It's Always an Adventure: Day tour to Gozo

Malta is the largest island in the Maltese archipelago. During our trip we also wanted to visit the island of Gozo, which was reported to be more picturesque and calm. The options were renting a car, taking the car ferry and driving ourselves around the island or booking with an organized tour group. We opted for the later not wanting to deal with the rental, car seats, driving on the wrong side, etc. 

We knew that joining an all day organized tour would pose some challenges with a needs-to-nap-multiple-times-a-day baby and a churches-are-boring-playground-please 3-year old. As usual, I spent my time worrying about all of the wrong things. We were less than 45 minutes into the tour, on the charter bus driving North through Malta to get to the ferry port, when Jude lost his cookies. And then lost them and lost them and lost them. Miraculously, this did not draw the attention of the tour operators or anyone else on the bus (it was a small group and lots of empty seats). We were feeling so prepared as we had enough wipes, plastic bags and spare clothes to deal with the mess and make it seem like it never happened. So far so good. Jude understandably felt miserable, but he didn't complain about it, he just slept on and off the whole day. This is so unlike him that we knew he must be in bad shape. 

The island ferries

While Jude was having a really bad day, Maeve was at her best. She was just so happy and smiley the whole day. Pointing at everyone, charming them. 

The ferry passed the island of Comino, home to the blue lagoon. We never did make the tour to see it,

but enjoyed a glimpse of it from the boat and a more stunning view on our flight home Saturday. 

The blue lagoon in there somewhere

We docked in Malta and set out to explore. The tour itinerary included a stop at the UNESCO-listed Ġgantija Temples, which are among the oldest megalithic sites in the world, a stop at Xlendi Bay to see the sea views, lunch at a local restaurant and a final stop in the largest town, Victoria to see a film about the island and explore. 

The Ġgantija Temples were two connecting temples make entirely of stacked rocks. The facade was reported to be 7-11 meters high before crumbling down just a few years ago. Inside are the remains of their sacrificing rooms, all semi-circular in shape. 

 The countryside was really beautiful. Most just rushed by from the bus windows.

The facade currently having tumbled down. 

No cement here, just smaller rocks in the holes to hold up the bigger ones. 

The temples are reported to be older than the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge by at least 1000 years. The reason why this is still standing and not many other megalithic sites are is due in part to the remote location (nothing built up over it) and no volcanos on Gozo or Malta.

As we drove along, the tour guide explained about the second story bay windows that I was admiring in Malta. These were also in Gozo and were an architecture style brought over by the Arabs. As muslim women were not allowed to leave their homes, these windows were created so they could watch the happenings from their homes. So sadly a depressing explanation for a beautiful building feature.

Next up was the sea side stop. We should have been admiring the famous "blue (azure) window" shown below in a photo taken from the internet:

photo cred: www.scubacrowd.com

But sadly the window collapsed just a month ago on March 8th and this is what you see now:

Its collapse on Emily's birthday was not lost on us. What a beautiful gift the world gave to honor her. 

We stopped for a very forgettable meal (or maybe memorable in how bad it was). I suppose you don't do group tours for the food, but what a shame to have such a bad meal on what is known as a foodie island.

After lunch we went to a theater in Victoria to watch the film. Maeve needed a nap so I walked around town with her, which I didn't mind as it was really cute with narrow, winding alleys to explore. Jude wasn't having the film either and fell asleep on Pete's lap in the lobby. We reconvened and while the tour group went to check out the citadel, Pete and I sat with our sleeping kiddos at an outdoor cafe.

Up and ready to charm!

Victoria with the citadel in the background. 

We thought that was all for the tour, but I suppose a group tour is not complete without dropping you off at a market in the hopes that you'll buy things :) We were not very impressed with the market (local items included handmade lace, prickly pear liquor, and nougat), but found the nearby ancient washing sites to be fascinating. Before washing machines made it to the island, everyone in town came to these two sites to wash their clothes in the cool caves.

"Wash clothes by hand? You're kidding right?"

Selfie in the cave

So thus concluded our tour of Gozo and it was time to take the ferry and drive back to Malta. Jude had fallen back asleep immediately on the bus, but woke up as we were arriving to the ferry, losing err his "other" cookies. This we were unprepared for and we were a sight on the ferry trying to clean everything up. What relief when we were dropped off in our town and could get home to a bath, shower and laundry machine!

A day we won't forget in Gozo!