Gozo Continued - Family Holiday Diary

Monday : Husband went to buy water and milk. Hard to find full fat milk here. Today bought 2.5% fat. I think the darker the blue of the carton, the higher the fat content. But not necessarily.

Discussed family chores as husband has decided everyone should help (that idea went so well last holiday.) R and M responsible for all dishwasher duties. They immediately formed a trade union and appointed R as spokesperson. Spent some time discussing terms and conditions with husband, who tried to instigate penalty clauses but R told him it contravened European law. So glad he started this. Son 2 (in charge of rubbish disposal) kept offering to strike in support of R and M.

After lunch walked to square. Full of dusty roadworks, so continued round the corner to a little cafe. Had ice creams and coffee. ( I had Malteaser ice cream – clearly from Malta.) Hot walk back to villa.

Went to Victoria as R wanted to buy gifts (yaay shopping, my favourite.) Very windy. Told a storm was coming, 110 lightening strikes in Tunisia, apparently. Shops all rushing to get their displays inside. We went to Maldonado Bistro. They didn’t open until 7pm but kindly let us go in early and have drinks while we waited.
Son 2 used his clever phone to translate the menu from English into Maltese and Mandarin. Helpful. The menu had 12 different bruschettas. This kept family occupied for 50 minutes (just the choosing bit. You may have not noticed but my family enjoys negotiating/discussing/persuading. Strong opinions. Not my genes.) R tried a kinnie, which is advertised everywhere here. It’s a bitter orange drink. Very bitter.
Bruschettas were huge when they arrived, half a loaf. Very nice. Great atmosphere (down in a wine cellar) and friendly service. Only problem was toilets which Son 2 informed me were clean but built as stalls and the dividing partition was below his eye level. But he is very tall. Good restaurant, definitely recommend a visit. info@maldonado.com.mt

Drove home. Streets pretty at night. Saw several blue lights on poles. Boys told R it was an alien invasion.

Tuesday: Son 2 complained he had not slept due to M being in charge of air conditioning. He said it was practically snowing in their room and he might have pneumonia.

Drove to Xewkija (pronounced shewkeeya”. But not by my family.)

Saw the third biggest dome in Europe ( except one in Malta also claims this. One is higher and one is wider, so there is some dispute. Sounds like my family.) The rotunda is nice, quite simple inside ( apart from the massive dome). It was built over a smaller, more ornate church, which they moved to the side by numbering all the stones and moving them individually. It is now a side chapel.

The main church has some good modern art, including two statues made of papier-maché by Alfred Camilleri Cauchi. I like papier-maché, made a rather fine mask when I was at Junior School. Not that it really compares.

 

Went to small supermarket next to rotunda (husband has developed a peach addiction) started to absolutely pour with rain, ran to car, soaked. Drove home through Victoria, which is like the moving staircases in Hogwarts in Harry Potter books – whichever way you go in you can never find the correct route out.

Cleaners at villa. Were very thorough, even found two towels husband had hidden in wardrobe in attempt to get extras. J asked them for blankets.
Lunch. Thunder storm.

Males decided they wanted to build sandcastles on Ramla beach.

As it was cloudy and cool, R and I decided to walk there. Started to follow road signs, then realised that they directed traffic along major roads so followed map instead. Reached a ridge where we could see beach but it was unclear how to get down to it. By this time the sun had reappeared and it was very hot. Two stray dogs joined us, happy to have some company and walked with us, waiting at every bend for us to catch up. We ignored them but they came anyway, was rather nice. Took an hour to reach beach (nice walk if not sunny.)
Found males in far corner of beach building Venice. Drove home.

Swam. Pool very cold when full of rainwater. Ate ice creams, which are still too hard. Realised the “fast freeze” button had been left on by previous guests.

Wednesday: After breakfast, drove to Victoria. Walked to citadel. Great views, could see all around island. Went into the battery, which led to the silos (huge grain storage areas, like great caves.) Very interesting. The silos are connected by a dark narrow tunnel (from when they were turned into a reservoir) so now you can walk right into them. Son 2 and R sang a chant, harmonising with their echoes. Was magical.

Then saw the rooms used as WW2 shelters. They were under the reservoirs, so if they’d been hit, everyone would’ve drowned. Not such a good idea.

Didn’t pay for the museum. Didn’t pay for the prison, but did put Son2 into the stocks outside. Didn’t see a Christmas tree ornament to buy. But did see some traditional lace. Shop owner said it was the last of her stock as all her suppliers were now in their eighties and younger women wont sell their work because it earns about 50p an hour. Seemed too mean to buy any.

  

Had lunch back in Xaghra at Cafe Reale. They have the BEST iced coffee. Still not losing weight.

Males decided to return to beach, we stayed here to swim but then the pool man arrived so we couldn’t. Annoying.

Males returned late, very happy, had built a brilliant castle and had been joined by another family (somewhat younger, so they could pretend they were building it for the children.) Also helped by ‘Steve the tiler’ from Australia who had used his building skills to good effect. M had heaved heavy boulders to protect it, Son 2 had applied a more scientific approach and incorporated some thatch to increase structural support. M rather disparaging of the thatch.

It was slightly surprising how long three adult males could discuss a sandcastle for. Husband did suggest a post dinner drive to show me and R but unfortunately drank too much Cisk and was over the alcohol limit. Such a shame.

Nice dinner again at DVenue. Every Wednesday evening at 9pm in July and August a drama group performs in the square. It has an excellent sound system but I suspect the performance appeals mostly to their family members.

Afterwards the choirboys played football using the church doorway as a goal. Excellent use of space.

Looked across the valley. All the towns are now full of blue lights on poles. Apparently they represent Mary ( not aliens) and I assume are ready for the 15th, which is Assumption Day. There is a strong Catholic presence in Malta.

Thursday : Husband booked a boat for Friday afternoon, Xlendi Watersports, €80, 4 adults, 2 hours.

Drove to Calypso’s cave. This is where Ulysses was put under a spell by the witch Calypso when returning from the Trojan war (if you enjoy Homer.) It was confusing to find on maps as there’s also a viewpoint and you can’t tell which is on the road. Followed signs. There was a small boutique where an elderly lady (possibly Calypso) was selling clothes. Followed signs along a walkway. Brilliant view of Ramla beach and out to sea. No cave. Searched around a bit (while husband checked sandcastle with zoom on camera). Found some disused steps and some scaffolding holding up a rock. I think Calypso’s cave has collapsed. This is a pity as it’s in all the guide books and sounded interesting, perhaps they will repair it.

Went back to square for more iced coffee with cream at Cafe Reale. Watched building work and cars narrowly missing each other. I must say, Gozo has a LOT of building work, they seem to be rebuilding the whole island.

Back to villa in time for 12 noonish canons. Gozo also has a lot of canons.

Went to the salt pans at Xwejni Bay. Very interesting. Shallow pools , cut by hand, to collect seawater. When it dries they harvest the salt crystals and sell it (Gozo sea salt.)

Walked around Qolla-L-Bajda. Weird rock erosion and a cave. White clay cliffs eroding fast, beach littered with great chunks of fallen cliff. Cove interesting but a bit smelly.

 

Evening meal in Marsalforn. Ate in Menqa L’Antika, which had good reviews but either we were unlucky and went on a day when they had staffing problems or they wrote them themselves. Good menu but food didn’t really match descriptions.

Friday: Did shopping for weekend as everywhere will be shut for the public holiday. Planned to swim but pool man came. Again. I have never stayed at a villa that has QUITE so many people arriving. They seem to come every other day.

Walked to Cafe Reale for coffee and cakes. Bought take-out pizzas for lunch.
Family then left to go boating. I don’t much like boats so elected to stay home and read/swim. They said all worked well. Husband had prebooked the boat by phone and they found the office easily. The man spent a long time explaining where the hidden rocks were and marking them onto a map. He took a credit card number as security and then they left. Husband passed map of rocks to Son 2, who put it safely onto wet seat next to him and then watched in horror as the wind carried it away and into the sea. R said there were a few calm discussions where everyone was very understanding and then they continued. All they could remember was the worst rocks were marked by a yellow buoy, so they gave all yellow buoys a wide birth.
They returned unscathed, no one drowned and they made up some best-seller songs about being in a speed boat driven by an accountant.

Ate in DVenue. Very nice. Again.

Saturday: Today was the day of the festa in Victoria. It was surprisingly hard to find out details/timings but found them eventually, gozonews.com is a good source of information.

Decided to go to the 2:30 horse racing. It began at 2:10, which was a surprise. So was the number of people wandering the crowded streets seconds before the first horses came galloping down. Most races were horse and carts, like Roman chariot races, three in each race, down the main street in Victoria. There was a ten minute pause between each race, which feels a long time to wait in the hot sun.
In the evening were fireworks, which we watched from the villa across the valley.

  

Sunday: Today R had to go home (only 2 weeks off work.) We took her back to the airport in Malta, felt strange going back, the roads are much busier. All the timings with ferries worked well and it was a three hour round trip. You only pay for car ferry when returning to Malta, not on the way out, €15 for a car plus €5 for each passenger.

When we got back to villa, Son 2 had already moved into her room. Said it’s less Arctic than sharing with M.
Omelette lunch, then watched Arsenal/Palace match on tele.

Went to windmill in Xaghra. Used to be a ‘community windmill’, when the wind was blowing in the right direction they blew through a shell to let the town know and everyone brought their grain to be ground. It was shut, had no sails but looked worth a visit another time.

Drove to look at some viewpoints on the North side of the island. Roads were too small, unfinished, basically footpaths, so we changed the plan.

Went to San Blas Bay. Very steep walk down, though an enterprising local did run a taxi service to the beach for anyone who didn’t want to walk. Walked past some interesting small agriculture growing in derelict buildings, was like a Hobbit village. Amazing viiews. Saw figs, prickly pear, grapes, lemons. Beach was small and sandy.

 

Ate in DVenue – never disappoints. Strange not to have R with us.
M gave Son 2 and husband some advice: “Conversations work best if you take turns at speaking rather than talking loudly at the same time.” I’m not sure they heard him.
Didn’t go to church this week. The day was nice but it didn’t feel special, different. Didn’t feel like Sunday.