Day 3: Valletta and the Birthday Cake

The wind had started to build up on the previous afternoon, blowing from the NW, bringing clouds with it.

 

 

For a lot of the morning there was the threat of rain, but we felt no more than a couple of splatters, and by lunchtime it was clear blue sky.

 

Valletta is the capital city of Malta, and has everything that you would expect either in or near it - all the major stores that you would expect to find in London, the president's residence, parliament, etc.

 

 

Valletta is surrounded by huge harbours, and the views out are wonderful.

Having strolled down the main street, we did a circuit of the sea walls, catching some views that I had not seen before.

 

 

There was a Disney cruise ship in town, which allowed us to fully appreciate a new piece of Malta's infrastructure.

 

 

You might remember that last time I was here I saw a new lift that went from dock level to city level.  Look at the picture 2 pictures up and you will realise how useful the lift would be to visitors who did not want to take the stairs all the way up!

 

We took the lift too, just like real tourists.

 

I don't know how much the lift cost to build, but now it is summer they have started charging - 1 Euro for the round trip.  Now with a Disney ship carrying up to 4000 passengers, I think they will be seeing a good return on their investment...

 

We stopped for a beer at this place, built in the Second World War as a platform for a 40mm Bofors Anti-Aircraft gun.

 

The bar inside is full of relics from the war - helmets, uniforms, belts of ammo, etc.  We tried one of the latest local beers, a lager with lemon in it.  Wonderful under the clearing sky.  We could have spent all afternoon there, supping beers, but Mrs RC does not hold her drink very well, so we moved on.

 

We decided to grab a snack next, so we looked around and went for a posh looking cake shop.

 

After a good look I decided that I had found my birthday cake.

 

I thought it looked pretty splendid, but it was rather horrible in reality - the icing was hard enough to break a tooth, the chocolate tasted stale, as did the rather odd cake-like filling.

 

Ah well, nothing goes to waste in a city, does it?

 

It was a great way to spend my 50th birthday.

 

Yes, the badge DID get a few comments, usually a whispered "Did you see that?"  but I also got a "You look really good for 50" from a woman in a shop, so I won't complain.

 

In the evening we returned to the Chinese restaurant for my Birthday dinner.  It was at this point that we noticed the difference in drink sizes between the UK and Malta.

 

We ordered orange juice, and were asked if we wanted small or large.  In the UK, small is a small juice glass, large usually a half pint.  We ordered large, and were pleasantly surprised when 2 PINTS of juice arrived!  I guess they don't want customers getting dehydrated!  This was reinforced a couple of days later when a "Large sparkling water" turned out to be a huge bottle of Perrier!

 

We had a dinner of ribs, pork balls, fried lamb, rice, chicken wings and prawn toast.  No room for the deep fried icecream that I had planned to have for dessert, but we were very happy...

 

On the way back I wanted to play in the fountains again...

 

 

but as I was wearing my suit I had to give it a miss...

 

Still, there was always tomorrow!

 

PS - just noticed that this is my 1111th post on this blog!