Our last temple!

 

Ciao!

Up this morning about 6:30 am to a fairly overcast kind of day.  Our plan is to take the car out early, hopefully before lots of people want to start using the parking garage – now that we know there is only one lane for both incoming and outgoing, we definitely need to pay attention to the interior traffic light. R ordered a coffee Americano and commented that one could pave a road with the mixture.  I had a lovely glass of hot chocolate, which was excellent.  There was a very nice buffet breakfast set out, including bacon, scrambled eggs, sausage and baked beans as well as cheese and sliced ham and salad.  Something for everybody!

Ggantija temple from the outside

HUGE building blocks

How those rocks have stayed in one place over all those years...

Entry stone with orthostat

Me and orthostat pillar

Looking toward an altar

Several altars in a row

Scaffolding to ensure rock remains stable

Interesting piece of limestone in wall

Altar

Three holes thought to provide a door

Craft village

Me and Magnum Classic!

At Azure Window looking down coastline

Stunning scenery on a beautiful day!

Salt deposits baked into the ground!

Looking in another direction!

Sanctuary 

Beautiful mosaics in front of church

Working our way down to the coast

A very rocky beach!

Focaccia 

Fabulous mushrooms!

Bruschetta

R's shrimp and rice

My chicken with eggplant

Our "sides"

 Breakfast began at 7:30 and we were the first arrivals. 

We left the hotel about 8:30 am and were very lucky to actually get out of the parking structure with no problems.  Yippee! R still complaining about the width of the little parking “spots” – yes, it was definitely a tight fit!  (As I write this, I’m watching the end of today’s stage of the Giro d’Italia – and seriously, the podium girls are probably a foot taller than the little Ecuadorian rider who won today’s stage – and he’s standing on a podium!  The riders are now back on mainland Italy, after the start in Israel and their days in Sicily, and the weather has been horrible – lots of rain and what looked like sleet or hail.  I’ve been checking out the Rome weather, and it looks like we may be getting a few days of rain before we start heading north.)

We arrived at Ggantija a few minutes before opening time, and were the first people there!  It was really wonderful having the entire site to ourselves for a bit.  By the time we had finished and exited the site, there were two huge tour buses already parked there, with two smaller ones on the side.  This temple –  one of Malta’s oldest, dating to 3600-3200bc – is named Ggantija (pronounced Jiganteeya) meaning “gigantic” or “of the giants” because of one of the truly massive boundary walls that still stands.  One of the megaliths used in construction is estimated to weigh 50 tons.  We toured the museum first, and it was quite interesting. Several research groups have been analyzing both the diet and the health of the Neolithic peoples, and it turns out that their diet was fairly similar to that which is eaten here today. Surprisingly, considering that Gozo is an island, there was very little fish or shellfish consumed. 

The problem that we had was that this was just about the time that Robert realized that he had left the camera’s battery charging in our hotel room … oh well!  Fortunately, we both had our cell phones with us!  So, the first photos today may look a bit different, but I think we were able to capture the huge size of the site.  

From Ggantija, we decided to return to the hotel so that R could find the battery.  (He was worried it had somehow been misplaced.)  Not a problem, since nothing is very far from anything else on Gozo.  So, on a very busy Saturday morning, I just pulled over to the side of the street, and did the Italian thing – put on my flashers, and waited for Rto go in and get it.  (Let me also say that the elevator has to be the slowest one we have ever come across.  In fact, while R was waiting for the elevator, he got talking to a gal who was taking her son to gymnastics, who told him that actually, there was a second elevator in the building, that most people didn’t know about!  This we did find, and things moved much quicker!)  R got (finally) back to the car with the camera battery, and we headed out of town toward the Craft Village.  Again, one thing that we have noticed is that this island is really tiny – there really isn’t any place that is any great distance from another.  When I was planning our trip, I wondered if I should base us closer to Ggantija– and now I find that we could, seriously, have walked there if we had wanted!  

The Craft Village came up fairly quickly, and there was quite a variety of work – leather, candles, jewelry, mosaics and glass, among other things.  Would like to say I resisted everything, but that wouldn’t be true. Always fun to pick up a few souvenirs along the way!  From there, we decided to follow the road to its end, at what was labeled the Azure Window on one map, and Blue Hole on another.  Whatever it is, we thought it might be interesting to look at – and it was!  As it was still rather early, we were able to find a good parking space in the crowded lot.  There were cars, trucks, souvenir stands, advertisements for teaching people how to dive as well as 4x4’s to rent – it was quite the operation. (Jess, you and Brian would have absolutely LOVED this place!  I would think honestly that, as the water was pretty rough, it would be better for experienced divers like you two, rather than someone who had never done it before!)  

We took a walk along the cliffs and saw some very interesting salt pans – some natural, some not – (apparently, that has been an industry on this island for millennia!) The stunning cliffs dropped sharply to the water and rather reminded me of the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland!  Beautiful!  

Finally made our way back to the car and worked our way carefully out of the parking lot.  This time, we decided to head north on the island, and soon came to the Sanctuary of Ta Pinu.  This is Malta’s most important pilgrimage site with a remarkable collection of ex-votoofferings, testament to local belief in the intercession of the Madonna Ta Pinu.  The church itself is stunning, with amazing mosaics arranged in a park in front of the building.  A lovely stop, to be sure.

From the Sanctuary, we decided to drive to Marsalforn, which is on the coast, to see if we could find a good place to stop for lunch.  And boy, did we!  It caught my eye as we were driving down the coast, and seemed like an ideal location, so we pulled into the parking lot.  It is called Qbajjar Restaurant and I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce it – and no, I did not spell it incorrectly!  (We found out later that it was the #4 rated restaurant out of 41 in Marsalforn; what a great place!)

We did not, of course, have a reservation, but the wonderful waiters were happy to find some space for us. We ordered sparkling water and took a look at the menu – Wow!  It was definitely our kind of place – not just fish and shellfish on the menu, but several beef steaks as well as an interesting chicken dish!  Also a really lovely appetizer menu.  So … we ordered two appetizers to share – an order of sautéed mushrooms and bruschetta with tomato, basil and onion.  But first came a complimentary helping of focaccia with basil; delicious.  Then the mushrooms … seriously, they were so incredible that I think I could have eaten the entire bowl (which was HUGE!) and had nothing else and I would have been happy!  They were briefly sautéed in butter with a little garlic, and then cream and cognac was added to finish the dish.  Rdetermined to replicate the recipe when we get home.  For starters, Robert had their Gamberoni Rossi (red shrimp) that came with rice, and I had their chicken breast with eggplant and cream sauce.  We also received a bowl of chips (French fries), a bowl of sliced, roasted potatoes, a bowl of sautéed veggies and a bowl of salad.  Way too much food!  We also consumed two big bottles of sparkling water and one bottle of a Malta Sauvignon Blanc, which was delicious.

I think lunch probably took two hours, and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!  And all told, the bill came to 69€, which is something like $82.00.  

One of the best things about being on a very small island is that no place is really that far from where you want to be, so it only took about 15 minutes to get us back to Victoria and down into the depths of the parking garage.  Managed to get the car parked with no problems, and then upstairs for a well-deserved nap.  Felt SO good!  

Up now and it’s just after 6:37 pm but as we had such a great lunch, we will not be needing anything further for the day!  Tomorrow, we will be taking the ferry back to Malta, and then turning the rental car in and overnighting at the Hilton once again before we begin the return journey on Air Malta to Rome!

Lots of love,

m

xxx