Gozo-ing round Gozo

Once we had settled into our Gozatian abode, we spent the next three days exploring the island.

Victoria is the biggest town on Gozo and only a 15 minute bus ride away. From the bus station we walked up the main street to the citadel, the historic fortified town, perched high on a hill overlooking the modern town. A short, but very steep, road rose from the street to the visitor centre. A kind priest insisted on pushing Racheal up to the entrance, and from the visitor centre a lift took us the rest of the way up to the old town. Within the walls were tiny streets, more steep hills, a cathedral, shops, cafes and steps up to the top of the walls where you could see for miles.

After exploring the old town, we found a cafe for refreshment before looking round the centre of Victoria. Here we went to the town museum and basilica, and enjoyed exploring the narrow streets. The bus ride back to our apartment took us via Marsalforn, a busy seaside village.

The following day we used a ‘hop-on-hop-off’ bus to tour the whole island. It was a chilly, grey day with occasional showers, so spending most of the day on a bus seemed the best thing to do.

The route took us through a number of smaller villages and out to the coast where we could see the inland sea. (More of that later.) The first place we chose to get off the bus was Ta Pinu, the national shrine. It’s actually more like a cathedral in the countryside. Outside are four curved walls decorated with mosaics of Christ’s life on one side and images of Malta on the other. While we were looking at these, it started to rain, so we made for the long ramp at the side of the building which provided wheelchair access. We had 45 minutes, or so we thought, between buses, so plenty of time to explore the inside.

After waiting at the bus stop for 10minutes, I looked at the timetable only to discover that the next bus didn’t come to our stop. As it was starting to rain again, we went back inside and found a service was taking place. We sat quietly at the side listening to mass being sung. Racheal loved it, smiling all the way through and stretching in the way she does when she’s enjoying something.

When the next bus came, we continued our journey. Our next stop was Xlendi, a small village around a tiny bay. The wind had picked up so we were glad to find a covered area, overlooking the bay, to eat lunch purchased from a small food stall. The village square was more sheltered so we enjoyed an ice cream while waiting for the next bus.

We stayed on the bus until we reached the end of the route at the ferry terminal in Mgarr, enjoying the beautiful scenery and quaint villages along the way. Having missed the last bus back to Victoria, we then took a service bus to Xaghra.

On Thursday, with better weather, we decided to return to the craft village and inland sea that we had seen from the tourist bus the day before. This meant catching a bus to Victoria and then another one to Il-Wilga.

The craft village had a selection of shops such as a silversmith, leather worker, glass blower, ceramic painter and metal worker, amongst others. After visiting all the shops that were open, we treated ourselves to lunch in the café followed by an ice cream.

Another short bus journey took us to Dwejra and the natural phenomenon of its inland sea. This small piece of water is connected to the Mediterranean by a short tunnel. It was a pleasant place to sit in the sunshine listening to the waves lapping the shore.

While we were here we also visited the Marine Education Centre, a small free museum, and took a look at the coast and the village church perched on the cliff.