Marthese to the fore again, as she picked us up at 7 for a day on Malta's little sister island, the quieter and more rural Gozo, which reminded me of the Malta I first saw as a child.

Anne here- and what a tour guide she is! She has been very generous with her time and took today off work to be with us. She had bought sandwiches and water for our lunch, and also her mum's left over ricotta pie that we failed to eat on Sunday. So she foiled our attempts to treat her a terrific lunch to thank her but we managed to take her and one of her daughters to dinner.

To get to Gozo we had to drive about 40 minutes to the other end of the main island and take the car on the ferry which took about 25 minutes and was very efficient. It was another glorious day. We have to confess that we saw so many places (which we didn't track on a map! ) that we can't provide an exact itinerary! We began with a stop alongside Fort Chambray above Mgarr, where the ferry docks. The views of the countryside were stunning - not least because everything was so green. Next stop was the fiord of Mgarr in-Xini a postcard perfect inlet with a long history as a fishing village, and more recent use for diving. We had a nice chat with a an Englishman who has lived on Gozo for 7 years. He runs an underwater photography school, and was just waiting for his dive buddy, who turned out to be another Englishman. He needs to wait another 9 for residency and Brexit has created some uncertainty for him. He told us that this beautiful little bay was used for the filming of "By the Sea". He said its not a good film, although the acting is good and the setting is great.

We then had a look in the Citadel in Rabat/ Victoria, which is a very imposing fortress high on the island and has been cleaned up beautifully- more EU money which we have seen plenty of evidence of during this visit. This was even less trafficked than its namesake on the main island. When we went back to the car, we had one of those unexpected encounters that becomes a highlight of travel.

We were just about at the car when a man approached us speaking Maltese. We called Marthese. It turns out He had some items in his car for sale. Marthese - who later told us she had never done this before - negotiated a good deal on some cleaning products and 72 toilet rolls! She knew the brands and the prices were good. Our friend - Sam - was a terrific salesman. He used Marthese's name ( which he had heard Mick use), he poured out samples of the goods. He made the Aussie connection, as almost all Maltese can. The funny thing for me was that I had just been searching for ( only 2) toilet rolls to see us throttle the end of our stay here. And there he was- Slippery Sam himself. What a great little interlude!

We ate our picnic lunch at another lovely spot where the famous Azure Window- a massive natural arch that spanned from the shore into the sea had collapsed last March. This was a major tourist attraction and so was a shock. Fortunately no one was on it or near it at the time. We saw reports of The collapse in athe Aussie news at the time. where we actually sat for lunch was beside a large pool which boats can only enter through a portal in the cliffs.

Another lovely stop was Ramla Bay which we saw from high above the beach. Marthese told us that this beach could be a little dangerous so ropes have been placed out to sea in case they are needed. I could see a white object on the sand so asked if that was used for attaching the ropes. The reply- " no that is a statue of Our Lady."

After another pause at Hondoq Bay where we sampled ice creams and watched some young Italians braves the cold water, we had an uneventful trip back to the big island. Marthese invited us into her home for a brief break before dinner. She is in the same one that she was in all those years ago when we spent time in Malta and before Marilyn was born. The house is lovely and much bigger than her mother's with lots of living space downstairs. She has two bathrooms and all the rooms are large. She also has a garage under the house. From the roof we could see how much her previously lovely views are now blocked by buildings.

We were able to persuade Marthese and her youngest daughter Marilyn to have dinner with us at the Paparazzi 29 restaurant on Manoel Island. It was lovely to meet Marilyn at last. We had also said hi to Michaela, the oldest, when we picked Marilyn up but we missed Marica, the middle girl.