Victoria & Xlendi

Moving to Gozo

Today we head to Gozo, the smaller island off the main island of Malta.  This had been on our plans six years ago when we had a rental car and the queue to get across with the car ferry (from Cirkewwa) was far too long.

Since about 2 years ago, a passenger ferry operates from the convenience of Valletta.  We had booked on the 1045 service and walked to the Fast Ferry Terminal with minimal belongings for the two-night stay.

The 45 min service was operated by a very nice Indonesian-built ferry, from shipyard in Batam.  Googling it, all the advertising and news articles refer to it as an Australian-designed ship. I think there’s inherent racism somewhere.

Pulling into Mgarr Harbour on Gozo at 1130, I resisted hopping on the bus immediately.  I wanted to check that we could return on a slightly later ferry after two days, check our excursion tomorrow and then having a quick glimpse of Mgarr.  Official check-in time at our accommodation is 1500 and we had plenty of time to kill.

All that was completed within minutes and there wasn’t much to Mgarr to see!  We waited briefly for a bus to take us up and inland to Victoria.

Looking uphill upon arrival at Mgarr Harbour, Gozo.

Settling into Victoria

Arriving at Victoria around midday, the idea was to find a nice café and kill some time before heading to our accommodation a little early but not too early.  But we stumbled across a very nice café called Rizzles, with pies, salads and cakes at very reasonable prices.

We showed our true colours and settled in there for over an hour before heading to our accommodation, 39 St George.  We were very fortunate that it was staffed at that time (we hardly saw any staff during our stay there) and was let into our room some 90 mins before the official check-in time.

The location of the accommodation was superb, right on St George’s Square with the church and several cafés.

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Swimming at Xlendi

We rested for a couple of hours before taking the bus to Xlendi which was supposed to have a beach, even though most pictures showed a little town by the water.

The alternative was to go to Ramla with its red sand beach or San Blas.

Xlendi turned out to be stunning as the bus descended into the town.  The water was a beautiful aqua with perfect swimming depth.  Most of the photos I had seen had led me to expect that we wouldn’t be swimming there, but I was so glad that Kim insisted that we bring our swimming gear.

We made our way back to Victoria around 1700 and took dinner back at Rizzles.

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Gozo’s Citadella

Kim was a little tired after dinner so I went to explore Gozo’s Citadella by myself around 1900.  The signboard outside suggested that it was already closed but it was only the museums that were closed.  The outdoor areas were still open and there were plenty of visitors still.

Even though the site had been in use since around 1500 BC, most of what we see now are from around 1500 AD.  I walked around the walls, nearly completing the whole circuit.  It offered a very good view of the inland and coastal areas.