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-   -   Sights, Bites and Maltese Delights. Malta Oct 21. Day 6 Part 2. Still better in Valletta (https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1207253)

WileyCoyote 31 Oct 21 10:31 PM

Sights, Bites and Maltese Delights. Malta Oct 21. Day 6 Part 2. Still better in Valletta
 
Part 2 Lascaris War Rooms

We left part 1 with us making our way over to the War rooms after being assured by Apple maps it was 5 minutes



Yeah right ;)

5 minutes if you are a Tibetan mountain goat with an Olympic medal in the 100 m dash. :pgig:

What we hadn’t realised from the map was just how blimmin hilly the place is :omg:



a great place for your (literal) step count but maybe not so great for two slightly rotund and unfit over 50 year olds.

Anyway, off we set ..




Uphill



Downhill



Past lovely side streets, quaint shops and interesting buildings




It was a gorgeous sunny day and the streets all looked so lovely but my goodness we were hot trogging up and down the streets .



until we eventually found our way to the walls and waterside




Beautiful looking out over the bay



The water was such a beautiful colour



We finally found the war rooms sign



and going down even more steps



Well, this sign is to the point :D



Bad photography or spooky going on-ness?





It’s 12 euros entrance with the audio guide.



Slightly larger on the text




There was loads to read. Coming from a forces family, I always find these places interesting and we learned so much about Malta and the Second World War.

We’d not long been to a visit around the code breakers site at Bletchley Park and the way this was laid out felt very similar.



The hot seat overseeing operations



There were lots of RAF exhibits. I had a real pang of the loss of missing my Dad as we went round. I wanted so much to tell him all about what we had seen. 😔



The stories on the Allied and German ace pilots was fascinating. A lot of Canadians featured on the allied side .. which was another interesting thing for me with my Grandad coming over from Canada during the war and meeting my Gran.




Not v comfy bunks ..


The days before mobiles ...


And the Internet ...



You finish up in a room which is where they say Eisenhower and Montgomery oversaw operation Husky. We just sat for a bit thinking about it all. And thinking about all the people who had lived in the tunnels for months during the bombardment.

It was quite narrow down there




And felt a bit claustrophobic with just a couple of tourists in the tunnels so can’t imagine hat it was like when it was packed.

It had been another really fascinating couple of hours.

We were wilting now though . Not helped when we came out basically into a car park and no idea how to get up to the gardens up here



No steps in sight and just a sign to the cruise terminal :confused2

It was impossible to see how we got up there. It was like a supermario level where you needed mega warp jump skills to scale the wall :pgig:

So it was back the way we came and more hills :pgig:




We were headed to a craft gin place called Wild Honey I had read about but it was closed :(



So we popped next door to Cafe Jubilee



For much needed cold libations



As we were not far from where we’d had breakfast we decided to pop back to see if we could sit inside



We got a table near the bar but upstairs as closed which was a shame



Hot sweaty mess with hat hair :pgig:



I had a mai tai



And the thing I had wanted at breakfast was now blinking sold out :confused2 so we tried the beef and pea pastizzi... all pea and no beef in mine though :(



As it was my birthday I ordered a snickers cake .. toffee caramel and peanut mousse.

They initially brought me a lemon meringue :nonono:

Nope wasn’t having any of that that.

It finally arrived



Definitely a good choice :thumbs-up



Birthday goals .. cocktail and cake



Tasting face engaged



It was delicious :tongue:

And they still insisted it had been a meringue 🤦



We’d had a lovely time but were completely knackered with the walking and decided the gardens could wait. It was hot and decidedly busier so we thought we would call it a day and head back for an old persons nap :zzz: before dinner out later

That’s in part 3 ...

Goldia 6 Nov 21 10:50 AM

The war rooms sound really interesting even if it was uphill, downhill and then uphill again to get there.

Lovely birthday cake and cocktails for lunch. Shame they had sold out of your first choice and then you ended up with all pea and no beef in your pastizzi.

darbs 7 Nov 21 10:45 AM

What had you wanted to eat at breakfast that was then sold out? Cake looked good!

WileyCoyote 9 Nov 21 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goldia (Post 15202562)
The war rooms sound really interesting even if it was uphill, downhill and then uphill again to get there.

Lovely birthday cake and cocktails for lunch. Shame they had sold out of your first choice and then you ended up with all pea and no beef in your pastizzi.

It was interesting. I think we must have taken the indirect route :pgig: yes the cake and cocktails made up for the pasty;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by darbs (Post 15203630)
What had you wanted to eat at breakfast that was then sold out? Cake looked good!

:pgig: It was a bombette .. a ham and mozzarella dough ball . I reckon they just never made any that day ! And the cake was:tongue::tongue:

darbs 10 Nov 21 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote (Post 15206932)
It was interesting. I think we must have taken the indirect route :pgig: yes the cake and cocktails made up for the pasty;)



:pgig: It was a bombette .. a ham and mozzarella dough ball . I reckon they just never made any that day ! And the cake was:tongue::tongue:

A bombette sounds amazing!

smithlane 11 Nov 21 10:24 AM

Stunning pics of the city Amanda!
I can’t believe how hilly Malta is, at least you didn’t get lost though 😉
The war rooms sound fascinating, somewhere I’d definitely have to visit.
I’d not considered Malta before but I think I’ll plan a sneaky week as it looks beautiful

JudeB 11 Nov 21 11:03 AM

My boys would love the War Rooms! We didn't get a chance to visit it when we stopped in Malta on our cruise, but definitely want to come back for a holiday.

WileyCoyote 14 Nov 21 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darbs (Post 15207184)
A bombette sounds amazing!

I know. I really wanted to try one :cry:

Quote:

Originally Posted by smithlane (Post 15208485)
Stunning pics of the city Amanda!
I can’t believe how hilly Malta is, at least you didn’t get lost though 😉
The war rooms sound fascinating, somewhere I’d definitely have to visit.
I’d not considered Malta before but I think I’ll plan a sneaky week as it looks beautiful

Well, the good thing is you can see the sea pretty much wherever you are so it’s easy enough to criss cross the city once you work out which side you are on :thumbs-up
A week would be good I think. Most people we spoke to had come for a week. We might have overstretched with the two weeks ...

The war rooms were interesting. We hadnt appreciated the significance of Malta in WW11 and we learnt loads. Very humbling. We didn’t get to some of the other museums. Maybe another time...

Quote:

Originally Posted by JudeB (Post 15208539)
My boys would love the War Rooms! We didn't get a chance to visit it when we stopped in Malta on our cruise, but definitely want to come back for a holiday.

Ah, yes, it’s definitely a cool place and brings the war to life in quite a unique way.

jocat 28 Nov 21 07:14 PM

Ooh that definitely looks too hilly for me. Think I’d have lost my sense of humour if I came out of the war rooms and couldn’t find my way up without more hills. 🙈

Cocktails and cake sound good though.


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