Tuesday. Trip to Gozo

Yesterday, Tuesday,  was very full 

I got picked up by a driver and guide at a hotel about 10 min walk from where I am staying at 7.45am. I am in part of the older area where an 18 seater mini bus would have great difficulty manoeuvring. ( Malta is roughly oval in shape lying NW to SE. Valletta is 2/3 along on the 'northerly' side)  We then set off to collect the other 15 on the tour ( 6 couples ( 4 Brits , 1 German, and 1 American  )plus a  Danish mother and her 2 adult children) These 15 were all staying at 3 different resort towns along the Northern coast..

We crossed some water in a large ferry to Gozo, the second largest island of Malta. We saw lots of things and I was not taking notes on what we saw. So , in no particular order:

Lots of nice views of islands and small bays,

Countryside- sparse vegetation, lots of prickly pear, lots and lots of stones and stone walls, olive groves, small villages with no one around.

Several large churches in the middle of nowhere, one dating back to the late 1500s. It had mosaics all around the upper layer, ( I've forgotten the proper name) like several churches I remember seeing in Sicily over 20 years ago, not far away.

A group of fortified buildings( church, admin buildings, etc) built in the 1500's in the time when the Knights of St John were being attacked by the Ottomans , called the Citadel, in the outskirts of Victoria, the capital of Gozo.

Some salt pans- an area  next to the shore line of flat rocks with large shallow indentations  where for many many years people had collected salt from. Still done today.

Lunch at a nice fish restaurant.  Apparently  the fish I ate was a slice of gropher.

Some of us ( incl me) went  into some caves on the waters edge where the water was a very deep blue colour and just under the surface there was orange coral growing. Quite pretty.

Finally, we visited the very old Ggantija temple complex. I had in my head that it was said to be 5000 BC years old but it was 5000 years old, making it very similar in age to what  I saw on Sunday at Hagar Qin complex . According to the blurb on Gozo it is about 200 years older. The 2 sites were very similar  but clearly been organised by different people and had slightly different ideas about what the different rooms were called.  Hopefully photos soon.

I talked to about half of the other people on the bus. They had very little idea about Australia or Australians but were interested to learn and had lots of questions. One of the Norwegian ladies was a bit cluey. Maybe Mary has educated them?

A long but interesting day.