Gozo

Most of our time was spent on Malta proper. But we did take a ferry one morning to the island of Gozo. We just happened to time our arrival to the ferry perfectly both to and from. We were nearly the last ones on going over and the very last car to board on the return.

View from the ferry.

The ferry wasn’t the only boat ride we took that day. We drove to the inland sea. This is a sheltered inlet that has access to open water by means of sea caves. We took a ride out into the open water for the very reasonable price of 4 Euro/person. The deal may have been especially good because this is the off season for Malta/Gozo.

You can really get a feel for the stratigraphy and the propensity for caves from the waters here. And the water is so crystal clear…

I absolutely love being out on the water. It makes me so happy.

We also visited the Citadel of Victoria. There are great views from the walls, it being the highest point on the island (I think).

The cathedral inside the walls has an amazing forced perspective painting in the dome. You completely lose the lines of the dome and are awed by the geometric perfection. The loft of the rotunda is not as great as it appears.

There were a couple of shops inside the grounds of the citadel. One was selling lace, the other silver jewelry. I’d bought lace in Cyprus, so I opted for a silver Maltese cross. It’s nowhere near as fancy as these, but I still like it quite a lot.

These were in the Cathedral museum. We also found “hand cannons”. I know some firearm enthusiasts may refer to a particularly large caliber as a hand cannon. That’s not what I mean. These are actually hand held cannons used for signaling like we might use a flare gun today. I’d guess the barrel diameter at 2″ or 5cm.

(One caveat about the museum. There was a particular painting depicting the martyrdom of a woman. It was disturbing. The thought of it turns my stomach even now. If you have impressionable littles with you, you may want to send an adult in to scout it out first. We’ve seen portrayals of martyrdom in art before, but this one just hit different.)

We did one further thing in Gozo, but I’m afraid it will have to wait as this post has gone on long. I will leave you with a couple more pictures: