Our tour guide extraordinaire, Tasha, had a full day lined up for us with an excursion out to Gozo, an island off the coast of Malta and a short ferry ride away. Had we just been walk-ons, we could have taken the ferry from nearby Valetta, but since we wanted to have the car, we had to drive quite a ways over to Cirkewwa on the exact opposite end of the island from Marsascala to catch the vehicle ferry. It is only about a 20 minute ride over to Gozo. On the way, you pass by Comino, a very small island in between Malta and Gozo, which is inhabited by only a handful of people. One attraction on Comino is the Blue Lagoon, a sweep of turquoise water ringed by sandy beaches that you can just see as the ferry passes by. One interesting thing we observed on the way were scores of jellyfish in the water. They are yellowish in colour and are called fried egg jellyfish because that is exactly what they resemble - sunny side up fried eggs!
Our first destination on Gozo was the Cittadella, which is an old fortress in the middle of the island. There is archaeological evidence that it was inhabited as far back as neolithic times, and has undergone numerous transformations from acropolis to fortress to historical site.
As luck would have it, when we arrived, there was a cultural event going on just inside the entrance, with traditional singing and dancing, as well as some handicrafts. It was very entertaining! We continued on our tour through the Citadel, taking in the beautiful old buildings and, of course, the numerous churches within its walls.
After all the walking around, we decided to stop for a drink and snack - a shared cheese plate and a drink each. Which came to the princely sum of 47 euros! Probably our most expensive ‘meal’ of our whole trip!!
We continued our tour of Gozo with a visit to what remains of the Azure Window, an arched rock formation created by wave erosion, which provided a photo-op-view of the sea caves beyond it. Unfortunately in 2017, during a massive storm, the arch collapsed into the sea.
After that, on to Ta’ Pinu Basilica, a very impressive church, one of 46 on Gozo. In the courtyard leading up to the church itself are four curved walls covered in mosaic pictures of various aspects of Jesus’ life. They are very beautifully crafted and intricate in their design.
Given that it was nearing gelato’clock, we headed to a small beach area in Marsalforn to suss out a place Tasha knew about. We all got our daily fix and it was delicious. Haven’t yet come across a gelato I didn’t like!! Mer was going to go for a swim but opted instead to just walk along the beach and dip her feet in the blue Mediterranean waters. We saw more of the fried egg jellyfish here as well.
At that point we decided it was probably time to head back to the ferry and get back home, since we still had to have dinner and get packed up for our flights tomorrow. The ferry ride back was uneventful, but unfortunately once we got off there was a huge traffic delay and it took us over an hour to crawl along at a snail’s pace to get only a couple of kilometres, and then a rather longish drive back to Marsascala. Stopped at a restaurant near where we had dined the first night we were here, then home to tackle the packing up.
Thanks to Tasha’s incredible driving skills and her extensive knowledge of Gozo, we had another amazing day here in Malta!