Paphos, Paphos, Cyprus
Today I didn't have any meetings so Socrates arranged a driver for us touring around Cyprus. We wanted Tammy to see another part of the country besides just the airport and Limassol. We had discussed going into the mountains or even to Lefkara so that she could see the lace making, but Socrates said they had had a lot of rain in the mountains and it was supposed to continue today. Thus we decided to head south to Paphos.
Christos is our driver this time. He remembered that he had driven me and Barbara to Paphos in the fall--another trip just after a rain. Hmmm! Do I bring the rain? Anyway he dropped us off near the harbour and the main archaeological site and said he would see us about 2 p.m.. We walked around the site looking at the mosaics which of course are amazing. One difference this time was that a larger number of the mosaics that are not inside buildings have been re-covered with green mesh and then gravel. Although I understand they do that to protect them from the weather, it was not as marvellous to see gravel pits instead of the touted mosaics.
About 12:30 p.m. we decided to have lunch by the seaside. We chose the King's Cafe--the reason? It had tables under cover and it was near the sea. There were a number of clouds in the sky and although the waiter said the rain will go north to Limassol we decided to "play" it safe and have some cover over us. It didn't rain but we did hear thunder and saw the dark clouds streaming along further up the coast. For lunch Tammy decided on calamari and chips with a Somersby Apple Cider, I had the Harbour Sea Basket (it was a bounty of seafood--kalamari, sole, prawns, smelt, and bait fish--the one problem was that except for the calamari all the fish had their heads attached! Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!) along with chips and a glass of white wine, and Mike had chicken nuggets, chips, and a brandy sour (it was red not brown and his comment was it was one of the worst brandy sours he had ever had).
When we finished lunch it was almost 2 so I called George, the owner of the taxi company. George was to call Christos who would then meet us--there was some confusion but we finally found each other.
Off we went to see Petra Tou Romiou on our way back to the Jasmine. Petra Tou Romiou means Rock of the Greeks. It is said that this is where Aphrodite is supposed to have arisen from the sea, in other words where she was born. Cyprus is known as Aphrodite's Island because of this. We parked on one side of the busy highway and walked through the tunnel (luckily it was a short one as Tammy doesn't like tunnels) and went down to the beach. The beach here is not sand but made of round rocks of varying sizes--if you listen as the sea recedes you can hear the rocks making "chirping" noises. Very odd.
The next stop on the way back was the Temple (Sanctuary) of Apollo Hylates! Wow! This was amazing! We were all excited to see this as none of us had been here before. This site was considered to be one of the most important sanctuaries of ancient Cyprus. Its history goes back to about 2000 B.C. The term "hylates" was added to the name of Apollo because there was an earlier male fertility god that was worshipped here first. The term "hylates" means forest deity or protector of nature. People worshipped here until about 370 A.D. when there was a large earthquake that destroyed much of the site.
After we clambered over the ruins for awhile, we headed on down the road to stop at the Kourion Stadium. This site was also destroyed during the earthquake but you could still see it--it was a very large stadium. We would like to have shown Tammy the actual Kourion archaeological site but it would have taken way too long. It is thought that ancient Kourion was probably established in Neolithic times, but became a permanent settlement in the 13th Century BC when the Mycenaeans settled here. Even with the disastrous earthquake of A.D. 370, the settlement prospered until the A.D. 500s. It was then lost until "refound" in the late 1800s. Excavation continues so this is a fascinating place to visit.
We were back at the hotel about 5 p.m. Socrates came by to wish us well and a good flight, get the key for GCIS and leave us some gifts of wine. We told him what a wonderful time we had had and that I would see him again in the fall.
Next up was to pack and then head over to Chris' Grill House for a light dinner! Ha Ha! If you have been to Cyprus you know there is no such thing as a light dinner. For starters we had pita and tzatziki and some olives. All was good although the olives were not what we expected--usually they are green olives that are very tasty, but these were large black ones that seemed very similar to the canned ones we buy here. For dinner Tammy ordered lamb chops, chips and a bottle of tea. Mike had a chicken pita plus chips and salad and I had a halloumi pita plus chips and salad. Mike and I shared a bottle of red wine. This is our final night here before we head to Rome so we were both sad we were leaving and at the same time excited about the next part of our journey.
2025-05-23