Exploring the Island of Gozo
Malta Day 2 (Part 1)
This post ended up being quite long, so I’m going to split the day into two parts.
The AirBnB description warned us about the early bells, so we expected them. The funny thing about the bells in Malta, though, is they never seemed to ring on the hour or the half hour. It always seemed to be at 6:13 or 7:17. Luckily, we were already up and ready to get going so the cathedral bells didn’t disturb us. This was my first time traveling with my friend Amber, and I really appreciated that she was so willing to get up early with me and take advantage of the morning hours. It’s always my favorite time of day when I’m traveling. We wanted to visit the Villa Rundle Gardens in the beautiful morning light.
I always imagine that a garden means flower garden, but Malta helped me reshape my expectations. It may have been because it was February, but there weren’t a lot flowers. It was more like a cultural garden. There were sculptures and some architectural features (like a lovely bridge that we couldn’t get pictures of because men in high-visibility vests were working on it and that’s not the aesthetic), but our absolute favorite part were the musical benches! I can’t remember for sure how many – eight? twelve? – but they were spread out among the garden, and we delighted in finding a new one. We’d read the description engraved in the bench and then push the button to hear the Maltese musician(s). It’s a little thing, but it helped me feel more connected to the history and culture of the country.
From the Villa Rundle Gardens, we took a bus to Ghajnsielem to rent some sort of vehicle. We wanted to get an adorable E-Moke, but they didn’t have any available. They had some buggies and ATVs, but when they also presented a mini electric vehicle with doors and a rearview mirror, we were sold. To be completely frank, I was a little worried that we wouldn’t both fit in it because it looked so tiny on the outside. It ended up feeling fairly spacious inside.
I took on the task of driver because I have experience driving on the other side (and I like driving). There were some quirks with the car. You had to have the key in a very specific position. The gears were buttons on the seat on my left-hand side, and my dress always covered them, so I had to kind of guess which one I was selecting each time. And at one point, the rearview mirror lost suction and fell off. The windows were vents and you had to pull little latches to open the doors, but we loved it!
Originally, we said we wanted the car for the whole day. Then the manager showed us a map. He pointed to where we were, and then to one major point of interest. “10 minutes,” he said. Then another point of interest. “10 minutes.” And a third, “10 minutes. Everywhere on island is 10 minutes.” So we went with a half day (4 hours) with the option of extending, should we need it. And with that, we were off!
We didn’t really have much of a plan. We decided to just head to one of the first places he pointed at on the map, Hondoq Bay. On the way, though, we were distracted by a beautiful church (in Malta? Go figure!), so we stopped in Qala to take a look.
Once we made it to Hondoq, we parked the car and then found a group of women on the pier wearing headphones while they did silent Zumba. If you’re going to do Zumba, this was the place to do it! The water spanned out ahead in a minty blue and the harbor surrounded comfortingly on all sides with surprisingly green rocky outcroppings. I stood on the edge of the pier just where the ladder dips into the water and regretted that we came to Malta in the off season. It was so incredibly tempting. I could imagine how refreshing it would be to dive into the water on a hot summer day. We were just grateful it wasn’t raining again and the sun was out, but it definitely wasn’t warm enough for some sea bathing.
Our next stop was Ramla Beach on the northern end of the island, and the Quad Hire manager was right. It really did only take us about 10 minutes to get from the southern Hondoq Bay to Ramla. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the size of the island. Ramla was beautiful, but we didn’t know what do there other than admire it. Again, too cold for swimming. So I walked on the sand a bit, and then we took off to our next destination, the Ggantija Temples.
Malta houses several prehistoric megalithic temples. Two have been discovered on the island of Gozo, and we planned to visit one of those. As you might expect, it only took about 10 minutes to get there from Ramla Bay. There was a moment, though, when I wasn’t sure if our little electric buggy would get us up one of the steep hills. It slowed to a creep, and I was worried one of us would have to get out and push but slow and steady wins the race, as they say. The Ggantija temple is located within the village of Xaghra. Most of the time, we were driving on rural roads but entering the village reminded me that I am driving on the left hand (even though the steering wheel in our car was also on the left). When we parked the car, it looked so cute on the side of the road amongst all the regular sized cars.
Confession: I was slightly disappointed by the Ggantija temple. When they say megalithic, I was expecting MEGA! I thought we’d be walking into the Maltese version of Stonehenge. The pictures I saw online show a series of post and lintel structures, and I thought they’d be the size of Stonehenge. They are not. In reality, they are about waist high. They are still very cool, but it’s that old problem with expectation. My favorite part of the ruins, actually, were the perfectly circular holes found throughout the temple. Plaques indicated that they suspected they held wooden beams that had since rotted away (as wood does over centuries), but I just liked the little circular windows into stone.
I also really loved the figures in the museum that had been found at the site: tiny thick-thighed figures seated with reverently folded arms, miniature faces carved into the ends of utensils, broad-chested men and even a tiny dog with a water bowl.
We had plenty more to see, but this post has reach its email length limit, so come back later for:
the reality of an Instagram hot spot
a pilgrimage church
another church!
and sunset at an otherworldly landscape