A Taste of Gozo

Today we took a 30euro tourist cruise to Gozo and Comino, the other 2 principal islands of Malta. Gozo is about a third the size of Malta and lived on in the same way. Comino is quite small and is a nature reserve with no permanent residents. Edward doesn't mention visiting either although given the time he spent here it is quite possible he did.

We started the day with a ferry accross the harbour  north of Valletta to where the cruise boat starts from. It was another cool, sunny day, perfect for boating. The boat travelled for about 2 hours north along the coast. We started with about 50 passengerss and called in at Birkikara, a large tourist resort town towards the northen tip of the island, where we picked up about another 50 passengers. We then proceeded on to Gozo where we were off loaded into a number of mini buses which proceeded to give us a lightening tour of this island. We were wizzed from site to site with a strict 15 minutes or so at each. We visited a food factory producing typical Maltese foods, the Shrine of the Blessed Virgin of Ta'Pinu a pilgrimage church built in the 1930s on the site of an older church where over the years a number of miracles attributed to the Blessed Virgin had occurred (I confess the more I see of religion, the less I understand it. Look the Shrine up on the internet and see if you understand what's going on) and finally Rabat Gozo (as opposed to Rabat on Malta), the capital of Gozo, which also has it's own walled Cittadel, similar to M'dina.

A view of Comino showing 2 of the many sculpted features in it's limestone rock

We then returned to the boat and were taken over to Comino which lies between Malta and Gozo. It's a windswept, limestone island with a number of features similar to the Blue Grotto on Malta. We were left to our own devices to walk around the island for about an hour before returning to the boat and returning to Valletta. It was a pleasant day out but a classic whirlwind tourist tour.

Speaking of Malta's limestone, it is ubiquitous. The islands are made of it, as is pretty well every structure on the island. As noted by Edward, the island is divided into small fields by dry stone limestone walls and the buildings are all made of limestone blocks. As a result everything is covered in a fine layer of limestone dust. Cars are covered in it, the streets are dusty with it and even in our appartment, a fine layer flakes off the walls and ceiling arches everyday.