Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Gozo

  • Malta – Gozo – Accommodation in the Early Nineteenth Century

    Malta – Gozo – Accommodation in the Early Nineteenth Century

    Back to the book written by Thomas MacGill in the 1830s, I noticed his summary of the accommodation in Gozo. It seems that visitors weren’t always as well attended for as they are today. Referring to what was later renamed Victoria, he wrote:

    “Only a very few years ago, strangers visiting Gozo, were forced to carry with them not only their bedding, but even the common necessities of life, and trust for cover to the hospitality of some Convent. But such is the march of improvement, that now, within the walls of the citadel, there is an excellent house of entertainment kept by an Englishman named Griffiths, where clean and comfortable beds can be had, and dinners, with good wines, in English style and at a moderate charge. In the town also, there are now some houses of reception, kept by natives and one kept by a man named Filippo is very comfortable”

    I am grateful that today we have Google Maps which aids in finding hotel accommodation, I’d dread to return to a time when I’d have to ask the locals “where is Filippo’s accommodation?” in a bid to find somewhere to stay.

  • Malta – Gozo – Nadur

    Malta – Gozo – Nadur

    Nadur is a quiet town in Gozo and we had opportunity to spend one night there this week in some farm accommodation. A handbook from 1839 noted that Nadur is:

    “Nadur, on a hill, is cultivated to near its summit, here the finest fruits of the island are produced. Most people visit this fine hill, from its beautiful and extensive view of the island and its vicinity, and from the females being the handsomest on the island”.

    The last line is hardly one that Lonely Planet or the Rough Guides would use today, but the rest of the information provided is true, the views from the town are certainly beautiful and extensive. Around 4,500 people live in the town today, which takes its name from the old Maltese word meaning ‘lookout’. It’s just a short walk from Nadur to Ġgantija, one of the oldest temple sites which is over 5,500 years old, suggesting that there’s been human occupation around this area for at least that long.

    Here are the views.

    The Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul, which was unfortunately not open when we were there. It’s beautifully lit at night though and it is the centrepiece of the town.

    Life feels relaxed on Nadur, there’s something quite timeless about the town.

    A empty property in the town square, next to a bank and there are several bars and a couple of shops in the town. Our dining option in the evening, of which more in a separate post, was at the excellent Fat Rabbit.

    These steps are in the main town square and I’m unsure what they led to, perhaps an air raid shelter.

    A religious statue.

    A street in the town.

    A small park, located between the town and San Blas Beach.

    There’s a road down from the town to Mgarr, which is Gozo’s harbour and gateway to the ferry service which goes to the main island. Unfortunately some of the road is missing at the moment, although there’s a makeshift path that pedestrians can use. If they like mud that is.

  • Malta – Gozo – Mgarr Harbour

    Malta – Gozo – Mgarr Harbour

    Visitors today disembark the ferry from the main island of Malta at Mgarr Harbour, at the south of Gozo. Although the new ferry terminal is relatively new, dating from the early part of the 21st century, there has been a ferry operating here since at least the early thirteenth century.

    When a ferry comes into the harbour today, there’s quite a queue for buses, although in our case we just waited for the third bus which was much quieter. For the sake of a short wait, it made for a more comfortable ride. Anyway, what I liked was a guide book written by Thomas MacGill in 1839, who describes the scene back then in what he referred to as Migiarra.

    “Migiarra offers no convenience to people landing, except a dirty coffee shop, the houses or huts on the beach are for the reception of fishermen and those attending the boats. But there are always in waiting an abundance of asses, to transport visitors into the interior and there are now also some calesses [carts] of a very ordinary description for those who do not choose to ride.”

    Things have improved somewhat since then, but I can imagine the scene, the hustle and bustle of excitement of the incoming ferry and then the need to shuttle people to the centre of Gozo. In many ways, not much has changed, although I’m sure that the coffee shop situation is now much better.

  • Malta – Gozo – Salt at the Azure Window

    Malta – Gozo – Salt at the Azure Window

    There have been salt pans created across Malta since the Roman times, a handy way to collect salt as the sun dries out the sea water. There are also no shortage of these on Gozo, some natural and some man-made. I was moderately surprised just how quickly the sun dries the water and how much salt is left during the process. There is still a commercial salt production site on Gozo where sea salt is farmed just as it has been for centuries.

    Liam sampled the salt and apparently it tastes very salty. Which is always good to know.

  • Malta – Gozo – St. Lawrence

    Malta – Gozo – St. Lawrence

    On our way back to our accommodation in Gharb, we walked through the rather lovely little village of St. Lawrence. Until 1893 this settlement was part of Gharb, but the residents then decided that they wanted their own separate community. All of the villagers had worked together to build the village church which has relics of St. Lawrence built into the foundations. The consecration took place on 21 November 1886, led by the then Bishop of Gozo Peter Pace, who then served as the Titular Archbishop of Rhodes and Bishop of Malta from 1889 until his death in 1914.

    One of the quaint little streets in what feels like quite a remote village away from it all. Well, bar all the visitors to the nearby Azure Window Ruins anyway.

    And a village information sign.

  • Malta – Gozo – Inland Sea

    Malta – Gozo – Inland Sea

    The Inland Sea is a small lake which is connected to the Mediterranean Sea through a hole in the rock, which boats can pass through for fishing and tourism purposes. Although the water is shallow towards the edge, it gets deeper quite quickly towards the base of the cliffs. The assortment of huts doesn’t make the whole arrangement look as salubrious as it perhaps could, but the scale of the rock still makes the area an intriguing one. For those who want tours of the former site of the Azure Window, this is where most of the boats leave from. Hopefully at some stage an effort is made to beautify the area and remove some of the worst little additions that have been made.

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – Stanley’s Chippy (New Owners)

    I don’t often go to the same place twice when away as there are so many different locations to explore. However, the food at this fish and chip shop was excellent last year (2019 review of Stanley’s…..) so I thought that Liam might like to try it.

    We got to the cafe and something seemed wrong, the menu board at the side didn’t mention the fish and chips that the shop is noted for, but it was listed on the main menu board. It was clear that there were new owners and everything felt very different. The person who I think was the new owner came up to us and immediately said that they no longer serve fish and chips, but instead are a bistro with a range of freshly cooked meals which change on a regular basis.

    I wish the owner well, but we decided to leave and risked looking like stereotypical Brits abroad….. It transpired that the cafe had only been open under its new owner for around two hours when we walked out, so I hope he wasn’t too offended. He does need to rebrand though, the Stanley’s name needs to go and the menu boards need to be replaced if he’s switching the menu to something different. Although he might well make more money from reverting to the previous menu……

    So, onwards instead to the Black Cat cafe.

  • Malta – Gozo – Victoria – Black Cat Cafe

    Malta – Gozo – Victoria – Black Cat Cafe

    The lunch stop for today was at the Black Cat Cafe, a well reviewed location in Victoria in Gozo. A number of reviews said that it was difficult to get a table as it’s so small, but fortunately we were able to secure one of the last tables. It is a small cafe though, but this all adds to the atmosphere.

    I particularly liked the coffee sign, which reads “drink coffee, do stupid things faster with more energy”.

    A quirky menu, but there were some interesting options and alongside the specials board this gave a sufficient choice without the menu being too large in scope.

    I was located near to the cake counter, so I couldn’t resist ordering the carrot cake as a starter. Liam was more sensible, he ordered the apple pie cake as a dessert, but I don’t have his patience.

    The latte came first, pleasant flavour and all was good there.

    The carrot cake, beautifully moist, flecks of carrot throughout and a sweet cream cheese, or similar as it might have been buttercream, topping. This was one of the best carrot cakes that I’ve had, very moreish.

    Slightly marred by a hair across the top, but otherwise, this was a well presented plate of food with two hot samosas, sweet potato fries, a sweet chilli sauce dip and a side salad. It was a larger sized portion than I had expected for the price and the samosas had a rich flavour and the sweet potato fries were surprisingly tasty. The salad added some texture, but it was the tomatoes which took the salad crown here with their sweetness and flavour.

    Liam’s scrambled egg with smoked salmon, which was apparently very lovely although Liam would have preferred more egg. But it’s all about the taste, and it wasn’t lacking here.

    The service was personal and attentive, although the member of staff did have to return to Liam twice as first she forgot his drinks order and then she forgot his food order. But, it’s always best to check, although I’d have thought it was easier to write it down in the first place. Anyway, the environment was relaxed and informal, so it was a comfortable lunch and was also reasonably priced. The other customers also seemed to be enjoying their experience and I’d definitely recommend a visit here.

    This is perhaps one of the most ridiculous reviews I’ve seen though:

    “Extremely courteous service, the chocolate mousse cake tasted like a piece of heaven, four stars only because there was little space (I would like to give 4.95”.

    This reviewer punished the cafe with a score of just 4/5 because it doesn’t have many seats, then left a comment saying they’d like to leave a review score of 4.95. Perhaps, rather than damaging their business, the customer could have just left a score of 5……

  • Malta – Gozo – Azure Window Ruins

    Malta – Gozo – Azure Window Ruins

    Just photos…. This is the piece of coastline along from the ruins of the Azure Window, which was once a famous arch but it collapsed a few years ago.

  • Malta – Malta Day Two

    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.