Last night we walked from the hotel
to Rubino restaurant on Baker's street, stopping on the way to have an aperatif in a gastro pub. The restaurant was alive and filled with locals. It was a small intimate restaurant on two levels.
I ordered snails to start (snails are big here in Autumn - they're not like the French escargot, our very helpful waitress advised, they were more like the peri-winkles I ate as a child on holidays in Lahinch, Co Clare.) The snails were cooked in oil, garlic and rosemary - delicious. John had a local delicacy an anchovy stuffed doughnut. To follow I had spaghetti with calamari - it was passable though I don't think the pasta was hommade which was disappointing. John had veal with mushroom sauce, which was stunning. A cassata ice cream cake completed an excellent meal. Wine is very reasonably priced by the bottle though a glass is rather expensive but not by Irish standards We partook of half bottle of local Chardonnay and a bottle of Lebanese red - both excellent.
This morning we adjourned to Cafe Cardino for breakfast. En route we bumped into Samuel Taylor Coleridge - poets and writer always appear to search out the most attractive destinations
We sat outside on this occasion as did half the population of V. in the warm Mediterranean sunshine, (It is hotter today - it must be in the mid 20s ) under the watchful eye of Queen Victoria.
The service was woeful and the waitress quite rude. Up to now I would have said that everyone was so polite and friendly, but on this occasion not so. The breakfast was brought piecemeal and when a table in front of us asked for service, having waited more than 10 minutes, she 'ate them' ! On this occasion, I did remember to take a photo of my Maltese breakfast - it reminded me of 'breakfast roll man' of Celtic Tiger fame. Their breads are quite delicious.
We retraced our steps and set out to walk around the island c. 1.5 miles x 0.6 miles. We walked along the harbour and into the Upper Barrakka Gardens where we came across Lascaris War Museum
We may have taken the financial hit for Europe but Malta took the military hit of WW11 - they endured 12,000 bombing raids in one 5 week period - worse than what London suffered in the Blitz. Well worth a visit.
We continued our Grand Harbour walk
until we arrived at Auberge Castille. The auberges dotted around the city were the palatial homes of the knights - this auberge now houses the offices of the Prime Minister.
From there we entered the upper Barrakka gardens which afforded a wonderful view of the Grand harbour
and the recently restored Upper Barrakka lift
Though on the battlements one was almost as high as the lift would take one.
After a brief pause, relaxing in the sunshine overlooking the Harbour, we continued our journey
observing the beautiful Victoria gate below.
Later we discovered a beautiful row of houses with spectacular views of the harbour
We continued to the Lower Barraka Gardens where we had an excellent view of the Siege Bell Memorial - the bell was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth 11 on her visit here in 1992 to commemorate the men who died in 1940 -1943 wartime convoys. The Britush and the Americans both recognised the bravery of the Maltese with the British awarding Malta the George Cross
and the Americans honouring the Maltese with a salutation.
It is interesting that even though Malta was ruled by Britain from 1800 -1964 there appears to be no animosity between the two nations and the Maltese language is widely spoken They appear to be bilingual. Yet we, having fought for our independence and having harboured very anti British sentiment for so long, lost our language - certainly the majority of the Irish are not bilingual.
We continued to Fort St Elmo - we had ended our walk here yesterday but by the shorter Republic Street route. On we went around the harbour, espying the ferry to Sliema which we propose to take tonight to have dinner and enjoy a little retail therapy there. It is supposed to be the best shopping area on the island.!!
The Phoenician hotel looms up before us and we're back ... A siesta and onwards to Sliema .....
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