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.

Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday, is the traditional feast day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent – the 40 days leading up to Easter – was traditionally a time of fasting and on Shrove Tuesday, Anglo-Saxon Christians went to confession and were “shriven” (absolved from their sins). A bell would be rung to call people to confession. This came to be called the “Pancake Bell” and is still rung today.

Shrove Tuesday always falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so the date varies from year to year and falls between February 3 and March 9. In 2016 Shrove Tuesday will fall on the 9th February.

Shrove Tuesday was the last opportunity to use up eggs and fats before embarking on the Lenten fast and pancakes are the perfect way of using up these ingredients.

To save rushing around last Tuesday, making pancakes was saved until Saturday lunchtime.  I decided to give the new Bamix its inaugural outing.

In order to get the batter really smooth I made the mistake of slightly angling the Bamix whilst I was beating the batter.  I managed to spray batter all over the wall, the cupboards, the scales, the cooking utensils hanging on the wall, the working surface, the cooker, the cooker hood…

… and all over Mr C who was standing close so that he could add more milk to the mixture…

There followed a “tense” moment before we both enjoyed the funny side of the situation…

Luckily the pancakes topped with sugar and lemon were delicious!