Tuesday 15th May

Up a little earlier this morning and all ready waiting for the coach to pick us up at 9 a.m. However, the driver was a little late in arriving so when we got to the ferry terminal at Cirkewwa, we were ushered quickly on board and just made it before it sailed!!

Here is a copy of the HOHO bus route for Gozo courtesy of the Malta Sightseeing brochure:

Now, remember when I spoke before about our honeymoon and the fact that our first choice had been for a hotel in Malta?  Well, we spotted the hotel - Paradise Bay I think it's called.  We're now quite glad that we hadn't been able to book this hotel as there's absolutely nothing around it at all, apart from a newish looking hotel quite a distance from it.  Even after 32 years, there's nothing here apart from the hotel.  I really don't think we'd have enjoyed being so isolated even if it was our honeymoon!!

Here's a photo of the hotel taken from the ferry:

When we disembarked from the ferry the HOHO buses were waiting and we climbed on board, with the first stop we wanted to make being the Ggantija Temples, which is another prehistoric site.

After this visit, it was back  the HOHO bus and on to Victoria (Rabat) where we had lunch.  This is when we realised that we would not have time to walk to the Citadel to see that, walk back to the bus stops then go to Dwejra Bay to see the Azure Window, so it may actually have been best if we had chosen the earlier pick-up!!  However, we had a nice lunch and jumped back on the bus to our next destination, which was really quite spectacular.

After a relatively short visit here, it was time to board the bus again so that we'd be back in time to catch the 17.15 ferry back to Cirkewwa where our connecting coach would be waiting for us.  We had a coffee at the ferry terminal before boarding the ferry but, to our surprise when we got off again, it was an open-top bus that was waiting to take us back to Valletta, and not an ordinary coach.

On reaching Valletta we were very windswept indeed - our fault as we did have the choice of sitting inside and not on the top deck!!  After a welcome coffee and a shower at the hotel it was back out into town for dinner after a long day of travelling about.  However, it was very enjoyable and there were no real regrets apart from the fact that we didn't get to see the Citadel.  Perhaps that will just have to wait for a return journey back to Malta and Gozo in the future, but maybe before another 32 years have passed by!!