Malta – Malta Day Two
And the second full day in Malta started well as it looked hot, but not too hot, outdoors. It was the second day in our hotel at St. Paul’s Bay, an unexceptional but satisfactory accommodation.
We popped to a local cafe for a morning coffee where the service was friendly and welcoming. There was a slight lack of menus to encourage us to order food, so we decided against a more substantial breakfast.
Then there was just a little exploration around the local area, these are the cart ruts at St. Paul’s Bay that I saw last year, so I decided that Liam would be thrilled to see them too.
An old house that Liam decided to explore.
And another look at the area around the Roman baths which are built into the side of the ridge. I then decided that Malta was getting too hot, despite my earlier hopes for a more moderate day.
We are only booking our accommodation the day before to add some excitement to proceedings, with our hotel choice for this evening being on the island of Gozo. So, we boarded the ferry and here’s Liam preparing to set sail.
The water between Malta and Gozo is clear and blue, we were fortunate to see turtles and jellyfish on the journey.
The journey took around twenty minutes and the ferry then docked in Mġarr on the island of Gozo. There was a long queue for the buses which took people to their destinations around the island, but we waited for that rush to subside and then got on a rather lovely quiet bus to Victoria.
We then had to plan where we had lunch and I very much enjoyed going to Stanley’s fish and chips last year near to the basilica. Something seemed strange though, the blackboard no longer advertised fish and chips and the staff were different. However, one of the other boards advertised fish and chips, so we sat down to enjoy a rather English meal. The friendly and affable waiter, and I think owner, came over to tell us that he’s just taken over ownership and the fish and chips is no longer served, but he had a range of fresh Italian dishes. Having just spent a week in Italy, I decided against more Italian food, so we left as politely as we could, although I suspect we still looked like picky British travellers.
Anyway, we instead went to the rather lovely, and also small, Black Cat Cafe which was highly recommended. I’ll write more about this later on, but the samosas with sweet potato fries were a delight (other than the hair) and the carrot cake was an veritable delight as a dessert. Well, I had it before the main meal was served, but if I had waited like Liam did with his cake, it would have been a nice dessert.
After lunch, we went to have a look at the historic Citadel. This is the view from the Citadel over Victoria, or Rabat as it’s sometimes now called.
And the view over the local countryside.
With all that rather tiring eating and historical exploration out of the way, it was time to check into our accommodation at Gharb. We’re the only guests in this B&B and the Italian owner was lovely and welcoming. When I was in Gozo last year I didn’t get to see the Azure Window, or what was left of it since it has now collapsed, so we went on a little meander to see that. Lots more photos on that to come later.
Liam doing some climbing.
And some contemplating.
This is the view out from nearby to the Azure Window, all peaceful and serene.
We walked out to the water, which fortunately didn’t require any scrambling down steep cliffs. Liam would have done that like a shot. I wouldn’t.
And more water, where we stayed for around an hour before getting a bus part-way back to our accommodation and then walking the rest. No evening meal tonight, we decided to have a picnic of fine local artisan foods, which in my case was primarily crisps made in Malta. We’re back at the accommodation now, and I’m trying to calm my nerves after discovering that the wi-fi didn’t work. Fortunately, by sitting in a certain part of the room, order has been resumed and I can connect to the rest of the world. This is a lovely getaway trip, but I don’t want to getaway from the Internet.