One thing that’s a little embarrassing about our six months here on the tiny island of Gozo is that there’s a still a lot we haven’t seen and done — not a real bragging point when the whole island is less than 70 square kilometers — about the size of Manhattan.
We’ve got some good excuses, as work and other holidays has taken us to Amsterdam, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, Ireland (again), Venice, Ireland (again), Germany, South Africa, Namibia, and Vienna, so it’s not like we’re sitting at home watching Cops re-runs and not getting out and about.
With nicer weather we’re getting out more and yesterday we ticked off “See the Azure Window before it collapses” on our Gozo bucket list. It ended up being a long day but well worth it, as we had a ton of fun and got to see one of Gozo’s most scenic spots.
The Azure Window in Gozo
The Azure Window is a huge natural rock formation on the western side of the island that forms a big arch, with the deep blue waters and limestone rock making for some pretty amazing photographs.
It’s one of the main tourist attractions but its expiration date is also rapidly approaching, as several large chunks have fallen from the arch and some think within the next ten years the arch will crumble, just leaving the Azure Pinnacle instead.
It’s obviously impossible to predict when that will happen — and it doesn’t stop people from ignoring the warning signs and scampering on top of it — with some even leaping from the top of it into the deep blue sea below.
It looked pretty cool so here’s a link to a video Sarah took of me leaping from the top — piece of cake.
(Okay, that’s not really me. I get nervous these days looking off the top of a balcony that’s three or four stories high, and nearly have a stroke when Sarah even looks like she’s thinking of walking near the cliff edge at the Cliffs of Moher or any other very tall place we’re at.)
Game of Thrones fans should note that some of the Khal Drogo-Daenerys Targaryen wedding was shot at the Azure Window; it’s also been in movies such as Clash of the Titans and The Count of Monte Cristo.
We played around in all the awesome rock formations and took lots of photos of the Window — including the obligatory stand-so-it-looks-like-you’re-holding-it-up ones — and were killing some time waiting on the bus by visiting the tiny little church perched on a hill.
My wonderful wife, as always, more interested in finding fish or other critters instead of the natural wonder looming over her.
While there we were like, “Oh, so there’s the Inland Sea”, which is another attraction in the area. It’s a salt water lagoon with a narrow channel out to the sea, with boats available to take tourists out so you can see the Azure Window from the sea as well as the Blue Hole and some other popular diving spots.
So that’s exactly what we did, and really happy we did so even if it meant missing the bus and tacking on another few hours to the adventure, as the boat ride was definitely worth doing and very interesting as far as navigating the very narrow tunnel/cave to emerge out in the sunshine and sparking blue water again.
After that it was killing a little more time before the bus back to Victoria, hopping immediately on our Xaghra bus, then back home, with a pit-stop for pizza to go from Olympic Wine Bar on the town square before getting home and collapsing after a long day.
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