Holy Gozo (Batman)
March 15, 2018
Apparently the smaller of the two main Maltese islands, Gozo, has a saying that it’s “the land where time stood still”. Notwithstanding all the new(ish) cars, new apartments, electricity and all the other appurtenances of modern living, it would imply to me that churches are a thing of the past because there’s an awful lot of them considering the island’s diminutive size.
Tellingly, every photo that was worth showing from Gozo has a church in it! We even stayed in an apartment right next to a very large and not unattractive church which then proceeded to dampen the experience considerably by ringing its bells every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, with a resounding clangour thrown in at midday that went on for maybe 10 minutes on both Saturday and especially Sunday. So I’m a bit over churches, not that I was ever that enamoured of them anyway except as a photographic subject from a distance.
I was, as stated previously, curious to see the difference between the two islands and in my usual contrarian way I ended up preferring the main island over Gozo which I was led to believe was the nicer of the two. The reasons are hard to quantify but I think the greater variety of landscapes on Malta appeals to me more than Gozo, as well as seeming to have a disproportionately higher number of tourists on the smaller island (and yes, I know I’m a tourist too, but that doesn’t mean I have to like being where there are hoards of ‘em).
Anyway, we met some very nice locals on Gozo (and Malta too!) and did a fair bit of walking before returning to Malta earlier than planned and ended up in another great location for walking near the town of Mgarr (pronounced mm`jar or thereabouts I think) so this post is a mix of pictures from both islands. On one hike along a ridgeline we could easily see both sides of the island and similarly to Gozo, we could also see at least three churches including the Mosta dome which is the third largest rotunda dome in the world.
It’s lovely to see all the flowers beginning to bloom as well as the ripening figs and almonds. I would guess it’s a few weeks earlier here than even southern Spain where we will be when I next post a few pics. Until then it’s time to sign off, and due to a few requests I have finally included a gallery of images of myself taken by Sunny (but processed by me for the sake of consistency). Not too narcissistic I hope …
