Malta – Malta Day Three

Day three on Malta started at the accommodation where we were the only guests, so all rather peaceful.

Part of the breakfast laid out just for us, with the lovely accommodation owner having one of the widest selection of teas that I think I’ve ever seen. I felt a little guilty that the owner had to put all of this out just for us, but she made a fine effort and I’m pleased that she did.

We had a little more time in Gharb, with their church having a more impressive interior than I had anticipated. I would have investigated this church a little more, but there was a lady contemplating and I didn’t want to disturb her praying.

We got the bus into Victoria and had another look around the Citadel, including a visit to the Ditch (the defensive moat at the base) for the first time.

Perhaps more excitingly, the air raid shelter underneath the Citadel was open which was something I had wanted to visit last year, but it was still being restored then. It’s free of charge and it’s an extensively sized site, with tens of rooms where the brave residents of Gozo would have gone for safety in the air raids during the Second World War. The signage notes that the authorities deliberately didn’t make it too pleasant in the shelters as they had problems with people going down there when there weren’t any air raids on.

Liam in a room at the air raid shelters. We hadn’t heard from our accommodation for the evening by this stage and it was becoming evident that we weren’t going to get an e-mail from them so someone had to phone them. I can’t possibly be doing phone calls, so Liam was appointed as Head of Logistics for the day. Fortunately, that phone call resolved the accommodation issue for the day.

Lunch was at Victoria and consisted of a rather lovely chicken pie and some green bits, all a pleasant reminder of my visit to the islands last year (the pie, not the green bits). Unfortunately, I didn’t realise that the cafe stocked some of the local craft beers, so I just went with a Fanta.

A bridge at the park in Victoria.

The park also had no shortage of cats.

We decided to stay on the island of Gozo for one more night, so got the 303 bus to Nadur. The weekly bus tickets cost €21 and it’s fair to say that we’ve had good use of these over the last few days. All of the buses have been pretty much on time and not too busy, although I can imagine that this situation changes during the summer months.

The view over the harbour area from Nadur.

A little park between the beach and Nadur.

After checking-in, we walked down to San Blas Beach, which was once known for its red sand, although this unfortunately got blown away a couple of years ago. It was a steep path down to the sea as well, but fortunately all paved. We thought that it looked a slightly terrifying stretch of road for a car driver, but we did see a couple of cars go all the way down to the beach area.

Liam and another one of his selfies. The bloody younger generation. We then retraced our steps slightly and walked to Sopu Tower, a former defensive structure which has extensive views over the local coast. The wind was relatively strong, but the temperature is still moderate so the walking conditions are still pleasant.

The evening meal was in Nadur and it’s a moderate shame my photo didn’t show this shared starter with much clarity. There was some marvellous peppered goats cheese, capers, sun dried tomatoes, bruschetta and so on, which proved so filling that I didn’t really want anything else.

Unfortunately, I had already ordered this pizza, and didn’t get very far with it.

More fortunately, the restaurant was able to give us boxes so that we could take the remainder of our pizzas back as an evening snack. The value that we got at this restaurant, the Fat Rabbit, was excellent and not only were the prices cheap, but the portion sizes were generous.

We’ve booked the next night of accommodation, back on the main island, so in the morning we’ll be leaving the delightful island of Gozo on a morning ferry.