James and I are back at home now but I wanted to share some more photos of our trip in Malta and fill you in on what we’ve been up to the last two weeks.
We left Darren and Julie’s Gozo farmhouse and took the ferry to Malta for a road trip.
Thursday, October 11
There is all sorts of fantastic architecture on Gozo and Malta. It seems like there was a bulk sale on domes at some point, but regardless they are spectacular. The most spectacular being the Rotunda in Xewkija, which we passed on our way to the ferry.
The Rotunda is the Parish Church of St John the Baptist and was built between 1951 and 1971. The 75 metre dome is higher than St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the nave can seat 4000 people. It was pretty quite the afternoon we were there, but beautiful sunlight was coming in through the windows.
The rest of our trip to Valletta was fairly uneventful. James drove and I navigated. Again, it’s all left driving, which means the window washers were going every time we tried to signal a turn. Pretty funny. We did get lost a couple of times, but you can drive the full length of the island in a hour so getting lost doesn’t actually waste a lot of time.
I found that although there are road signs, they are not to be trusted. You best bet driving in Malta is to have a general sense of the direction you’d like to go and just carry on in that direction regardless of the signs.
Our first night in Valletta we had dinner at a Chinese food restaurant called the Blue Room. It was pretty exciting to eat out somewhere and not see the staples of pasta and pizza.
Friday, October 12
Today was our morning to visit St. John’s Co-Cathedral but the cruise ships were in town and the place was a zoo. We decided to go to the archeology museum instead and it was a wise choice. There was a Caravaggio exhibit on and the paintings were absolute masterpieces. Caravaggio was on Malta for a number of years so some of the paintings on display were painted in Malta. We watched a short video and then wandered around the gallery.
His paintings are phenomenal–like looking at a photograph.
After that we had a quick tour around the Fine Arts museum then were off to meet Darren and his friend Alex Grech at Cafe Cordina at 3 pm. Alex is an interesting guy, and perhaps will be the one to start Barcamp Malta–conversations are in the works.
That night we say the play Doubt, which was an ok way to spend the evening.
Saturday, October 13
For a 13th, this was our lucky day. I was interested in visiting the Hypogeum, which is an underground temple over 5,000 years old. Tickets must be bought months in advance but there is a noon tour for last minute guests. The only way to get tickets is to go for 8 am the day before and cross your fingers.
The Hypogeum is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is protected by all sorts of rules. One being that only 70 people can visit per day.
Well it was our lucky day. As I was waiting to hear whether we’d be able to get tickets for Sunday, a tour guide came in and she had two extra tickets she was trying to refund. I bought the tickets from her and James and I were able to go on the 2 pm tour that afternoon.
We went back to Valletta and toured St. John’s Co-Cathedral, which I think is one of my favourite Maltese sites, then went on the tour of the Hypogeum, which was very cool. They carved the temple out of the limestone.
That evening was the semi-final for the Rugby World Cup–England vs. France. James spent a couple of hours trying to find a bar that was showing the game. Rugby is not really a well-observed sport in Malta. In the end, lucky 13, we found The Pub, an English pub in Valletta that was showing the game. The bartender was even wearing his English jersey. It was an excellent time.
The weather took a turn though and we had a loud thunderstorm. It sounded like the Germans were bombing the place again.
Sunday, October 14
Today we were off to Marsaxlokk, a well-known fishing village. Being Sunday it was also the weekly fish market. We stopped first at Peter’s Pool for a picnic lunch. We were hoping to go swimming but the winds were unruly.
Marsaxlokk has a number of little wooden fishing boats in the bay, and it’s definitely a picturesque little place.
We had dinner at Matthew’s Pub. I had a creamy chicken and mushroom dish, very yummy.
Monday, October 15
A day for toodling. The weather hadn’t improved much but we did find the Blue Grotto, which is stunning, and a Wied-il close by–nice little inlets that are great for swimming.
We had a nice bob around in the water then headed for Mdina and the Point de Vue Guesthouse.
Mdina is a fortified city. Medina is Arabic for “walled city”. Historically it was the favoured residence of the Maltese aristocracy. There are a lot of interested door knockers here. I took a photo of every one we came across.
Mdina is where we ate one of our favourite meals. Il Gattopardo, Italian for “the leopard”, is a charming cafe. I had a great hot chocolate, which was needed since it was howling winds outside. The meals are Greek inspired and James and I had a prosciutto salad with rocket, tomato, olives and parma ham, and lemon-coconut dahl with pita. The dahl was spectacular.
We had another nice meal at the Point de Vue Guesthouse that evening.
Tuesday, October 16
Today was our day to spend money. We drove up to Mosta to see the dome there. Had some lunch. Then carried on to Golden Bay and the 5-star Radisson hotel. The beach at Golden Bay is golden and lovely. We had a short swim because the weather was crappy. And with just enough sunlight I managed to read a few pages on the beach, pretending that it was a lovely summer afternoon.
The bed at the Radisson was worth the $300 CDN we spent. It was big and fluffy and everything that beds in Maltese budget hotels are not.
Wednesday, October 17
Winds gusting to 60-70 km per hour pushed us to the ferry and back to Gozo. I’m really happy that we decided to return to Gozo before flying home because Darren and Julie’s farmhouse was so quiet and welcoming I could have cried. It was wonderful to be back on sleepy Gozo and driving routes that we knew well.
Our road trip was fun, but I think some of the best sites are on Gozo, not the more touristy and busy Malta.
The winds had knocked out the electricity so we spent most of the evening trying to get the lights back on. We made dinner on the gas stove by the luminescence of Julie’s bicycle light.
Thursday, October 18
It was a full house at Darren and Julie’s. Julie returned from Rome the night before with two new house guests in tow–Allan and Jen. We caught up with Julie and basically hung around relaxing.
I took Allan and Jen up to Ta’Pinu and the stations of the cross at sunset. Then we settled in for dinner and early sleeping.
Friday, October 19
Another stormy day on Gozo. James and I decided to race out to San Blas in the morning for a swim at our favourite spot. The light was really interesting and made the sand glow. There was a dark line along the horizon that steadily got closer and closer. At the last possible minute we decided to flee back uphill to the car. It’s a fun little goat path that you have to take down to San Blas so the idea of mounting it in the rain was not pleasant.
We made it back to the car and back to Gharb just in time to grab Julie and speed off to Freespirit Spa for our weekly massage and facial.
Martin gave me one of my top three massages of all time. In fact he’s sitting in spot 1 and 2. Afterwards Monica gave me a facial. I’ve never had one before so it was a new experience. I’m definitely interested in trying that again.
Darren returned from Toronto today and we had a great dinner with everyone at Salvina, the local luxury dining establishment. I had the duck and it was excellent.
Saturday, October 20
This was a lazy day and our last on Gozo. I wandered around Gharb for a while, packed and then went with Julie and her friends to Dwejra. I’d gone before with Darren but we didn’t actually get to the Azure Window and the Blue Hole, which are supposed to be stunning. I’m really glad I decided to go–it was a last minute decision and definitely worth the experience. We walked around the shore with breaking waves around us. Stunning.
Late afternoon James and I made our way to the ferry, which was backed up with tourists so we had to wait one sailing.
The bus to Valletta was long and sort of boring, there was some good people watching.
The highlight, of course, was getting back to Valletta and The Pub, where we watch the final in the Rugby World Cup. South Africa was our favourite to win, but we didn’t want to get kicked out of the only pub showing the game so we verbally cheered for England.
One good sleep in Hotel Castille then we were off to Luqa airport at 6:30 am.