A bit of culture today - we still had the car so we fancied visiting the remains of ancient Kourion. It’s a very extensive site so the poor hip got a real work-out, but well worth the 45 min drive towards Limassol (and the pain!). Kourion was the major city state of Cyprus in 300BC & has really impressive ruins, showing the best of Greek then Roman architecture. 

 

Sometimes age has its compensations, and once again we had 2 for 1 tickets in view of the fact we are both 65+. We started in the house of Eustolius, a wealthy Greek chap who built a villa with lots of baths and impressive mosaic flooring; 500 years later the occupying Romans tmade the most of his vision and turned them into public baths. Best of all though was the vista from his house: Kourion sits on a cliff with stunning sea views.

The amphitheatre was most impressive & has been fully restored - it originally seated nearly 3000 and even though many seats were removed, it is still huge and hosts concerts & shows - the Russian Ballet is there next week. (More Russians!!) It was 30deg so a bit hot for trekking round, but we did our best & made use of the occasional shelters dotted around the site.

I’d heard about a salt lagoon a little further on which was home to flamingos & pelicans so we decided we’d have a late lunch there & do some birdwatching.....we drove down the peninsula surrounding it, only to find no birds at all, no cafes & no photography anyway- it’s right next to the GB base of RAF Akrotiri,  which still houses active service personnel. It was strange to look at the map and see the base is actually labelled as part of Great Britain, and across the "border" is Cyprus.