Day 5 - 10th of Feb

Monday - really should have been a work day... but wasn't for me.  I had worked the weekend.  I decided since I didn't have a lot of play in the game as it was going I would leave for the day and explore Malta with some others from the ship.

It was a great time.  We went to the island of Gozo where they actually raise the rabbits that I ate last night!!  By the way one of the ones I was with last night LtCol D was kidding me that he couldn't eat his friends as he had rabbits growing up. Obviously not from a farm!  ha!  I should be a little more caring towards those feelings, but the other gentleman in the group with us went to dinner with me on the last night and HE had rabbit so I don't feel so bad :)

 Me enjoying SUNSHINE!!  LOVE me some sunshine!!!

When we got to the dock we hired a cab for the whole day - it was awesome.  We had this lady fur the duration of the day - she waited for us at each stop and pointed us in the right direction to see the best stuff.  All for 80 Euro - which split three ways was very reasonable.

first stop was Ggantija Megalithic Temples - they were quite interesting - lots of history and quite small for all the stuff they got out of there... I have to say I love their LOVE of chubby women :)

 I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the actual ruins... I did on this inside, but not the outside.  Weird.  AND for some crazy reason the photo's on my camera are showing as corrupt... so if I want you to see them I have email them to myself then add them, so honestly holes in rocks are just not thrilling enough to move them over here.  Suffice to say there is quite a bit of scaffolding and quite a few VERY large rocks that they were moving around way back when before Stonehenge.  So there you go - short, sweet - go check the site for more details and photos.  Sorry folks!

Next stop was Calypso's cave.  I think it's all hearsay, but the cave itself is in limestone rock, so you can just guess what happens over hundreds of years.  Yes, it's collapsing.  It is almost falling off the face of the cliff and it's not longer able to be visited on the inside... you can see the entrance, you can peer down the hole, you can see the old brass handrails going down in, but nope you can't go there ...and you can see the HUGE crack in the surface of the rock ... and it's only getting wider as the years progress.... so that cave will soon be a thing of the past.  Wonder if they will take the cave further along and make that the "calypso" cave?  Probably not as this one is well advertised.

The view from the top of one of the more popular beaches (Ramla Beach) was GREAT!

Next up the Citadel.  It was quite impressive.

 We walked to the top of the walls and had a view of the ocean on all sides.  The one more towards Malta was more towards the pass, but it was all within view.  Very tiny island.

Top of the wall overlooking the countryside.

Up next: The Ruin of the Azure Arch (again, it's all lime stone, so it's all crumbling)

 What you see in the distance - the smaller cliff island is "Fungus Rock" it was said to be an island that was the only place a certain fungus could be found that was used for medicine back in the day.

 The blue hole was also here but I never did see it... because I was looking in the wrong direction.

There was also an 'inland sea' where the ocean can be reached from it.  It was an interesting spot, but with the amount of collapse that could be seen with the Azure Arch I would question going through a cave to get to the ocean from there - yikes - collapse?  It's always possible!!  Scary... but it's where some of the scuba divers get on their boats before heading out and where some divers dive and then go out to open ocean.  Doesn't sound like anything I want to do!!


This is what the rock looks like

 lots of crushed and captured sand dollars.

 Lots of tide pools but there was nothing in them as they were too high and would get too hot during the day I'm sure!

Next up: Ta Pinu Cathedral   They were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Pope.

Up next the fishing Village for dinner.  

BUT on the way down - we went to see the salt beds

They manually clean all of these in the spring and pump water in to ... then they will let them dry most of the summer and manually collect the salt from them.  

It was COLD in the shade, but it was very pretty - just LOOK at the clarity of that water!!!

I didn't take a picture of the pizza because it was nothing to write home about.  I got the one with Gozo cheese.  Honestly it was a harder cheese, but not crumbly... but it filled the spot.  This was the shrimp cocktail.  I'm spoiled I like them deveined, so this was very gritty and more of a shrimp salad as it had lettuce etc under it.  Very weird but not horrible.

 FUN fish knockers in the city.