The big move …..

Almost before we knew it our bags were packed and we were ready to go. Our journey involved a couple of hours drive to Valencia airport in order to catch a direct flight over to Malta. It was an afternoon flight but with so much at stake (and so many bags) we arrived very early to the airport. After a few laps driving round an industrial estate by the airport we found our long term car parking and were driven, luggage and all across to the terminal building. We had two trolleys and headed straight to the bag drop off …… only to find it was not possible until two hours before the flight!!! So we had an hour and half to spend with our trollies and luggage, dragging out a cup of coffee, taking over the whole cafe space and thinking about the enormity of our new adventure.

Eventually the time came to drop off the bags and head through to the lounge before our flight, this included the “sporting equipment” i.e. my new paddle board going to a special loading area where it would be taken care of. This involved heading through a security “side door” with a Ryanair rep – and after she had opened the door we were basically in a warehouse with a cage lift – it seemed very suspicous until we spotted the pushchairs, bike and child seats – the paddle board would be in good company. Only when we came to return to the airport side did we find she couldn’t get the door open !! We were trapped until she called and got someone to open it from the other side – wow – that’s security !! Once we had navigated the next security check and with a kind of happy acceptance (we were a bit frazzled by this time) we found the flight was delayed by over an hour. This gave us a bit more time to eat and relax so it wasn’t the disaster a flight delay would usually be, especially since we had no-one expecting us at the other end.

Once we arrived in Malta and got the bus over to the terminal building our bags, including my paddleboard were all circulating on the carousel and we grabbed them and this time we only needed one trolley as they were bigger – quite handy as I had to head off to collect the hire car whilst Nigel walked the trolley across to the pick up point. It all ran very smoothly and we even managed to fit all our bags into a Peugeot 107 – quite an achievement – handy to have played Tetris!

We drove to the north of Malta and waited a short while for the ferry that would take us to our new life in Gozo – to be honest we were a bit tired by this point in the evening and actually quite hungry so we decided to get a take-away from the food truck by the port. I had been reading reviews and it got excellent ones so what a great opportunity to try it, a pork wrap for Skipper Nigel and a burger and chips for me. What we hadn’t appreciated was the size (we should have known from our previous time in Gozo really) – they were huge! and delicious ! What a great end to a long and exciting day.

The next morning we looked out on our view and got ourselves unpacked, including the new paddleboard that we had hauled over here with us and what a stunner it will be. Can’t wait to get out on it, although the sea was just a bit choppy for me to get straight down there.

The following day we headed out for coffee and found an American car show – what a surprise and what stunning vehicles …. especially this one – do you recognise it ?? (We certainly did ;-))

So now we are settling into our new way of life, and of course for me that is lots of walking and the occasional run ahead of the full time swimming and paddle boarding season. Here are some photos of walks from our apartment, the more time we spend here the more we love it.

For now our time is spent exploring the island and finding out where to do our shopping, go to the dentist (yes, that was an unfortunate experience shortly after we arrived but the dentist was fabulous and recommended I only eat ice cream for a couple of days after my extraction, that advice I liked a lot!!!) We are also looking for a car (probably not quite as large or shiny as the General Lee) and working out where we will bring Gemini J when we can go back and sail her over here. All in all, exciting times.