Travels in Malta and Gozo – Day 4

We woke at 6.00 am Saturday morning in time to catch the 8 o’clock ferry to Cirkewwa.

Gozo Ferry

It is only 32 km from Cirkewwa to the airport.  Driving is on the left side of the road in Malta which makes is straight forward for us British.  The left side is of course the proper side of the road to drive as it is the correct side to mount a horse.  It took just over 30 minutes to reach the airport and we were well on our way home.  Apart from Thursday when it rained practically all day our journey to Malta and Gozo proved to be a perfect winter break.

Travels in Malta – Day 3

We decided that we had to visit more of the wondrous Neolithic sites so we crossed to Malta and drove across the island to the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra temple complexes.

The Hagar Qim Temple under its protective canopy

The Manajdra Temple also protected by a canopy.

Both sites are positioned close to each other over looking the sea on the south east part of Malta.  They are well preserved and serviced by an excellent visitors centre.  These temples together with the one at Ggantija on Gozo were the chief purpose of our visit to the two islands.  The people were extremely friendly and welcoming which was an added bonus to our stay here.  Tomorrow we fly home to England.

Travels in Gozo – Day 2

I still cannot establish whether my inability to connect my laptop and mobile phone to Facebook, Twitter and mobile phone networks has to do with the troubles in Egypt.  Today we visited the oldest Neolithic temple known on this planet at Ggantija.

Neolithic temple at Ggantija

Later we drove to the island’s capital, Victoria where we toured the citadel and the Archaeological Museum.  We ate a good pasta lunch at a small restaurant on the main street before driving back towards Xaghra.

The Citadel Victoria

We made a slight detour on the way back to the hotel to see Calypso’s cave where Odysseus was said to be held captive by the mythical nymph.

Travels in Malta and Gozo – Day 1

Got up at 3 am in order to catch plane from Gatwick, a good job too as we returned along theM25 when we got to the A3 junction as I forgotten camera.  The rest of the journey went okay and arrived in Malta airport at about 12.15 pm.  There we collected hire car and drove the 31 km to Cirkewwa where we caught the Ferry to Gozo.  We drove on board and then off again after a pleasant 30 minute voyage in the sun.  No one asked us for any money.  Presumably we pay when we leave the island.

Leaving Cirkewwa

Arriving at Mgarr on Gozo

We arrived at Cornucopia Hotel in Xaghra where we are due to stay for the next two days at about 4.15 pm local time (about an hour ahead of UK GMT).  After, depositing luggage in our room we went for a brief walk in the village.  The hotel is a converted farm house on a hillside and very pretty.  That evening we dined early and washed down the meal with a bottle of the local Rosa (8.5 Euroes, sweet but very nice) and went to bed exhausted.  Earlier I found that although the hotel’s Wi-Fi could connect my laptop to the internet but I could not connect to Twitter or Facebook, nor could I get a signal on my Mobile phone.  This may have something to do with the demonstrations in Egypt as the government there may be blocking the connection.