Trip of a Lifetime - exploring the Galapagos Islands

There’s something tragically romantic about being the last of your kind, the only one of your species left on earth, with no way of continuing the line. That was the plight of Lonesome George, a giant tortoise in the Galapagos Islands, specifically a Pinta Island tortoise.

There are plenty of other giant tortoises in the Galapagos but George was the last from Pinta; he was a symbol for the conservation efforts of the Charles Darwin Research Centre and famous the world over.

 George died in 2012 so I didn’t have the opportunity to see him when I went to the Galapagos Islands on my honeymoon in 2016, but we saw several of his compatriots and learned about the different types of giant tortoises – some have domed shells and short necks, and others have saddleback shells and long necks. These differences contributed to Darwin’s development of his theory of evolution.

There’s something both humbling and mind blowing about standing in a spot dedicated to the man, looking at creatures that are direct descendants of the animals that gave rise to such an important discovery.

But a trip to the Galapagos Islands isn’t all about science – sometimes it’s just about marvelling at the natural beauty of spots like Pinnacle Rock, above (which will be familiar to those who saw the film Master and Commander, the first movie to ever film in the Galapagos) or the fish market on Santa Cruz, where sea lions vie with pelicans to steal fish.

 

 

Riding in a panga (small rubber dingy) to sail under rocky outcrops to watch Galapagos penguins – who seemed just as interested in watching us back – and snorkelling with sea lions which wanted to play, darting in and out among our group – will be among the most memorable experiences of my entire life. What makes this experience extra special is knowing how protected all these species are – only 5 of the 18 islands are inhabited, and there are restrictions on how many people can visit the other islands and at what times, so you’ll never get there and find hundreds of people descending from cruise ships all at the same time. Some of the islands, formed of volcanic rock, make you feel that you are walking on the moon, or stepping back in time, or discovering your own uncharted territories like the explorers who have gone before.

 

We stayed at the Finch Bay Hotel, an award-winning 'sustainable eco hotel' voted the world's leading 'green' hotel for the last three years in a row, and took day trips on their yacht so most days, so the size of our group was in single figures. Led by a knowledgeable local guide, we would carefully pick our way across the rocks under the blazing sun, stopping to let a huge iguana cross our path, or to watch the mating dance of a blue-footed booby. The animals seemed totally unfazed at our presence, as they have quite literally never been at risk from predators, so they have nothing to worry about – and we definitely had a sense that we were guests in their lands. In fact, sometimes I felt like we were slightly irritating paparazzi – with the laid back iguanas wondering why we were so keen on taking their photos when they were more interested in basking in the sun.

The bio-diversity is amazing, both on land and in water. I’d never snorkelled before – or since – so was pretty nervous, but nothing was going to stop me from going underwater and marvelling at so many different species of fish. I was lucky enough to see a giant sea turtle swim right past, and lucky to have escaped what was apparently a close encounter with a bull shark. We saw plenty of small (as in, a foot or two long) shark which were relatively harmless and ignored us, but at one point our guide signalled to everyone to get out of the water and back into the panga as quickly as possible. We found out later he had spotted a bull shark, a fairly dangerous species - shark attacks in the Galapagos are rare, but when they happen, they are usually bull sharks. I’m very relieved I didn’t actually see it myself, and didn’t know why we were exiting the water until afterwards, so I didn’t panic!

Visiting the Galapagos Islands takes some effort and dedication (and money, though there are ways to do it on a smaller budget than the top end cruise ships). At the time of our trip, there were no direct flights from the UK to Ecuador - anyone would think they want to discourage package holiday tourists!  We had a couple of options for indirect routes and fancied a few days in a luxury hotel (it was our honeymoon after all) and really like visiting the US so opted for Miami where we stayed in the luxurious Fontainebleau hotel. Then it was the ‘simple’ matter of a flight to Quito, a flight to Baltra in the Galapagos, then a bus, boat, car and another boat to get to our hotel. 
This time two years ago we were on our way back home from our honeymoon - it was worth every moment of the long journey, and I would have said it was truly a once in a lifetime experience – but now that I’ve had a daughter I’d like nothing more than to take her to the Galapagos Islands one day so she can experience the adventure, the beauty of nature and animals in their natural habitat, for herself.

This is my entry in the Trips100/ Audley Travel blogger challenge.

Win an African safari with Audley Travel by sharing your best wildlife photograph or video on your social media channels. To enter write #AudleySafari and @AudleyTravel on your Instagram or Twitter post or share directly on the Audley Travel Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/audleytravel/. To find out more or enter via the website, visit www.audleytravel.com/social.  Entries must be posted between 20th August – 23rd September.

 

Focus on the Journey, not the Destination handmade card

This card has an inspirational sentiment that would be suitable for a birthday or someone who is going travelling - though I actually gave it to my dad for Father's Day.

It's made from free gifts that came with a recent issue of Creative Stamping magazine. I stamped a white card blank with some of the clear stamps that came with this issue - one was a train ticket, one was a passport stamp, one was a postmark that you might get on a postcard and so on. I stamped them in different coloured inks randomly over the card, then cut a circle from a piece of paper that came with the magazine with a map design. I cut a border from the same paper and stuck it around the edge of the card.

I stamped the plane stamp onto brown paper and cut around it, and stamped the sentiment onto white card which I mounted onto brown card and added those to the card as well.

I'm sending this to My Time to Craft where the challenge is a stamped background, Simply Create Too where the theme is 'for a male' and Ellibelle's Craft Wednesday where the theme is 'make it masculine'; Always Fun Challenges - for a male/dad and Stamps and Fun where the theme is travel and holidays.                 

Restaurant Reviews, Calas de Mallorca and Porto Cristo, Majorca

Last summer I had a few days in Majorca with two friends; while I reviewed the hotel not long after we got back, with one thing and another I never got around to blogging about the other places we ate. As so much time has passed this can't be classed as a review, as for all I know the places have changed since then, but I still want to share with you a couple of things that we did.

We ate mostly in the hotel as it was all inclusive and the food wasn't bad (though not great); there wasn't a lot to do in the evenings if you didn't have kids though as the entertainment was very geared towards small people and the other bar away from the entertainment was a bit lacking in atmosphere. While going to the beach one day we had a drink in the Martinelli beach club which had very cool ecletic décor- one section was shabby chic, another looked like something out of Arabian nights.

Another day we visited Porto Cristo, a pretty little town about 20 km from Calas de Majorca. We were given a bus timetable at reception and it was actually the first place the bus stopped after our hotel so we didn't have to worry about not knowing where to get off, and it only took about 20 minutes (we seemed to be driving pretty fast!). The main draw in Porto Cristo is the Cuevas del Drach - dragon caves. The caves are open to the public and have an underground lake where you can watch a classical music concert being performed, then cross the lake yourself by boat, which is quite an experience and very different to other caves I've visited.

You can only enter the caves on the hour, every hour, apart from 1pm when they close for lunch; the idea is that the tourists all walk together in a group at the same pace, though you can stop and look at the cave walls with their different features in your own time; it took us about 40 minutes then you all arrive at the underground auditorium at roughly the same time. The musicians appear on a boat on the far side of the lake and travel across, giving a ten minute concert, which is really atmospheric. Then you can either walk back to the cave exit or queue to get on a small boat and take a short trip across the lake, which I recommend.

It's a short walk from the caves to the centre of Porto Cristo, via the harbour where there are lots of restaurants and shops as well as boats to look at. We chose a bar and restaurant called Eternal, right on the harbour front; my friends served a tapas dish that was designed for two, while I had salmon with mango vinaigrette and the side dish of the day. The English version of the menu translated 'accompaniment' as 'garrison' (someone used the wrong dictionary definition there!) which was potato wedges. For dessert I had a white chocolate crepe with cream and chocolate ice cream which as delicious, though it was room temperature and I had expected the crepe to be hot so the ice cream would melt. We enjoyed the view from our table and headed back to our hotel as the sun started to go down.

I think this will be my last holiday for a while now I have a newborn baby!

Car, Map and Signpost Birthday Card





 

I treated myself to the latest issue of Creative Stamping and indulged myself in making a few cards one day while the baby was asleep. There was a large A4 sheet of clear stamps as the free cover gift that had a travel and transport theme - handy to make cards for men.

 

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I decided to make a version of the card featured on the front cover of the magazine with a few differences. First I stamped the road map rubber stamp multiple times over a white square card blank - you can only tell the pattern repeats if you look closely!

 

Then I cut a border to go around three sides from an old envelope I'd received in the post and kept. Next I used the car stamp and the signpost stamp on red card and cut around them and stuck them onto the card. I stamped the top part of the signpost again so I could cut out two of the arms and use a small adhesive pad to raise them from the card.

 

I used the 'enjoy your birthday' sentiment stamps as on the card on the magazine cover, and mounted them on red card so the colours brought the whole card together. I like this card but unfortunately after making it I can't find the car stamp anywhere - that's the problem with clear stamps!

I'm sharing this with Cardz 4 Guyz where the theme is travel or transport and Craft Stamper where anything goes as long as you use a stamp, Moo Mania where the theme is masculine and Challenge Up Your Life where the theme is vehicles.

Review: Novotel London Excel

 

It’s very rare that I stay overnight in a hotel in London as it’s where I work and I live just on the outskirts. In fact I can’t actually remember the last time I stayed in a hotel in the city or indeed if I ever actually have!

Recently I was put up overnight in a hotel near the Excel centre for an event I was attending there - the Novotel London Excel. It was going to finish at 11.30 which was too late for me to be able to get a train home –Excel is out to the east –and a taxi would probably have been nearly as expensive as the room, considering I’m fairly sure the event organisers would have got a block booking discount.

 

 

The Novotel London Excel is right next to the Excel centre – literally a five minute walk which is great if you are attending an event there. Unsurprisingly there are several hotels in the area, many of them along a little row that also has a couple of restaurants and convenience stores – the Ibis next door, the Crowne Plaza a bit further up, and even a fancy yacht that’s actually a floating hotel.

Check in and check out were both as quick and efficient as you might imagine at a hotel next to a big conference centre – they must have times when there are huge numbers of people wanting to check out at the same time! The lobby looked very modern and nicer than I was expecting for a chain hotel, complete with Christmas decorations. The room was also bigger than I expected, with a cool London design on the wall above the bed, though the toilet was separate to the bathroom and in such a tiny room it was hard to squeeze in with my baby bump!

I didn’t spend a huge amount of time in the hotel itself but I did have breakfast there. Again as speed and efficiency is probably quite important, it was a buffet breakfast, with various hot and cold options. I’m not a big fan of cooked breakfasts so went to make myself a sausage sandwich, but when I cut into the sausages they were completely pink and undercooked inside. I wouldn’t have been keen on eating them that way normally but as I’m pregnant there was no way I was eating them, so went back to the buffet and picked two more sausages that looked better cooked. They were equally pink inside so I gave up, told a member of staff and had a croissant instead, which was a bit disappointing!

It also took me until about half way through breakfast, after all the faffing around with the sausages, before I was able to find someone to ask for a cup of tea – there was nowhere to help yourself and they didn’t come to my table, which again was a bit disappointing. It seemed a pretty good hotel otherwise so it was a shame that I felt a bit let down by the breakfast. Having said that I was lucky not to be evacuated at 2.30 am by a fire alarm that went off in one of the nearby hotels so I did at least get a good night’s sleep!

Review: Club Cala Romani, Majorca

 

At the very end of summer I went on holiday with two girl friends to Majorca. We wanted a cheap and cheerful week (or almost week) in the sun, and with three of us wanting to fly from different airports, returning home on different dates, with different budgets and different requirements in mind, it was never going to be easy!

We found Club Cala Romani on lastminute.com and agreed to book it; I'd been quite busy at work at the time and didn't want to hold the others up as there were only a few rooms remaining, so I said go for it - and only read the reviews afterwards.

There were some OK but not great reviews on Trip Advisor, a few from people who loved it who go there every year - and some really, really terrible reviews. I've never gone anywhere with such poor ratings before, and my heart sank. So what I want to say right away was: it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was expecting!

OK, it wasn't a great hotel -and I don't even mean by comparison with some of the amazing places I've been lucky enough (and I mean really lucky) to stay, like the Fontainebleau on Miami Beach. Even based on much cheaper self-catering holidays I'd had in my 20s to places like Greece and Cyprus, it was somewhere that had its pros and cons, but overall I had a nice holiday, it surpassed my (low) expectations and it's the sort of place I think children would really enjoy.

We were three lone females travelling without children, but going in the school holidays as one of my friends is a teacher, which did put us in a very small minority. This is definitely a family resort and I don't think I remember seeing anyone else without kids!

I will go through some of the pros and cons in turn, also addressing some of the main criticisms I read on Trip Advisor which were really off-putting and not necessarily what I experienced.

area next to the hotel pool

The airport transfer
Booked as part of the package on lastminute.com though provided by a third party called MTS Globe Spain. It was advertised as 90 minutes but I had seen several people on Trip Advisor saying it took three hours. It actually took me 2 hours 35 minutes on the way there - I got a taxi on the way back but that's another story.

It's easy to find the desk at the airport then they tell you which number bus to get on outside. The coach has air con and the journey was fine though Club Cala Romani was the very last stop.

I was flying home a day earlier than my friends and was worried that my transfer pick up time was four hours before my flight - it's not a big airport but I had seen a lot in the news about long queues so wanted to get to the airport two hours beforehand, but as it took more than two and a half hours on the way - and I'd seen one review where someone said it took 4 hours on the way back - I was a bit worried.

I spoke to the hotel reception and they said they could book me a taxi, though I would forfeit the money I had already paid for the transfer. The receptionist told me it was a 75 euro flat fee to the airport and since I hadn't needed to spend much money on holiday I decided to do it for peace of mind. But when it came to leave and my taxi was 20 minutes late, I went back to reception and the receptionist - a different person to the one who booked the taxi the day before - called the company and found that there was no record of my booking. They said they could send another taxi right away but that took another 20 minutes, though I still arrived at the airport in plenty of time. When we arrived the taxi driver charged me 86 euros - when I argued and said I'd been told there was a 75 euro flat fare he said there was no such thing! So if you are going to get a taxi instead of a transfer then I would watch out as it isn't as straightforward as you might think!

The hotel - checking in
I arrived with one of my friends while the third was arriving later. At reception we asked if she was in an adjacent room and they went to look her up - and found they had no record of her booking! We were in a bit of a panic but luckily the hotel wasn't full and by the time she arrived and we met at reception, they had allocated her a room - and we saw her name hand-written onto the bottom of a printed list! I'm not sure how that happened as we all booked through lastminute.com, albeit separately.

The room
I had a double room to myself which was a good size, basic and simply furnished but nothing wrong with it. My room would have overlooked the pool but I was on the first floor so I actually looked onto a flat roof that was the top of the restaurant below, so couldn't see anything at all.

my room

The room was supposed to have air con and there was a temperature gauge on the wall but no sign of an air con unit; instead there was a big fan on the ceiling. The lowest the temperature gauge could be set to was 23C which was a bit worrying as it was the end of August, but strangely the room actually seemed OK with the ceiling fan on. I did speak to some people who were staying in the family apartments on the other side of the hotel and they said there was no air con in their rooms at all, they were having to pay to hire fans and it was still unbearably hot - apparently the hotel is installing air con in those rooms in 2018!

view from my terrace - with a child's rubber ring on the flat roof

Walls are thin though - I could hear people upstairs banging around and at one point hear the conversation the people next door were having.

The pool
There are actually two main pools next to each other - one is supposed to be for adults only and the other for children but nobody seemed to pay attention to that rule. There's also a baby pool a short walk away.

Neither main pool ever seemed that warm - even though it was August, it was cloudy most of the time and even sunbathing we were rarely in direct sunlight, I never felt particularly hot and I never really got a tan - and when there was a breeze I felt quite chilly!

I'd read several reviews on Trip Advisor saying the pool was sometimes closed because a child had pooped in it, which sounded disgusting - though my friend who has a toddler assured me it can happen even if the child is wearing swim pants (like nappies but waterproof). I still thought it was pretty unpleasant and I've never been anywhere on holiday where that has been a problem, so I was half expecting it, but my heart still sank one day when I heard this announcement at 3pm: "The pool is now closed until 5pm. We would like to remind parents that babies should wear Pampers swim nappies in the pool, which are available in the shop." The most annoying thing was it was the larger adult pool that was shut for two hours - where there weren't supposed to have been children in the first place!

I found the sun loungers by the pool really uncomfortable - rigid plastic with no cushioning and most of them couldn't have the head propped up so you had no choice but to lie completely flat. They gave me back ache after about five minutes so I spent most of the time sitting on one of the chairs from the bar by the pool.

The food
The hotel is all inclusive, so all food is included other than anything you want to buy from the on-site shop. It has a main buffet restaurant and a small snack bar that is open between meal times. The snack bar was very disappointing - it looked like a cross between a cheap café and a school canteen. When we arrived in the afternoon, not having had lunch, we went in with high hopes, only to find a coffee machine that had a 'not in use' sign on it, a self-serve machine for juice that tasted very watered down, and a self-serve tap for red wine and white wine (not sure how you stop the kids from helping themselves, even though they have different coloured wristbands!).

buffet station

The food choice in the snack bar was the same every day - bread rolls, butter, ham and cheese - I suppose it's filling but also cheap for the hotel to do, and I couldn't help wondering about the reviews I'd read where people speculated it was the meat and cheese left over from breakfast or even the day before put out again.

The main restaurant isn't bad, I thought it would be a bit school dinner hall but it actually looked ok. There are three long serving stations all with the same food - or so we thought, we realised after a little while that the one at the back of the room was slightly bigger and always had something extra the other counters didn't have, like pizza or a whole joint of roast pork.

roast pork

It's self-serve buffet and children under a certain age aren't supposed to go up unattended; you need to be careful though as people do push in, or pile too much on their plate and spill it - one day I slipped and nearly went flying with my plate after stepping in a pile of spilled spaghetti on the floor.

The dining hall was busy but we never had to queue for a table whatever time we went.

lamb and potatoes

There was a fairly large choice of food with most things changing each day; always a couple of types of pasta, lots of salad stuff, and three mains - e.g. one day was fish (I think mackerel), lamb and lasagne, but only one hot vegetable to go with them  which bizarrely was Brussels sprouts! Then there were two types of potatoes plus chips and pizza cut into squares, so something for everyone - and the lamb which I had was pretty good.

fish in white sauce, croquette potatoes, plain rice

Another day I had pork, fried potatoes and cauliflower, which like a lot of the food I found under-seasoned, though there is salt and pepper on every table and that was probably the worst thing I could say about the food.

One evening none of the choices looked appealing, and just as I was about to give up and have pasta with tomato sauce, I spotted the extra serving station down the far end, where someone was carving roast pork, which I had with roast potatoes, and gravy when I eventually found it. It might have been Majorca in August but a nice bit of roast dinner was lovely!

dessert station

dessert plate

There's a separate buffet station for dessert, where there were three choices every day, all cake-based eg swiss roll or a creamy vanilla cake. The fruit is good - I often had a huge slice of watermelon for dessert. There's also a freezer chest of mini tubs of ice cream but they are generic and only basic flavours -if you want a proper ice cream you have to buy one from the shop. You can help yourself to water, watered-down tasting juice or wine, or get a drink from the bar in the building next door.

breakfast buffet

At breakfast there was a fairly big choice of food, but on the first morning the sausages were mini hot dogs (not to everyone's taste and I couldn't eat them since I was pregnant) and the 'bacon' was the same type of sliced deli ham we'd seen in the snack bar yesterday but fried, and curling at the edges - I did wonder if it was exactly the same ham! There are also croissants, and different types of biscuit or cake things every day, bread, porridge and quite runny looking yogurt and fruit. Another day there were real sausages and bacon and even churros with chocolate sauce.

breakfast selection

There's a pizzeria only open at lunchtimes (the main buffet restaurant is also open at lunch). It serves pizza - always plain cheese and tomato when we were there, cut into small squares - plus hotdogs, burgers and chips, and each day a couple of random things that I assume are what they are serving in the main restaurant, e.g. spaghetti and mixed veg. The pizza was actually quite nice and gooey but the burgers nothing special.

pizzeria lunch

We ate there a couple of times, alternating with the main restaurant at lunchtimes. The food there at lunch was similar to dinner - though not the same thing on the same day. I often didn't fancy meat and potatoes at lunch so had pasta  a few times which was a bit plain but OK.

The drinks
The pool bar has self-service soft drinks and there were wasps circling the taps constantly which wasn't very nice - you have to take your chances to get a coke or lemonade.

There is a two drink limit per person on alcoholic drinks and they come in small plastic cups - I suppose it's one way to make sure guests don't over indulge. If you have wine then the plastic cup isn't a bad size but if you are drinking beer it's tiny. Some people on Trip Advisor were complaining about the two drink rule - I suppose it's a pain if you want to get drinks for yourself and your family at the same time - but you probably can't easily carry more than two of the plastic cups at once and it does reduce wastage - if you are by the pool and having soft drinks you need to drink them quickly because of the wasps which are flying around constantly. I found they left me alone if I ignored them (and put my cup in the bin when I had finished) but my friend did actually get stung by a wasp which wasn't nice.

There are two bars open in the evening, one in the theatre (where the entertainment takes place so it's lively, quite noisy and busy) then a quieter bar near reception. The queues in the theatre bar weren't bad anyway, and both have the same choice of drinks covered on the all inclusive: vodka, rum, gin and one other spirit I can't remember with mixers, plus wine, beer, slushies and a limited list of cocktails, so you can't ask for just anything, though the cocktails seemed to cover most of the well known popular ones. There was even a non-alcoholic cocktail on the list that was great because I'm pregnant, though it was bright pink and a bit sickly sweet! My friend who had the gin said it tasted awful but the other drinks were apparently OK.

The entertainment
The hotel offers activities throughout the day, some for children, others for teenagers and some for the whole family, ranging from Spanish lessons to rifle shooting to aqua-aerobics and face painting.

activities board

There's a theatre with a show every night but not until 10pm (lasting an hour) which is surprisingly late for a family resort, especially when dinner runs from 7-9 and most people with young kids seemed to eat early. There seemed to be some sort of kids club activity in the theatre from 9 (involving getting parents to do embarrassing things on stage, then a kids disco) then the main entertainment varies every night (for two weeks at least then I imagine they repeat).

One evening the entertainment crew (who also run the activities during the day, and seemed popular with the kids) were miming or possibly singing along to different songs while dressed in character, e.g. Barbie Girl, YMCA, the Baywatch theme etc. It was quite cringe-worthy at times but over the course of the week I decided they were fairly good entertainers, we just weren't their target audience at all. Kids loved it, and parents enjoyed it because their children were enjoying it (or because they'd had a few drinks). Childless and sober (due to pregnancy) I wasn't exactly getting into it in the same way - but there was literally nothing else to do in the evenings!

Outside the hotel - the beach
The beach path is well signposted from by the hotel swimming pool and it's about a ten minute walk to some steps down to the beach. If you walk along the parallel path higher up you get to a little town centre which has some other restaurants and bars, souvenir shops and places you can book excursions.

the beach

We went to the beach one day when the pool was shut due to poo-gate; you are supposed to pay 4 euros 20 for a sun lounger and another 4 euros for an umbrella but it was already mid-afternoon and there was nobody around to pay.

There's a snack bar (nothing to do with the hotel so you have to pay) and toilets up at the top of the steps, and you can hire pedaloes. The water was quite warm and really clear; you can see fish even without a snorkel and I could hear people by the rocks (the beach is in a sort of cove leading out to the sea) saying they could see jellyfish.

We also went out for a day trip which I will review separately, to the Cuevas del Drach (dragon caves) and Porto Cristo.

Overall I didn't have a bad holiday at all - the people at the hotel were actually quite friendly and quiet, not the sort of rowdy drunk crowd I had been expecting given this is a pretty cheap all inclusive - probably because most of them were there with children. There are plenty of activities, the food isn't bad at all and offers something for everyone, the accommodation was fine, and while there were some issues like the poo in the pool and the entertainment not being to my taste, it was a lot better than I was expecting. I wouldn't choose to go back, but for the price it wasn't bad at all.

Restaurant reviews: Gozo, Malta

If you’re heading to Gozo, a small island that’s part of Malta, then hopefully these restaurant reviews will come in useful!

We stayed at the Bella Vista Farmhouses in the summer, which I have already reviewed.

We were mainly self catering during our stay (despite the very poor barbecue and oven we could barely work) but did eat out sometimes, mainly in the village of Xaghra where we were staying.

D Venue

Also sometimes written as Dvenue

Located on the village square in Xaghra, the restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating.

Service was very slow – we were at our table for 15 minutes before anyone came to take our order, then half an hour to get our drinks, then another half an hour for our food to arrive. I had a local traditional ravioli dish filed with cheese which was nice. My husband enjoyed his fillet steak (22 euros) which he said was really good. I wasn’t so impressed by the drinks though – my ice tea came to the table in a can which had been kept at room temperature. At least my husband’s coke was cold.

 

While eating we were treated to some entertainment – a sort of pageant and mixture of dance and narrative, telling the story of Xahgra’s history – we assumed this must be a special occasion and during the summer we were told most towns and villages have their own fiestas – we often saw fireworks in the distance from our balcony!

Latini Restaurant

Another restaurant on the other side of the village square with a good view of the church, where this time we had an early lunch. My husband enjoyed the cooked breakfast which was served until noon. I had pasta with chicken in a gorgonzola sauce – not having realised until a few days later that I was actually a couple of weeks pregnant!

Luckily the blue cheese didn’t seem to do me any harm. The dish was nice but the chicken strips seemed a bit processed – the texture reminded me of when you buy strips in Iceland that are ready frozen. Either way that’s just my opinion, and it was a nice enough place otherwise.

 

Il Logga

 

 

Il Logga is a boutique hotel as well as a restaurant which is beautiful inside, but the outside is a bit of a shame – it’s on a corner between two roads, and while there isn’t a lot of traffic, the small outdoor seating area means you are in close proximity to cars going past. So we decided to sit indoors and were surprised to see the lovely huge chandelier, wine racks and more – this is a really elegant restaurant, with good service.

We received a complimentary bruschetta with tomato and a bread basket to start. My husband had steak which he said was very good, and I ate tuna with some sort of salsa verde which was delicious and the piece of tuna was huge. It came with  vegetables that looked like a sort of ratatouille that neither of us liked, plus some roasted potatoes – the whole meal was very nice, and it was actually a celebration of finding out that day we were going to be parents – though looking back I think we were in shock it had happened so quickly as well and this would be our last holiday as a duo!

 

 I can't remember what we had for dessert, but it was lovely!

 

Ta Karolina restaurant, Xlendi

For our last meal on Gozo we decided to go a bit further afield - though nothing is very far as it's such a small island! Speaking to our local taxi driver about restaurants, he recommended we check out Xlendi so I had a look at restaurants on Trip Advisor and chose Ta Karolina, partly because of the name, but also because it had good reviews and a waterfront location. It only took about 15 minutes to get to Xlendi and our taxi driver promised to return if we phoned when we had finished our meal, and he was there soon after

I think I definitely chose well with the restaurant - there were several restaurants not far from the water but where you wouldn't have had any view, then a handful in a line along the actual waterfront. Each of them had a row of about 4 or maybe 5 tables along the edge of what was basically a harbour leading out to the sea, but Karolina was on the corner, with half a dozen tables along one edge (with rows of other tables behind them) then a single file row of tables for two leading up the side of the harbour. We were lucky enough to get one of these tables, so were right next to the water - literally, if I'd moved my chair leg a couple of inches I would have fallen in - and didn't have rows and rows of other diners around us. It was actually quite romantic, and fun to watch the fish in the clear water right next to us.

My table leg and the proximity of the water: see pic



I ate salmon with prawns and a sauce that I think might have been white wine based but it doesn't look that colour from the picture! Needless to say it was really fresh and tasty.

 

It was a beautiful evening and wonderful to finish off our dinner and holiday as the sun was setting.

 

 

Costa Coffee, Malta Airport

Actually, our last meal in Malta was technically at the airport - at Costa Coffee! Malta was under British rule until the 1960s (at least I think that's correct) and there are a lot of British influences still evident (including lots of ex-pats) - though definitely somewhere that also has its own identity. It's not the best holiday we've ever had - we were a bit disappointed by the accommodation, and nothing could live up to our trip to the Galapagos Islands for our honeymoon the year before but for somewhere short haul, not too expensive and relaxing, I definitely recommend Gozo.