Sights,Bites and Maltese Delights. Malta Sept 2021. Day 2. St Julian’s

[WileyCoyote]

Thursday 30 Sept.

mmmmm , might have had a teeny hangover this morning - that Singapore Sling last night was a tad potent

Which meant lazing around in the room until 9.45 and then heading off for breakfast.

Being no exception to the previous days, today’s mishap was provided by the lift and is proof that politeness can be painful.

We were waiting for the lift along with a couple of hotel exec types. When it arrived there was so much - You go first, No YOU go first, that by the time we had established I would go first, as I stepped in the doors closed a bit swiftly on me, causing me to yelp and drop my phone ( thankfully on the floor and not in the gap). Later I discovered one of the camera lenses had cracked. Sad face.

I had a sore arm the rest of the day and two lovely bruises - one on my shoulder and one on my forearm so I can confirm these are not what I would call soft closing doors . I did my best not to start snivelling because it did hurt !

That makes it Hotel 3-Amanda 0 so far on the Health and Safety front. This is probably why I don’t leave home very often.

Poor Andy was also sporting several huge bites - the mosquitoes had gone mad for him and he was really suffering.

Breakfast was less chaotic and we opted for one of the side rooms - we have ended up in here most mornings as it is much quieter.

A better effort from us both on the provisions front today.

We decided to leave the hotel bubble

and walk downhill to St Julian’s Bay

It was very hot.

Wouldn’t be testing out this dodgy boat tho !

I hadn’t thought to bring trainers and my very well worn shoes, with no grip , found the pavements to be very slippy. Good job I brought so many shoes with me I can swop to something more sensible next time.

We were also struck (figuratively, although a few times almost literally) by the amount of people on scooters weaving in between everyone on the pavement.

Old Fogey alert. I really do think these are a menace. You cant hear them and they come whizzing along behind you so if you decide to stop or step aside, you are likely to be flattened. They are getting quite popular around the city at home but these were being steered downhill on narrow streets by groups of tourists thinking some speed be a great idea. End of Old Fogey alert

Further proof that while adventure may be out there, it needs knee pads and helmets and a blimmin better sound system to announce itself than a bike bell!

We walked almost as far as the start of Balluta Bay/Sliema before turning back

We saw the vintage bus but were too slow to book on one of the tours with the reduced off season timetable.

We did manage to flag down a passing taxi to get back to the hotel - wasn’t fancying the uphill walk back.

We were back by midday and straight to the pool. Still plenty of loungers .

A bit later we ordered the Parma ham salad - this was delicious with big slices of melon hidden at the bottom - I did ask for no Gorgonzola, can’t be doing with blue cheese.

Washed down with a beer and a passion fruit daiquiri — the daiquiri wasn’t as a good as yesterday’s apple marg - it was was a tad too sweet.

I also spent an age trying to find somewhere to eat tonight which was when I realised that you needed to be a bit sharper on advance bookings.

I managed to get a few for the coming days but today was looking slim pickings so we asked the concierge to book us into the Hotel’s Italian , Palio’s.

We stayed by the pool till around 4.30. By then the sun starts to get blocked out by the hotel and it gets quite cool so we changed for sundowners and were back down to play canapé roulette - or guess the mystery ingredient

Tonight’s were

Cheese pasty
Meat Samosa
Beef skewer ( neither of us liked this)
Salmon croquette
Cheese and Chive hat thing

Ok but not as nice as last nights ...


We walked across to Palios.

The restaurant is on the other side of the hotel, on the road to the casino

And next to the posh restaurant Quadro

It looked a bit soulless when we first walked in but was much nicer out on the terrace

We opted to sit further back from the water in a bid to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. We could still see the lights and it was nice enough.

It was though a bit of a disappointing experience. Every bottle of wine we asked for wasn’t available so we ended up sticking with soft drinks.

The menu was ok - I hadn’t really wanted pizza but didn’t fancy the burgers or pasta.


I did go for a pizza and it was ok but not as good as the one from the lounge bar.

Andy’s burger was very nice, despite the initially slightly off putting melted Red Leicester

It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing.