Day 9 - Malta

Day 9: Gozo Tour
We learned today that we are not tour people. We like to be on our own time table and do what we want to do. Today we went on a guided tour of Gozo, Malta's 2nd largest island. We chose this tour because there is alot to see on Gozo and having the guide we thought would teach us the history. We read our tour book on the way over and it turns out the guide must have read the same book. Ok just kidding about that part, but she did tell us alot of what we read in the book. Our tour picked us up at our hotel and then we picked up a bunch of others at other hotels. We got to the Ferry stop and found our language speaking guides. Those who spoke English and French were with one tour guide because she spoke both languages. We took the ferry and then hopped on another bus that took us around Gozo. Our first stop was Ggantija (Giantess) Temples. These are the oldest known free standing temples, built 7000 years ago. They are freestanding because they do not have any cement between the limestones just the rock less. They believe that these temples were temples of Goddess worship, most likely around the Goddess of Fertility based on the type of statues that they found holding the rocks. Anyway, it was not what we expected but cool none the as well as symbols that symbolize fertility. Next it was on to the Citidel. This is much like Mdina on Malta. It is a fortified city that the residents of Gozo went behind when under attack. They are getting ready for the Feast of the Assumption (on August 15th) and are already beginning to put up the decorations. The Citidel is not as pretty as Mdina and did the exact same thing, so we were not truly excited by it. A few interesting things we saw there is a hill from afar (we later saw it up close) that on Good Friday people walk up and stop at statues of the Stations of The Cross and have mini services at each one. At the top of the hill are several crosses where the crucifixion is recreated. Also we saw an ancient olive pitter. There was a machine that took the pit out and a different machine was used to press out the oil. After the Citidel we watched a movie on Gozo's history. It was lame. It was like going to the Hall of Presidents in Disney. We both wished we had realized how lame it was going to be, we would have tried to fall asleep. The good news, it was cool in there so that felt good.

After the Movie we headed to lunch. The lunch was salad (coleslaw), peas, potatoes roasted with olives and carrots, chicken on the bone or beef floating in fat. Needless to say, Danielle needed a special meal. She got a cheese salad with about a pound of cheese and a tomato as well as some coleslaw. Alison tried to eat the food they put on the buffet but it really wasn't good at all. The dessert however was yummy!

After lunch we headed to the Bay of Xlendi (pronounced Shlendy). We had 30 minutes to walk around and see it. It was a very small beach town. There were maybe 5 restaurants and a few stores and a scuba dive outlet. There was not enough time to swim and it was too hot to take the cliff hike, so we did some shopping and watched some people jump in the water for scuba and then we got on the bus. The area is so small that the bus that was coming up the hill toward us had to back down again for us to go by.

After this bay, we headed to the Bay of Dwerja. We can't give you a pronunciation... we have no idea. Here we saw the Azzure Window, Blue Window. This used to be a cliff that jutted out into the sea, however the sea has eroded almost 100 meters high and wide out of the middle of it, so that the sea gets through on the bottom. It is beautiful. Although it didn't make the trip worth it, it was very cool. The water in this area was very rough, and waves would hit rocks causing splashes easily 10 feet high, there was no swimming here.

Next we headed back to the Ferry and then to buses that brought us back to our hotel. We raced up to the pool before it closed because we were so hot and smelly from sweating all day. We also thought that we would have longer times at the bays and that we might be able to go swimming...however that did not work out. So we were already for the pool already. From the roof (where the pool is) we took some photos of the bay and island that we can see from our room.

We had no set plan for dinner so we just started walking down the street until we came to something that we both would enjoy. Most of the places we passed were either bars or shops. We had no set plan for dinner so we just started walking down the street until we came to We eventually came to a sign that said "Del Capo on top of the car park". They were not kidding, inside the car park was a supermarket and on the roof of the car park was a beautiful sciliano restaurant, with a terrace. You would have never thought you were on top of car park. The food was excellent and for dessert we had kanollies (they spelled it with a K), they were much sweeter then what we have back home!

Interesting Malta Note: When the elevator goes below the ground, they use negative numbers to denote their floor. Also, the ground floor is called floor 0, not 1.
Also we keep meaning to point this out, as it is very interesting. In our hotel room when you enter you have to put your key in a little card reader. When your key is in this reader you have power, if you pull the key out you lose your power. Very smart and means that people do not waste energy by leaving unnecessary lights on all day.

Tomorrow: At this point in time it looks like we are going to the Three Cities separated by a little bit of water. We aren't sure what we are going to find, but we will let you know.

Ciao!