Malta’s Blue Lagoon on Comino Island

Between Gozo and Malta’s main island, was Comino Island. We ferried to the island to swim on a hot summer day. Although the water wasn’t deep and I had to keep an eye out for jellyfish, it was paradise floating through the cool aqua sea.

Malta’s Hagar Qim and Mnajdra Temples

Not far from the village of Qrendi, we entered a small museum cum visitors’ centre and on to Hagar Qim temple on a hot afternoon. Although the white roof over the site offered a welcome relief from the sun, it took away some of the ambience of the historic site. Built with huge stone slabs, the temple overlooked the sea amidst a barren, rocky landscape.

Malta’s Marsaxlokk fishing village

Marsaxlokk was a fishing village on the southern end of Malta and just as I’d been drawn to a fishing village on my Hong Kong visit, here I was again, wanting to explore this place for the same reason.

Malta’s Blue Grotto

I hadn’t been impressed by Malta’s main island. But a year and a half after my last visit, that was about to change. My daughter drove south to the Blue Grotto where we took a boat ride out of a fiord shaped inlet over water of the most beautiful colour, into the Blue Cave and past arched rock formations.

Final Gozo experience

I stayed overnight in Rabat on my next visit to Gozo because the town was within walking distance from Ggantija, my reason for returning to the island.

But I also had a chance to explore the town with its citadel that dominated the city and surrounding landscape. From the top, I was rewarded with a view towards Ramala Bay.

Gozo’s Ggantija temple

Way older than the pyramids was Ggantija’s limestone ruins on Gozo, Malta. I had arrived at the site on my first visit only to discover that the ruins were closed on two days of the entire year, and I had arrived on one of them.

Return to Valletta and St John’s Co-Cathedral

The following year I returned to Malta. My first stop with my daughter was St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta.

Valletta’s St John’s Co-Cathedral

This was probably Malta’s most ostentatious church of high ceilings covered in paintings and gold leaf decoration with a history steeped in Knights Templar.

Gozo’s Azure Arch, Dwejra

We hiked from Xlendi to Rabat, then out along another winding road to Dwejra. Stepping into a small boat on a tiny lake, we motored along a tunnel in the cliff out into the Mediterranean Sea where we followed a rocky coastline to Azure Arch.

Scouring the cliffs beyond Xlendi

At the throat of Xlendi Bay was a number of restaurants. We sat outdoors on cool winter evenings with the sound of water lapping against the shore.

Xlendi, Gozo – a different world

By far one of the most beautiful parts of Malta was on Gozo, the second largest island that makes up a portion of the island nation. My youngest daughter and I took a bus to Cirkewwa where we caught a ferry to Mgarr and a bus to Rabat. We had no idea where to stay until