Valletta; Tuesday, 20 March, 2007

An early start this morning to get down to the bus station in Sliema to catch the early bus out to Cirkewwa and the ferry across to the only other inhabited of the Maltese Islands, Gozo.

After catching the ferry and connecting bus I arrived in the main town on the island Rabat, or as it was renamed by the British, Victoria. The main focal point of the town is the Citadel which looms over the whole town, and holds many of its attractions, but the first stop was the cinema on the approach road to the Citadel and every half hour shows "Gozo 360°" an audio-video show similar to the Malta experience in Valletta. The show tells a bit about the history of the island, which appears to have been inhabited before the main island of Malta was.

After watching the show I wandered up the hill to the Citadel. The first thing that meets you as you walk through the main arch is the cathedral, and it was here I headed first. I'm glad I did as the entrance fee into the Cathedral and the associated museum also includes an audio guide which covers both the cathedral and museum and a summary on many of the other buildings as you walk around the Citadel complex. The Cathedral is quite impressive, but the attached museum is less interesting with little information on what the exhibits are.

I started to walk around the Citadel to take in the other sites. First stop, next to the court house, naturally, are the old prison cells. The cells still have the graffiti which was carved on the walls when prisoners were kept there, much of it dating back to the early days of the knights. From the Prison its a short walk to the Natural science museum which houses a small collection of items on the Geology, marine and bird life of the islands (all of it stuffed and mounted!)

Slightly further on you reach the back of the Citadel and are greeted with stunning views over the rest of the island. Walking back down a different lane is the museum of Folklore, which houses exhibits on the tools and implements that people used in their everyday life in the past. The museum is not particularly interesting, but the building it is housed in, three former houses knocked together, gives more of an insight into how people lived.

The final stop on the tour of the Citadel is the Archaeological museum. Here many of the finds that have been made on the island are on display, which is heartening that they haven't all been whipped off to the main museum in Valletta. After handing back in my audio guide I wandered back down to the bus station to catch the bus out to the main archaeological site on the island, the temples of Ggantija.

The temples claim to be the oldest free standing structures in the world. They are very impressive, with massive stones forming the walls. It's easy to see how in earlier times it was thought to be the homes of a race of giants. After having a quick wander around the town the temple is on the edge of, Xaghra, I walked back to the bus stop and caught the bus back into Rabat. I had a brief wander around the centre of Rabat, but by know the wind was starting to carry drops of water in it so I headed back to the bus station to catch the bus back to the ferry. I 'm quite glad I did, as from this point onwards the weather started to deteriorate quite dramatically.

On the way back to the ferry terminal there was a massive downpour which at times was running as a stream down the roads, I don't think the roads in Malta and Gozo are built for this kind of weather. We arrived at the ferry terminal just as the first wave of rain was stopping and just in time to board the ferry. I brought a cup of coffee and a chocolate bar and went to stand up on the deck as I assumed, rightly that it was going to be a little rough…

The ferry has to turn 90° before entering Cirkewwa harbour, and at this point I discovered that it was raining very heavily, with a lashing wind, which had been behind us all the way from Gozo, which was why I had stayed quite warm and dry. At this point it might be worth mentioning that I hadn't seen a weather forecast for a couple of days and was dressed only in a T-shirt and shorts!

I disembarked the ferry and made a very rapid dash for the cover of the bus back to Sliema. By the time it arrived back near the hotel the rain was down to a fine drizzle and the wind was calming down. I popped back to the hotel, changed into some warmer clothing, and headed back out to get some dinner.