Gozo,, the largest of the 7 islands making up the Maltese archipelago, has been much less sacrificed to the forces of mass tourism. Some say that it is what Malta used to be like. We used our bus cards to get around and found this to be less than ideal, involving quite long waits for a bus and the need to treat Victoria bus station as a hub. Perhaps this had more to do with our unfamiliarity with the network and bus system, in any event we ended up seeing much less than we would have liked.

A visit to the Citadel in Victoria seemed like a must. Another medieval fortification, dominated by the Cathedral of the Assumption, much restored over the years and now partly turned into a museum. Like Mdina it is dramatically situated on a high plateau providing a great viewpoint, for both defensive and tourist purposes.

Our next stop was at the neolithic ruins of Ggantija. Personally I found this to be a rather confusing interpretation. The site is the oldest of the Maltese archaeological ruins (predating the pyramids). There is some indication that the structure has been "recreated" but it is difficult to see what is original and what has been reconstructed, and indeed what evidence there actually is to support the narrative and interpretation currently assigned to the ruins. I was also confused reading about artefacts which, on further investigation, did not appear to originate here at all.

We had intended to travel to the west coast to catch a sunset, a late dinner and night ferry back to Valletta. In the end we felt this would be too much of a gamble with the bus service, so Mgarr it would be. Turns out that sundowners on the marina as the sun set and then dinner at Sammy's Kitchen was a very acceptable alternative.