We picked another exemplary day to take a bus tour of Gozo. We are real fans of the Hop On Hop Off (HOHO) concept, perhaps to our detriment. Gozo is a much smaller island than the island of Malta and as such the traffic issue that we saw in Malta was worse on Gozo. Both islands are in the country of Malta and unfortunately the country has the highest number of cars per capita in all of the EU. We were at the docks later in the day and over the course of 40 minutes three different large car ferries pulled in an unloaded car after car. Gozo has a very rugged coastline with a hand full of decent harbors and access points to the sea. The capital of the island is the town of Victoria which is in the center of the island. As such the roads all radiate out from Victoria to the half dozen coastal communities. Combine the density of cars with the geography of Gozo and we drove out to a settlement and then back to Victoria and sat in traffic. Then out to another settlement and back to the traffic of Victoria. That made an other wise delightful ride into a roller coaster of emotions. So it goes. We still were able to see much of the countryside and we stopped off at the neolithic megalithic complex of Ggantija. it was a very full bus after we reboarded. Off we went after that.
Leaving the ferry terminal at Valetta
Life vests and sea sickness bags
A buoy seen from the ferry ride
More vessels
Perhaps a huge sail boat
Lovely wispy clouds reminded me of a Phoenix emerging from the flames
Approaching Gozo
Rugged coastline
The main harbor on the island
The various towns must take their churches very seriously and have outdone each other
We are offloading
A classic old car
Flowers and birds
Up on the hill a very regal church
Seashell art
Of course the times are different on the two different clocks
Looking back at the harbor
Next town, another fine church
Old time windmill
Like the island of Malta, Gozo is ringed with watchtowers
Odd trails on this hill, 4x4's?
Third town third very substantial church
Grapes
The top of the bus is the best place
More rugged countryside
Old looking arches, but upon closer inspection i see graffiti indicating this is an abandoned site
Miles and miles of these limestone walls
Some of these hills required the lowest gear that the bus had
Another small village with access to the sea
We had to stop and back up an entire block to let the other bus pass us on these narrow streets
Not every building was in good shape
We offloaded at Ggantija
A very modern entrance to a very antient place
The northern lapwing is featured prominently ion the pottery decorations
Shard!
These stones were made for rolling underneath the slabs of rock
Many human figurines unearthed
They remind me of the Cycladic art in Greece
The fertility idols
Cow toe bones, a bit phallic
You can put lipstick on a bone...
Quite the collection of carved cow bones
A mostly intact piece that we saw in the other temple
We have made it past the visitor center
People are far right for scale
Maltese wall lizard
The walls are 8 meters tall, that is over 26 feet
The largest slabs weigh 50 tons
A very peaceful orchard
Nice balcony off in the distance
Our walkway into the inner sanctum
Beautiful flowers
The three Ggantija adventurers
Old school graffiti
1890 era symbology
1867 cursive
One of the circular rooms
A doorway
An altar
Holes for mysterious functions
A very large complex
Larger slabs separating wall sections
Finished stone vs unfinished
Lots of scaffolding
Altars or store houses?
Reconstructed
The bottom slabs have to be bigger to support the uppermost rocks
A palm tree flower garden
Waiting for the bus
