Day 6: Gozo – Victoria, Dwejra and Xlendi B/D
Your full day of exploration starts with a tour around Gozo’s capital Victoria. Winding streets, bustling squares, ornate baroque churches and the Citadel characterise this charming city of just seven thousand inhabitants. From here it’s on to see the Azure Window and ‘Inland Sea’ at Dwejra before taking a look around the church at Ta’ Pinu - a national shrine where various miracles are said to have happened since 1883. Your last stop is at Xlendi, a delightful little seaside village hedged in by rugged cliff faces on either side.
Revised itinerary
… I shaved and showered when Janet vacated the bathroom. The shaver sockets weren’t working — all I got from the 240v socket was the merest
tick-tick-tick from the shaver, and nothing at all from the 115v one — but I was able to plug in via a continental-style adapter to the socket in the hairdryer unit. We had breakfast. The corn flakes were more
Kellogg’s-like in appearance than at the previous hotel, though thinner. The bacon was thicker and wasn’t fragmented. The sausages, though, were frankfurter-like. Didn’t see any sauces: tomato ketchup or brown sauce. Then I had a couple of slices of sesame-seeded, crusty, moist, dark bread (rye?). I selected the “espresso” option on the coffee machine, which was perhaps the same make as at the previous hotel — I selected it three times to get a small rather than miniscule volume of liquid — but wasn’t greatly impressed with its strength or flavour.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 09:22:44
View north from outside the Cornucopia Hotel towards Marsalforn: (left) the hill Tal-Merżuq; (right) il-Qolla s-Safra (“Yellow Hill”)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 09:22:44 (detail 1)
“Is-Salvatur”, statue of Christ the Saviour on the hill Tal-Merżuq
At 9.30am we were all gathered in the lounge between the bar and reception, and set off in the same minibus — similar layout but more comfortable than the Malta one — and initially with the same driver, Manwel, as yesterday. (He had to attend a course later, so a different driver stood in — “sat in”, perhaps I should say.) It was very windy, so that had a cooling effect, though out of the wind the sun could feel fiercely hot. First stop was at Dwejra on the west of the island with its Azure Window. We passed a watchtower just before that, Dwejra Tower, built in 1652 during the magistracy of Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 09:59:24
Seen from the minibus: Dwejra Tower
We ventured out over the fairly rough rocks to gain views from the cliff-top.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:07:46
Azure Window
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:10:46
Environs of the Azure Window
There was a small chapel nearby, dedicated to St. Anne.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:15:28
Kappella Sant’ Anna
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:16:04
Kappella Sant’ Anna
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:16:34
Kappella Sant’ Anna
From there, there was a way to the cliff-top affording a closer view of the Azure Window. A rainbow could be seen in the foam of the waves breaking beneath it.
I walked up a ridge on the other side of the chapel to see the “Inland Sea”, just a hollow in the ground behind the cliff, with a cave through which the sea had come. It was surrounded by small buildings.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:31:52
Inland Sea
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:32:20
Opening of the Inland Sea
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:33:00
Opening of the Inland Sea
Our next stop was the Basilica of Ta’ Pinu, the “Gozo Lourdes”.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 10:55:58
Seen from the minibus: Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:03:32
Notice at the entrance of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:03:56
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: “Ejja” — “Come!”
I asked Cynthia when we all met up again what “Ejja” in the mosaic above the entrance meant, and she told me, “Come!”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:04:42
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:05:06
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:05:34
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: panel commemorating the visit of Pope John Paul II
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:06:32
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:06:44
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:06:52
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:07:00
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:07:34
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:08:58
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:09:22
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:09:40
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
In the corridors (the “Ex Voto Museum”), attached to the walls were gifts and other acknowledgments that people had given for graces or healings received, so there were crutches and casts and trusses, and even a badly buckled bicycle wheel, to be seen.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:10:22
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: “Ex Voto Museum”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:10:58
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: “Ex Voto Museum”
On the way through the corridors we also visited the sacristy (“the Sanctuary Museum”), with artefacts relating to the history of the sanctuary, and paintings.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:12:06
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: The Sanctuary Museum
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:12:40
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: The Sanctuary Museum
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:13:04
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: The Sanctuary Museum
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:14:06
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: The Sanctuary Museum
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:14:46
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: “Ex Voto Museum” (continued)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:15:18
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:15:24
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:15:38
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:15:52
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:17:56
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: another look in the “Ex Voto Museum”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:18:26
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: another look in the “Ex Voto Museum”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:18:48
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: another look in the “Ex Voto Museum”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:19:40
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:21:56
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:22:12
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:22:22
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:22:42
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:23:06
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: one of the stained-glass windows in the dome
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:23:42
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
See the next photo of the end window.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:23:54
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Stained glass end window; compare 11:33:10
I photographed statues of saints outside the basilica. David I recognised, because of his harp, but I was uncertain of the identities of the others.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:26:56
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:27:22
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:28:08
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:28:40
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
There was also a little terraced garden near the entrance of the site,—
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:29:16
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
—with statues of Karmni Grima,—
On 22 June 1883, a Gozitan peasant and worker in a field, Karmni Grima, apparently heard a female voice coming from the Chapel Pinu that she was walking past. The voice was calling her in Maltese, and telling her “Ejja — ejja!” (“Come — come!”) When she entered the chapel, the same voice told her to “recite three Hail Marys in honour of the three days that my body rested in the tomb.” Grima kept this event a secret for two years. When she finally told a friend, Franġisk Portelli, his response was to say that he too had heard a woman’s voice at about the same time as Grima had. The voice had told him to honour the “wound of Christ” received while carrying the cross. Shortly after this conversation, Grima’s mother was miraculously healed after invoking the “Madonna ta’ Pinu”. From 1887 onwards, many pilgrimages were organised to this chapel, and the need for a new, much larger church arose. On 30 May 1920, the foundation stone of the new church was laid. The church was finally consecrated on 13 December 1931, and from that day onwards, the numerous people visiting the church did not cease.
Wikipedia, Blessed Virgin of Ta’ Pinu
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:29:30
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: statue of Karmni Grima
—Frenċ ta’ l-Għarb—
Frenċ was born to a farming family in the small village of Għarb on December 3, 1892… One day in 1937, shortly after his 44th birthday, Frenċ was asked to visit a certain Ġużepp Cauchi, a fellow villager, who had injured his ankle in a fall and was unable to walk. Frenċ suddenly felt he could help this man and managed to heal him by massaging the ankle with holy oil taken from in front of the image of Our Lady. Frenċ continued to make use of herbs and massages.… In his hands, these herbs, oils and wine acquired a certain potency, which managed to heal the sick and relieve the suffering. However, in whatever he did, Frenċ resorted to prayer, especially to Our Lady.
Times of Malta, Sunday, 14 September, 2003
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:29:58
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: statue of Frenċ ta’ l-Għarb
—and Franġisk Portelli.
Franġisk Portelli… of Għarb confirmed under oath that (around 1883) he had received special messages from the Virgin Lady of Ta’ Pinu. On six occasions he had heard a voice coming from the holy picture of the Virgin Lady asking him to encourage a special devotion to the hidden wound of Her beloved Son — the wound caused by the weight of the cross on his shoulders.
Times of Malta, Sunday, April 5, 2009
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:30:24
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: statue of Franġisk Portelli
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:32:30
Environs of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:33:10
Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary: interesting radial pillar design of the window and false window; compare 11:23:54
From there we went rather indirectly to Fontana, for we stopped at a viewpoint south of Xlendi Bay on the far side of Fontana and Victoria and looked across to Gozo’s other surviving Lascaris watchtower, Xlendi Tower, built in 1650.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:52:16
Viewpoint near Xlendi, looking west-northwest: The lighter coloured water is Xlendi Bay.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:52:56
Viewpoint near Xlendi, looking west-southwest: Xlendi Tower and the valley Il-Kantra
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:53:22
Viewpoint near Xlendi
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:55:08
Seen from the minibus: Xlendi, bay and village
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 11:55:22
Seen from the minibus: Xlendi
In Fontana we saw ancient wash-houses, “L-Għajn il-Kbira” (next to which was a “Xelter tal-Gwerra”, the meaning of which was obvious to me) and “L-Għajn ta’ Bendu”. Thinking that “għajn” would be pronounced like the Hebrew “ʿayin”, I asked Manwel whether it meant “eye”; but he told me “spring”. (I’ve subsequently found that “ʿayin”/“għajn” means both “eye” and “spring” in Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic, and Maltese
[Wikipedia article “Ayin”].)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:02:48
Fontana: “L-Għajn il-Kbira” (left) and “Xelter tal-Gwerra” (right)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:02:48 (detail 1)
Fontana: “L-Għajn il-Kbira” — “The Great Spring”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:02:48 (detail 2)
Fontana: “L-Għajn il-Kbira” — “The Great Spring”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:01:18
Fontana: “L-Għajn il-Kbira” — “The Great Spring”
We visited a craft workshop. A woman was demonstrating lace-making. I bought a 10cl bottle of 21% a.b.v.
Bajtra, a prickly-pear-and-orange liqueur and an 18.5cl bottle of locally produced 12% a.b.v.
Żerqa-brand red wine, and we also bought a souvenir lace doily. In a shop next door we bought two postcards for sending.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:33:06
“Fontana Cottage Industry”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:04:40
Lace making
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:05:24
Lace making
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:08:42
Wares
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:09:10
Browsing in the shop
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:09:10 (detail)
Frank and Patsy
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:30:08 (detail)
Fontana: “L-Għajn ta’ Bendu”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:30:08
Fontana: “L-Għajn ta’ Bendu”
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:30:28
Fontana: “L-Għajn ta’ Bendu”
Lunch was in Xlendi at the Cornucopia’s “sister” hotel:
St. Patrick’s Hotel. We went through the hotel and were seated out under an awning at the rear, immediately in front of the head of the bay. In fact as we sat there, the waves kept breaking and sending spray up above but never over the wall.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 12:54:44
View of the bay from St. Patrick’s Hotel, Xlendi
After that we had free time, and Janet and I decided to explore a path that went by steps up the cliff that was on the north side of the bay, then down again as far as a cave into which the waves kept breaking. (First, though, I needed to buy a hat, because I’d left my
Tetley’s hat on the bus.)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 13:57:14
St. Patrick’s Hotel, Xlendi (the tallest building, centre)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 13:57:58
Statue of St. Andrew, Xlendi
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 13:59:12
Xlendi Bay, northern cliff
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:02:34
Xlendi from the northern cliff
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:02:34 (detail)
Waves breaking on the wall at the rear of St. Patrick’s Hotel
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:03:12
Xlendi Bay and the Lascaris watchtower from the northern cliff
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:05:02
Xlendi Bay and the Lascaris watchtower from the northern cliff
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:06:48
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:06:58
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:08:32
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:09:44
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:11:04
The cliff-path passed part-way along it through a doorway in a memorial to “Antoine Randich”. He was a member of The Society of Christian Doctrine M.U.S.E.U.M. (“Magister Utinam Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus” — “Master, that the whole world would follow the Gospel”). On 30 August 2001, at the age of 26, he gave his own life for some boys he was responsible for while at the beach on a summer trip.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:12:18
Memorial to Antoine Randich
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:12:32
Memorial to Antoine Randich
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:15:12
Descending to Xlendi
We had a drink in the open-air café/gelateria Mille Gusti. Across the road outside a pizzeria sat a man with a barn owl on his shoulder.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 14:39:06
Barn owl
We went back to the pre-arranged meeting point in front of
St. Patrick’s Hotel (or “just beyond”, from where we then were), and visited Victoria with free time from 3.15pm to 4.15pm.
Janet and I went first in St. George’s Basilica,—
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:21:00
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:22:00
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:24:40
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:24:50
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:25:00
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:25:30
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:25:46
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: one of the stained-glass windows in the dome
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:26:52
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: dome
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:27:10
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: lantern of the dome
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:28:26
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:29:06
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:31:36 (movie screen-capture 2)
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: side chapel
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:31:36 (movie screen-capture 1)
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: dome of the side chapel
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:30:02
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: statue in the side-chapel
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:30:24
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria: crucifix in the side-chapel
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:34:02
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria
—then after going to the post office and buying two stamps @ 59c each for the postcards (15:40:43 on the receipt), we went along the slippery-smooth steps of the sidewalk of It-Telgħa tal-Belt up to the Cittadella. The appearance of this was marred by restoration works being done on the bastions.
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:46:26
Cittadella: St.Martin Demi-Bastion (left); Main Gate; St.Michael Bastion (right)
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:47:58
Cittadella: part of the St. Martin Demi-Bastion
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:48:42
Cittadella: St. Martin Demi-Bastion (left); clock tower in the curtain wall of the Main Gate
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:48:48
Cittadella: Main Gate
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:49:26
St. George’s Basilica, Victoria, seen from the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:50:08
Cittadella: Cathedral of the Assumption
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:50:50
Cittadella: proceeding along Triq il-Foss
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:52:30
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella: Low Battery
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:52:38
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella: looking over the Low Battery
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:52:44
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella: looking over the Low Battery
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:52:54
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:53:00
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:53:06
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:53:14
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:53:20
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:53:30
Panorama of views from the Medieval Enceinte of the Cittadella
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:53:50
“Is-Salvatur”, statue of Christ the Saviour on the hill Tal-Merżuq
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:54:04
Parish Church of Marija Bambina, Xagħra
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:54:28
Rotunda of St. John the Baptist, Xewkija
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:56:40
Cittadella: heading back towards the Main Gate
Tuesday 22 September 2015 — 15:59:54
Back down along It-Telgħa tal-Belt
Back again in the lower part of Victoria, we went to the agreed place to meet the coach, then decided we needed a loo and just about had time to use one. We figured there’d be toilets in Pjazza l-Indipendenza , but an old boy there whom we asked was either befuddled or didn’t speak English. Anyway, a woman nearby overheard us and pointed us round the corner. Back at the hotel room the twice-reported defunct light over the bathroom door hadn’t been fixed, and the once-reported non-functional shaver socket likewise.…
Ca.6.45pm we went down to the bar. I had Campari and soda again and
Janet Pepsi Diet. My main-course choice at dinner was for “roast lamb and mint sauce”. But the meat was dry with no gravy, and it was served with a big dollop of that all-too-well-known, disgusting, over-sweet, over-acid, over-greened muculent slime mendaciously marketed in jars as “mint sauce”.
Janet saw how upset I was and skipped dessert, saying, “Let’s go.” One of our party, Joy, was seated in the swimming pool courtyard. She had stumbled on a small but invisible step on the way to hers and our room. I’d jolted my neck and back a number of times when I’d forgotten it was there, but she had actually fallen and hurt her face. She had the beginnings of a black eye. Comforted myself over the dry meat and muculent slime back in the room with the
Bajtra and after that was finished the densely red but quite smooth Żerqa.
Janet and I viewed the first two days’ photos and videos on the Asus touch-screen netbook. We went to bed
ca.10pm.
