Over Christmas this year we went to Malta. Malta is a small island country in the Mediterranean Sea not far from Italy. We started out on Gozo, the 2nd largest island in the Republic of Malta. We landed really late as our flight was significantly delayed, but we managed to catch a taxi to our hotel (on Malta) for our first night. We thought we’d get in too late for the ferry to Gozo- we just didn’t expect it to be quite so late.
At the ferry terminal in Gozo we met the agent from whom we rented a car for our week on that island. It turns out, they drive on the left in Malta- and worse – we could only get a manual transmission car. This meant the shifter was on my left side as I drove around town. I did fair, even though I hadn’t driven a manual in 25 years (and when I had, it was on the right!) That evening, we walked into town to find a restaurant for dinner. We didn’t find much open so we settled for a little pizza place in Gozo across from this church.
The following day we did some hiking around the island. Gozo is very dry and sunny. Being December it was cool, but we got pretty warm hiking up the massive hills from the coast. After out hike we took a drive to visit a recently completed church. They had a beautiful mosaic piece that wrapped around the outer patio.
We also visited the Ggantija Temples. These temples are the oldest freestanding manmade religious structures in the world- older than the pyramids. The monoloithic stones used to build the temples were enormous and were likely moved around on spherical carved stones. The visitor center for Ggantija was minimal but the temples on Malta had much more information about how they were built and why. Near Ggantija was the windmill museum, which was far more interesting than I’d have guessed. The man that maintained this windmill was instrumental in maintaining all the windmills on the island after WWII as most had not been cared for. With food shortages and lack of power due to severe bombings, the windmills became necessary for survival.
After our week in Gozo we dropped off the car and took the ferry back to Malta. We visited Valetta and the Order of St. John or the Knights Hospitaller. There are a lot of Game of Thrones filming sites in Malta, and we saw several in Valetta.
view from the hotel 
We also went to Popeye’s village. This funny little movie set has been rebuilt over and over again (due to loss by fire) but is a strangely large draw for tourists. It really is a beautiful little place. After that, we went to Mdina where we rode the horse drawn carriage through town. Walnut went ape over the horses and was trying hard to climb up front to be closer to the horse.
The blue grotto had clear blue water in spite of the wind and waves. It’s hard to tell in our photos, but the walls were shades of pinks, greens and blues. If only the water had been tranquil! We also visited the monolithic temples on Malta, which were not quite as old as those on Gozo. In Malta however, they were better preserved and were under cover to protect from rain and weather.
Finally, we visited St. John’s co-cathedral. It was very ornate, with paintings and sculptures all over. The floor was wall to wall tombs of knights of the order. For a short time, Caravaggio was a Knight Hospitaller. He painted St. Jerome Writing and The Beheading of St. John the Baptist for the order.
We had a great time in Malta and we’d love to go back someday. It was nice to hike around and lounge on the rocks on the coast. The sea was beautiful and everyone was very friendly (and spoke English!). Gozo was a more pleasant stay than Malta, probably because there were fewer tourists out and it felt like we were virtually alone when driving or hiking.