The Citadel in Gozo
We went to Malta on August 24 for just over two weeks. This was partly because we will not be here at Christmas this year, and partly to celebrate David’s 80th birthday. We had just over a week in our flat at Hilltop not doing anything particularly as the weather was very hot Between 31 and 35° most days and quite a lot of humidity. But we managed to get the flat to reasonable temperature mainly with the help of a fan but also using the air-conditioning units to start with.
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The new small children at the school were eased into school life with a foam machine
One morning we set out for a walk to a nearby village to have breakfast there at the Top of the World café' The food itself was very good, but the owner was somewhat grumpy. And we got back to the flat soon after 9:30 am before the Sun got really too hot. The only other slight walk we had was down to a fish shop near Scotts supermarket on the Mosta road: this was necessary because our local fish shop had closed in our absence. But when we got to this fish shop, there was a huge queue and we decided we would be waiting for at least 30 minutes and did not even know what fish they had. So we decided to walk back to the flat still in the cool relatively, of the morning.
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We had arranged for Adrian Davis who we had met on the Explorer in 2019, and who had now bought a flat in Malta, to come for lunch on the first Wednesday but when I texted him with confirmation of our address on the Tuesday afternoon it turned out he had in fact flown back to London so we were not hugely amused.
I had had a small operation on my upper leg to remove a persistent scab just before we left Spain so had to bandage this up each time I went for a swim, before the stitches were taken out on the first Friday of our stay. Then I was free to go for a swim twice a day with no worry of any infection. I swam at 8 am just as a pool opened and between 5 and 6 pm just before it was shut for the night.
On September 2, we took an Uber up to the north of the island and caught the ferry across to Gozo
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| We get the ferry from the north of Malta. It only takes about 15.. | ..minutes. Sails past Comino. | The Boyzz enjoyed the sea air |
We had booked into the Kempinski hotel for three nights. We had a lovely room there overlooking the main pool . For the first two nights we dined in the restaurant attached to the bar overlooking this pool. On the last night, which was David‘s birthday, we ate at in the hotel's up market restaurant and this was also very very pleasant, oddly the main attraction being the delicious bread which were served from a trolley And consisted of six different types of bread all simply delicious
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| Swimming was enjoyed by some | |||
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| The "Birthday Cake" was enjoyed by all | |||
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| Lots of venues for meals and drinks, and even an ice cream |
On the 4th we took a jeep tour from the hotel around the island which was interesting , but not quite so deluxe as we thought it should be. The Jeep driver, Sam, 65, was a native of Gozo. The jeep the he had been allocated for the day was on its last legs and the two bench seats in the back where David and the other four passengers, who we picked up off the ferry, were seated, were not suitable for the occupants to see surrounding scenery. Chris was very lucky and had the front seat in the Jeep. Our tour was not well organised and we did not really know where we were going, seemed quite haphazard.
We stopped in an inland village for lunch at Mariblu Hotel and this did not amount to much at all. And all the other jeeps that were touring the island were in this restaurant for its buffet. Difficult to find any redeeming feature in their lunch.The final stop was for an hour at a beach for a swim, yet we have not been told about this and had no bathing suits with us. David got quite upset and got the driver to take us back to the hotel which was not too far away. Later on the hotel sent us a bottle a sparkling wine as an apology and also the next morning gave us a slight discount on the Jeep tour.
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| Comino & Gozo Coast | |||
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| Temples at Ġgantija Archaeological Park | |||
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| Lots of big churches | Salt Pans | ||
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| Citadel | |||
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| Dwejra | |||
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| Xlendi |
Then back to Malta on the ferry
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We had arrived on the Sunday night to noisy fireworks with horrific bangs going off all around us and these we experienced again at intervals during our stay culminating on the last Saturday, September 6 when the whole of Naxxar was decorated for a fiesta concerning the nativity, seemed odd at this time of the year. But the town was beautifully decorated and there was a marching band with 54 players in it and then a huge firework display lasting 80 minutes. The last 5 to 10 minutes period was magical. We had a walk through the town before this to see what was going on and took a few pictures. There were also huge Catherine wheels erected around the brightly lit church, seemed quite dangerous with all the people sitting around in cafés.
Fireworks are an integral part of Maltese life. And they do not mess around with either the quantity nor the size of the fireworks. The vast majority are bangers, more like mortar shells than fireworks. We could see them being launched, and they emitted an eerie whistle as they hurtled skywards. Then bangs that rattled windows and had a shock wave I could feel on my body. We could never work out who paid for it all as thousands of euros were being launched
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| Most were a group of 4 loud bangs | , each with a number of subsidiary bangs. | They had sessions at 08.00. 12.00. 18.00 and 21.00 |
And just before we left thee was a total Lunar Eclipse. Low cloud on the horizon obscured the first half hour or so, but eventually we did see the blood red eclipsed moon, which gradually returned to the normal full moon about an hour later.
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During our stay, I went to Phyllis‘s once to play bridge and had a late supper and also to her sisters Eileen‘s on the final Monday evening
Then back to Valencia by beloved Ryanair on Tuesday, September 8.