Upper Barrakka Gardens where I sat for a while overlooking the harbour and the enormous cruise ship (looking like a horizontal sky scraper) which dominated the view. This explained why there was such a large queue to enter the Co Cathedral.
Back at the hotel, we had a drink in the bar before freshening up for dinner. The restaurant that we had originally chosen was unable to accommodate us so we booked a table for the following evening. Instead, we chose to dine in Anglo-Matese. The food was good but for some reason it took over an hour to arrive. We were apologised to profusely on several occasions about the delay.
Photo taken by Mr C
Much later, back at the hotel, we had a nightcap before retiring for the evening.
Ahh yes, the Upper Barracks Gardens are attractive in the own right and have great views of the harbour. Being on small islands is miserable in war time but great in peaceful decades.
Looking around the defences and bastions is also interesting.
You are bringing back so many of our memories of Malta, Cherry, as you’d guess. It’s quite fun to recognize places and names!
It was your visit that inspired me to want go. It has taken all this time to persaude Mr C
I am sorry you lost your camera and photo’s, the horror of a photographer.
It is almost not real how big that cruise ship is. ( my humble opinion: also a horror for a city, but of course it is all about the money.) Malta is a great place to visit, we have fond memories there.
The idea of staying on that ship is unappealing to me. It also spoils the look of the harbour. As I said to Ginnie it was your visit that inspired me to want to go.
I’m so sorry to hear about you camera loss, but Mr. C has done a fine job stepping up ????
I don’t know much about Malta, except that it’s an island off the coast of Italy with also Grecian influence – and that it has an inlet beach with turquoise water, like the Caribbean in an otherwise Mediterranean-blue sea, so excited to see and hear more!????
So is that a Knights Templar memorial? So interesting, heroes to some, villains to others. Perhaps the truth lies in the middle. Or they meant to be heroes but became villains with all that wealth and power. Perhaps your trip can tell us more?
Now was that your private yacht I saw in the earlier pic, darling, scuttling around like an Onassis? ????
And of course you boarded that giant commercial cruise, too ????
Methinks Mr. C is a boat fan, yes? ????
Me too, just not giant commercial, Norwalk-virus-circulating party cruises, just not my thing, but others love it, so I’ll hush ???? The engineering is cool though.
And I’d do a river cruise perhaps. Maybe even a Cunard transatlantic because you can bring dogs ????
Still working on a loaner laptop that won’t let me comment, so posting from my phone – so forgive all my commentary in one and if this posts twice!
Love you … ????
Now I have had another look I see that it isn’t a Templar it is a war memorial to the unknown soldier. This makes sence because the nearby bell is also a war memorial.
There is a lot of history on the Island going back to pre-neolithic times.
We stayed well away from the cruise ship it doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. Whilst we sat looking down on it the ship was honking its horn to call people back as it was soon to set sail. I wouldn’t mind a river cruise or a smalll yacht cruise though.
For the second half of the holiday I have some of my own photos that I took on my mobile phone which luckily I had just upgraded (unexpectedly) before we travelled.
PS – Well it appears it didn’t post twice this time, but took super long to post and all my emojis turned into question marks, it seems, at least on phone view! Lol
Sort about that. Nope I was not that confused, those ??? we’re originally emojis. Guess you can use your imagination as to what they were lol
The page is loading very slowly this afternoon I think the server must need a reboot.
Wow, look at the size of the ocean cruise liner!
It’s bigger than the port itself.
Yes it is and it looks quite out of place moored up there.