Tuesday, October 27th.
This morning we took a 45 minute fast ferry ride to the second largest inhabited island of Malta, Gozo which feels like Malta's rural cousin. Gozo maintains a distinct cultural identity and dialect, with landscapes and traditions that modern Malta has largely abandoned. The prehistoric temples of Ggantija rank among humanity's oldest religious monuments, dating back to 3600-3200 BCE. Local folklore attributes their construction to giants, and the megaliths' sheer size is awe-inspiring. At Dwejra, we witnessed geological forces at their most dramatic. Two enormous limestone caverns collapsed to create today's Inland Sea, a lagoon which is connected to the Mediterranean through a 100-metre tunnel. Local fishermen loaded us into little boats and guided us through this natural wonder, past the Blue Hole and Fungus Rock, where Knights of St. John once harvested rare medicinal plants including the cynomorium coccineus which was highly valued for its medicinal properties. Victoria, Gozo's capital, clusters around the fortified citadel of Il-Kastell, which has been continuously fortified and occupied for over 4,000 years. When the Cathedral of the Assumption was being constructed they ran out of money to build the dome, so they hired an artist to paint the flat ceiling to give the illusion of dome from the inside. It works when looking at it from the front but the image doesn’t hold true from the sides and from the outside fortification walls it’s obvious the dome is absent. From there we drove back to the port and caught the fast ferry back to Malta and then took the large new elevator to the top of the city rather than having to climb all the steps up to our hotel. We had a couple of hours to relax before we reconvened for our final dinner. George had picked a lovely upscale restaurant where we descended two flights into a tunnel that was used in the past to get to the gunnery fortifications. We wound up sitting outside with a nice view of the walls. I sat with Norm for the last time We had a dinner and Norm and I shared how much he appreciated my help and me how much I enjoyed his company. We hope to stay in touch. Then it was back to the room where I got an update from my brother about my father who is hospital with his chronic lymphsemic leukaemia, very troubling and a feel very bad leaving Chris to deal with it all. And then I got organized and off to sleep as I have an early morning wake up call for my flight.
