Yesterday, Christine suggested that we go to Gozo. We had talked about doing a hop on hop off bus tour of Gozo to first get acclimated to that island. We could do the whole tour and then decided what places we wanted to revisit when we had more time. This required a little quick planning because it involved coordinating a bus schedule to the ferry terminal in Cirkewwa, a ferry boat schedule to Mgarr, Gozo, and a hop on hop off schedule starting at the ferry terminal in Mgarr (not to be confused with Mgarr, Malta!). So we did all our prep work Thursday evening to be ready for departing at 7:25 Friday morning.
Gozo is the second largest island in the Maltese archipelago. It is one-third the size of Malta. There are about 38,000 permanent residents, Gozitans. It is about 4 miles northwest of Malta and the primary access is via a ferry from Cirkewwa.
We took the #222 bus to Cirkewwa, bought our hop on hop off tickets before boarding the ferry, and then got on the 9:00 ferry. You buy your ticket on the return trip, and if you are Gozitan, the ride is free both ways. At the Cirkewwa terminal, the passengers walk into the ferry the same way cars are driven on, and I found that humorous.
It’s about a 20 minute ferry ride to Mgarr and the boat goes past the island of Comino, the smallest of the 3 major Maltese islands. There are only a handful of residents living on Comino. Comino was used by the Knights as a hunting and recreation area. It was also a place where misbehaving Knights were sent, to St. Mary’s Tower. Comino’s claim to fame is the Blue Lagoon, a protected inlet whose bottom is white sand so the water looks incredibly turquoise. It is one of the most popular places in Malta. A lovely Maltese man we talked with on the ferry, who was delivering Mdina glass by truck to Gozo shops, told us that Comino is the baby of Gozo, Gozo is the daughter of Malta, and Malta is in the family of Europe. We thought that was a very quaint description.
After our ferry ride, we boarded the hop on hop off bus. We were on the first bus of the day so it wasn’t very crowded and we sat upstairs, open air, on the double decker bus. And we were off on our tour of Gozo.
Gozo is primarily an agricultural island. It has beautiful green valleys and lots of dry stone stack fences and terraces. Gozo has a better supply than Malta of fresh water, which certainly helps the agriculture. It is amazing to see that nearly all the towns and villages are at the top of hills so as you’re bumping along on the bus over hill and dale, you see almost lush green valleys ringed by high, hilltop towns.
The primary agricultural crops in Gozo are tomatoes and potatoes. One of the stops was at a tomato processing plant, Mangro Brothers. Most of the tomatoes grown on Gozo are shipped to this plant, which means from picking to packing is less than 24 hours, thereby making the Mangro products some of the best in the world. This was also a big market place, the Savina Creativity Centre, which showcased all things Gozitan in the form of things to eat and drink. We didn’t go on the tour of the tomato plant or partake of the market, but both are on our list of things to return to in the future.
We went down close to a very popular beach, Ramla Beach, but it was best seen from another stop uphill, Calypso Cave. From Homer’s Odyssey is the tale of Calypso, daughter of Atlas, who entertained (held captive) Odysseus for seven years until Hermes, the messenger of the gods, was sent by Zeus to bid Calypso to release the Greek hero. The cave was underneath a viewing platform, so not very visible, but the vista over Ramla Beach was spectacular.
We then went to the tourist town of Marsalforn. This had a nice little harbor that folklore has it was a stopping place of St. Paul on his way to Rome after his shipwreck. Now, the harbor is ringed by holiday flats.
And on to Victoria (ir-Rabat) we went. Victoria is the capital of Gozo, and of course, the name was given by the British in 1887 to honor Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee. Gozitans use the old name of Rabat. There have been settlements here since the Neolithic period. We’ll be visiting one of the oldest structures built by man in a couple of weeks, Ggantija Temple, when we do a Heritage Malta tour on Gozo. High above the surrounding streets is the Citadel, a fortified city, which was first fortified during the Bronze Age. The Knights further fortified the city between 1599-1603. We’ll also tour the Citadel in a couple of weeks.
We got off the bus in Victoria and wandered around a little. We found two squares full of stalls selling Gozitan products. The streets are narrow and full of little shops where clothing and home products are sold, in addition to lots of farm stands selling great produce. It was fun seeing what was around the next corner as you came into and left the main squares.
Hey, Grant, Teatru Astra is putting on a production of Aida in October. Want me to get us tickets? Looks like a lovely little opera house.
Our real purpose in stopping in Victoria was to find a woman DeLuna, Christine’s sister, met here during her stay last fall. Salvina runs a restaurant named Eldorado in Victoria, so we were on the hunt for this place. We found it and Salvina was right inside the door. As soon as Christine said to her, “I think you know my sister DeLuna,” Salvina’s face lit up and she immediately knew who we were and greeted us warmly. Christine and Salvina had “friended” each other on Facebook, so she did have some clue that one day we would show up. Salvina is a very, very nice woman and she sat with us as she and Christine kind of shared their stories. We had a very yummy lunch at Eldorado and it was a real pleasure meeting Salvina. DeLuna, thanks for making it possible to meet her!
After lunch we had a little time to kill so we wandered through a nice garden, Villa Rundle Garden. There were nice flowers, a cute limestone statue, and a really weird plant that looked like 3 different plants in one.
After the garden we waited in a shady spot for the bus. Another couple who was on our first bus, and who Christine photographed with their camera at Calypso Cave, was waiting. This bus stop for the hop on hop off was one place where you could either continue the tour around the island (which we wanted) or one that went back to the harbor for the end of the tour (which the other couple wanted). They got on the bus that came first and just after the bus pulled away, Christine noticed that the man had left his very expensive camera sitting on the wall. We fretted about what to do. We both would be sick if we lost our phones/cameras with all our vacation pictures. We debated what was right and decided to give the camera to our bus driver. Then I thought maybe the couple would hire a cab back to Rabat from the harbor, so every cab that came by we peered into. And then a local Malta Transport bus arrived up the street and I saw the couple get off and head our way. I waved the camera in the air and they saw me and rushed down the street. I got a big hug, and so did Christine, from the man. He was so relieved, as were we. They are a German couple who understood very little English, which we didn’t realize until we had prattled on and on about how anxious we were in trying to figure out what the best course of action to take. They didn’t understand much of what we said. But all’s well that ends well. We all were totally relieved.
Our bus came and we were back on our tour around Gozo. The next stop was at a very famous church, Ta’ Pinu, which is a basilica and shrine. This place is believed to have great healing powers, so all sorts of people make pilgrimages here.
Then on to a crafts village, which we got off to explore. We went in to a few of the shops. Filigree jewelry is a very popular item, and I must say, the work is fantastic. Also, Gozo lace is very famous. We also saw Gozo glass and some other crafts made by Gozitans. We have a real dilemma in terms of buying stuff. Our luggage is already at maximum weight. Shipping back to the States via FedEx or UPS is exorbitantly expensive. There may be a postal method that is more affordable, but might take months. And then there is biting the bullet, buying another suitcase, and paying for a second bag on the airplane. Time will tell what we choose to do.
We had to wait for our bus to arrive. We’ve spent a lot of time waiting for buses! But then on to Dwejra, a very popular attraction where there is what is called an inland sea, and a rock formation called the Azure Window. We had planned to spend some time there, but we had a really cranky bus driver who was yelling at everyone, and there were lots of people waiting to board the bus, so we decided to stay put in our seats and put Dwejra on our list of things to do when we come back. Alert to our friend Eve. Gozo is one of the Mediterranean’s best dive sites. This inland sea at Dwejra is especially good, as well as many, many places around the island.
So back to Mgarr and boarding the ferry. It was disorganized chaos in the terminal. Hundreds of people were trying to board the 4:30 ferry back to Cirkewwa. We had to stand in a long line for tickets, and then in a crush of people trying to go through the turnstiles to get to the boarding ramps. We ran down the hallway after going through the turnstiles to get to the ferry just in time for boarding. But we enjoyed the ferry ride back to Gozo. It was such a beautiful day today and being out on the water was wonderful.
Back in Cirkewwa was more chaos at the bus stop. As you might imagine, many of the people getting off the ferry were now needing to get on a bus. Our #222 bus didn’t show at its allotted time and the little digital sign showing arrival times kept being pushed back, by 10, and then 15, and then 30 minutes. Our like for the Malta Public Transport system is quickly fading away as we wait for buses. But eventually, a #222 bus arrived and we got on, even getting seats. We do enjoy traveling the same routes and seeing familiar territory. We’re getting pretty good at being able to name where we are and what we see, although correctly pronouncing the Maltese town names is still a big challenge.
Then the strangest thing happened. As we were getting to the St. Julian’s terminus, the bus pulled over and the driver said we all had to get out. This had happened to us in Ballutta when there was that fire in the hotel down the street from us and Tower Road was blocked. When Christine asked the driver what was going on, we learned that the area around Spinola was blocked off so the buses could not get through. Fortunately, the St. Julian’s stop is within walking distance to our flat so off we went.
As we were coming down the hill into Spinola Bay, we saw why the buses were stopping. There was Il-Festa Lapsi in full swing. Carol had mentioned to us about a festival in Spinola, and this was it. Il-Festa Lapsi was celebrating 2 things – the 125th anniversary of the parish church in St. Julian’s, and the re-enactment of the landing of the Grand Master in Spinola to visit Spinola Palace. This was a wonderful street festival with all kinds of food stalls and great entertainment. We sat outside the St. Julian’s Band Club having some food and a drink. We chatted with an interesting Maltese guy, Victor, and his girlfriend and enjoyed the goings on. After that, we watched some traditional Maltese dancing, which Christine really enjoys.
What a nice surprise to the end of our day.
We’ll have to do Opera Malta another time! Also, when you return, leave most of your clothes! You will be sick of them by then. That will leave lots of room for my gift!