Sun, Rain, Sun

The title of this blog was going to be ‘Relaxing and Revelling’, but unfortunately the carnival in Victoria was cancelled due to the rain!

Having spent a pleasant few hours enjoying the sun on the beach at Ramla Bay on Friday, and the morning on our balcony on Saturday, we set off to Victoria after lunch to enjoy the delights of a Gozo carnival. Soon after we arrived the rain started and, although we didn’t know at that point that the carnival procession had been cancelled, we decided it wouldn’t be much fun standing out in the pouring rain to watch it. So we posted our plastic bottles into the recycling (gobbling) machine at the supermarket, had a cafe stop, and then returned to our apartment in Xaghra. We had planned to have an evening meal in Victoria, but instead we walked to the village square, still in the rain, and enjoyed a meal in a tiny restaurant called Rubble Bar.

On Sunday we set off to spend the day in the nearby village of Xewkija. We missed the bus by a few minutes and, according to my phone, it was a 25 minute walk meaning we would get there before the next bus arrived. However, the track it sent us along petered out and we had to retrace our steps back to the road. Gozo is by no means flat for all it is only a small island, and the sun was out again, so it was hard work for Summer who was pushing Racheal’s wheelchair. The walk eventually brought us into the village square over an hour after we had set off! After a coffee and our picnic we went to look at the church and were delighted to discover that not only did it have wheelchair access, but there was a lift up to the ‘panorama’, the church roof at the base of the dome.

The sign on the door of the lift in the square, providing access to underground public toilets, amused us!

We opted to take the bus back to Xaghra, which meant a bus to Victoria, a sneaky ice cream and a last look at the Citadella, and another bus ‘home’ to pack for the second half of our Malta trip.