For my last week in Gozo I wanted to finally get a scuba diving PADI license. I moved in to the San Andrea Hotel at Xlendi, on the Sunday night, to start lessons with the affable Rudi, of the St. Andrew's Diving school the next day.

The rooms were very clean, small and adequate, with great views of the bay.....and 10 metres from the Dive shop. The TV had no English channels (due to temporary satellite problems), but the staff were excellent and tried to help as much as possible.
http://www.hotelsanandrea.com/

Despite the very tight neoprene suit that I had to borrow, I learned a lot and enjoyed it. Having completed half of my diving exercises and more than half of my written work; I managed to get a 'barotrauma' on the last dive.

My nose bled, and my ears didn't 'pop' or equalise. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001064.htm
So that was the end of diving for a few days, and as I was flying five days later I went to see Patricia, my doctor, and she passed me on to Hermann the ENT specialist. And he medicated me & explained the engineering of an ear!!


But Xlendi has wonderful swimming as you are enclosed by the valley.
Back in late November, my best friend Tony Lloyd flew in for a 30 hour visit....and a glorious swim!!
And we meet up with the very lovely Maryann and Mariella, who congratulate us on being able to swim at our age!

Seen here on 24th November : Water temperature 18-19°C, land temperature 22°C.
He came in to Malta from Zagreb (he is the MP for central Manchester, UK, and specialises in international affairs, especially chasing down war criminals) via Milan late Friday night.

We had dinner at the Grand, and the next day we did the tourist sites:

Calypso's cave above Ramala Bay....supposedly where brave Ulysses was wrecked and spent 7 years.

The Gjigantia stone circle was a must as it is supposed to be the oldest erection in the world.....c. 6000 years old.

Many other places were included, such as St Ignatius who has his bones interred in the little church above Hondoq. This church also has ancient graffiti from the visiting-rampaging corsairs.

After our one hour swim in Xlendi, we went to the Citadel in Victoria, had lunch at Maji, the Labour Party headquarters in It-Toqq, and when we bumped in to Doris there, we had a guided tour of the 'Main Square' restaurant thrown in.

Now well on the way down Saturday's slippery slope we headed to Gleneagles in Mgarr and had a few scoops there.

Finally we went home and changed and ate at the "D bar" in Qala, before a 4am get-up and departure!!

Aye, swimming in Xlendi is pretty good, and you can find some good people & decent food down there nowadays!!