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Cyprus

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This is our hotel, the Mediterranean Beach Hotel in Limassol, Cyprus.
It had some creative Christmas decoration in the lobby.
And it has a spectacular pool area, but it’s unheated and the water temperature of the pool was actually lower than that of the sea!
So it might be a good idea to walk down to the beach right in front of the hotel instead...
...if you don’t mind being watched.
From there, you have an excellent view of the warships cruising in front of the coast.
Evening view of Limassol harbour.
We went for a walk along the Persephone Nature Trail near Troodos in the Troodos mountains (at an altitude of 1700m). This is a view point along the path. In case you had not noticed.
There was quite some snow on the ground, but it was sunny and smelled of pine cones and summer. Very strange.
Watching the waves break is a very time-consuming activity.
Because of the public holiday on Christmas, downtown Limassol was more or less deserted.
Limassol zoo is very small, but offered some unexpected highlights like this owl trying to get to grips with its Christmas dinner...
In ancient times, dwarf hippos lived in Cyprus.
Too surprised by the cat walking over my back to get a good snapshot of that! Photo (c) Gerhard Bocksch.
There were cats all over the place, doing what cats do when there’s nothing else to do.
The latrines at the archaeologic site of Amathous, just a 15 minute walk from our hotel.
At the acropolis, the high city, there was a temple of Aphrodite with a huge vase made of stone. Photo (c) Gerhard Bocksch.
We spent a night at the Blue Bar, with whisky and japanese crackers, and (unfortunately) an elderly German couple who had already had too many whiskies (and with ice, at that!).
The barkeeper made up for it by preparing the most delicious cocktails for me, and by taking our picture.
For three days in a row, poor Alexandra didn’t notice the missing translation...
The castle Kolossi was the main command center of the rulers of Cyprus for many centuries. It controlled a valley of lush vegetation, including sugar cane, as seen here. The name "Commandaria" of the famous cypriot sherry wine stems from here.
The castle comes with its own sugar factory.
As you can clearly see, there are huge flocks of flamingos in the salt lake on the Akrotiri peninsula.
On a rainy day, we went for some more cultural sightseeing. The archaeologic site of Kourion is the second most important site on the island. It is full of colourful mosaics that date back more than 2000 years, but were partially restored and replaced in the 4th century after earthquakes had destroyed the settlement.
The early Christians thought that protecting a house with Christian symbols works better than fortifying it with strong wood or iron (which they wrote here). It seemed to work -- no more earthquakes occurred after that.
The remains of a basilika were very wet because of the rain. I wonder whether the drainage network worked better in ancient times?
The baths in the nearby temple of Apollon. A pity we couldn’t use them -- a hot steam bath would have just been the thing on that day!
Tea time at the hotel
A walk along the beach to the birthplace of Aphrodite. According to the legend, Kronos (father of Zeus) castrated his father, Uranos, and deposed of the pieces in the sea, where they transformed into sperm-like foam from which Aphrodite was born. This beach is the place where she first came ashore.
An impressive thunderstorm developed... but we didn’t get any photographs of lightining strikes.
From a huge selection of pebbles...
... I brought home only a few, to guarantee this year’s production of worry stones (German: Handschmeichler).
To get this rather unspectacular view of Pafos harbour, we paid an entrance fee of 2.50 Euros for the Pafos Harbour Castle (but they did have nice pictures on the tickets!).
Now for some more ruins in Pafos, the most important archaeologic site on the island. Unfortunately, most mosaics seemed to have been covered by sand for protection.
But there were enough left to look at.
And of course some real ruins, too.
Walking along the bearch towards the "tombs of the kings" (with a stop at Lidl to supply hungry would-be archaeologists).
No real kings were buried here, but someone went to a lot of trouble to dig huge caves with whole patios from the bedrock. They were probably used to host burial celebrations.
Small chambers on the sides contained cavities where the dead were laid to rest.
Time to get back to the hotel...
At the northern flank of the Troodos, we go for a walk from Agios Theodoros to the Chapel of Asinou.
There’s not much water here, we’ve only seen one single river that actually carried water.
The chapel of Asinou. Note the bells in the eucalyptus tree. The plain roof disguises the church as a barn, deceiving potential robbers.
The inside of the chapel is why it is recognized as a world cultural heritage. The oldest iconographic paintings date from the 11th century A.D.
If anybody knows what kind of rock this is, please let me know! I call it dragon eggs.
The storm has deposited lots of seaweed on the beach. Time to go home!

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