Day 310: 20th April 2018 - The Citadel, Victoria, Gozo

We woke to a beautiful day anchored in the Blue Lagoon and it was a pity that we didn't have time to pump the dinghy up and explore... maybe another day. However we needed to check in to Malta at Gozo and wanted to visit the Citadel in Victoria. Yesterday we had been told we couldn't get into the marina until 12:30 unless we wanted to pay for an extra night, however we had read somewhere we could moor on the end of a hammerhead for an hour to check in with the Port Police. I gave the marina a call and managed to agree that we could come in a little earlier than 12:30 for no extra charge.

Meanwhile we got on with a little school, but as we wanted to be off by about 10:30 we made an agreement to finish off over the weekend. We then motored over to Mgarr Harbour and into the marina. It took about 3 attempts to get us berthed, the first a crazy attempt at an impossible berth before asking the marinos if we could have a different berth more suitable for our boat which has sever prop kick to port. It then took a further 2 attempts to get in but eventually we were secure.

AJ then set about making sandwiches while the rest of us got ready for an afternoon ashore. I grabbed a sandwich and headed off with Esmé to the marina office and to the port police to check in. On our return the boys were ready to go, and Esmé had her sandwich in a packed lunch box. We headed over to the ferry terminal to catch a bus to Victoria, running the gauntlet past the taxis trying to get our business, explaining to the kids that getting the bus was 4 euros cheaper than a taxi and so we would then be able to afford ice creams at the Citadel!

The Citadel was worth the journey, we also paid 15 Euros for our family to enter the visitor centre and various museums which was well worth the expense. The visitor centre had a 360 degree film about the history of Gozo and the Citadel, this was really informative and fun to watch before heading into the Citadel itself. Here we spent a good few hours exploring the walls, streets, alleyways and various museums as well as stopping for ice cream!

The first museum we entered was a nature museum showing fossils, stalagmites and stalactites as well as bird, butterfly and insect exhibits. There was also a small section on evolution which AJ found amusing!

Another museum was called the old house museum and housed a number of interesting items such as a flour mill powered by a "beast!" which interested both kids as they compared this to the water mill we had visited in Sicily.

Esmé was particularly interested in the weights and measures section as this is something she has been covering recently in maths.

We had an interesting conversation about the scales on the right, comparing them to a see saw and talking about how if AJ was on a see saw with somebody much lighter than him he used to sit nearer the centre of the see saw to help balance it out. Esmé was also pretty interested in the lacemaking!

By about 4:30 we had all had enough so headed back down into the main town of Victoria and asked directions to a supermarket so we could top up with milk before heading off tomorrow morning to anchor somewhere. The kids spotted a McDonalds and so we treated them to a Happy Meal before heading back to Mgarr on a different bus route to the way there so we could see a little more of the island. Once back the kids took advantage of the (somewhat temperamental) free wifi whilst Patrick and I had dinner for two in the cockpit. Esmé and I then took a walk as dusk fell before returning to the boat so Patrick and I could plan our next few days! All in all a busy but fun day!