Cold weather Arrives in Cyprus

The weather has suddenly turned a lot colder since Christmas, apparently due to winds from Russia and consequently our house ( now renamed “The Igloo” ) has got even colder, we have had to buy a second heater to try and keep the house a bit warmer.

We took a drive into Limassol and took a 5k walk along the seafront, stopping off for a hearty Scottish Breakfast.

Nicosia at Christmas 2006

We wandered around the New part of the City, there were plenty of Christmas shoppers out and about and enjoyed listening to a Choir of local children singing carols.

In the evening we took a taxi over to the Strovolos district to visit the I Yevsi (The taste) restaurant, this was a real find, the staff were so welcoming and attentive, the food superb and they even gave us a bottle of wine as a gift.

We returned to our hotel to find a birthday party in progress for the owners wife, we were invited to join the party and had a wonderful time and enjoyed slices of tasty birthday cake.

A capital visit to Nicosia

Just before the Christmas holiday we decided to visit the Cypriot Capital of Nicosia. Our base for our visit was the homely Averof hotel, after unpacking we took a walk down to the “Old Town” which is situated inside the ancient Venetian star shaped walls. The Old town is a wonderful place to just wander and explore the narrow streets.

After lunch we visited one of the buffer zones that sadly divides the City, we climbed the viewing tower that overlooks No mans land.

We returned to the old town in the evening to look at the superb display of Christmas lights.

Carols in Pissouri square

This evening we went along to Pissouri square to attend the annual carol service, there was a choir and the young children of the village singing Carols in English and Greek. The temperatures have notably dropped in the evening and there was a nip in the air, but warm wine and mince pies kept our spirits up.

A new Style

Mandy decided to have a change of hairstyle, so we drove off to the village of Avdimou to meet up with Andrea, after a couple of hours Mandy emerged to show off her new hairdo.

We then set off to the Christmas fete at Episkopi military base, we had been told that we could gain entry by using our British passports, unfortunately this was not the case, the Military policeman told us why we could not be allowed onto the base and apologised, he added that he hoped that we had not come far…we said"only from Cardiff and especially for the fete"…he smiled when he realised that we were joking.

Limassol Christmas market

This week we were picked up by our friends, Pam, Arthur, Steph and Mike and taken to the Christmas market on Limassol promenade. A lightening storm was in progress as we drove along the motorway.

 This electrical storm meant that a number of stalls were shut and some the entertainment cancelled, but making the most of the situation we ate German sausage and drank Austrian wine and chatted with some of the local stall holders. We then wandered over to theMegaro restaurant for a meze dinner and listened to some live Cypriot music.

Late Breakfast

We woke up the following morning to find a power cut in the village, feeling a little lethargic from the previous evenings festivities we wandered down to Hani’s café for a late breakfast. We met up with our friends Mike & Steph and we all decided to go over to the Christmas craft fair at Aphrodite hills.

The fair had a number of stalls selling various Christmas goods, The highlight for us was the stand selling warm vegetable soup, we drank the soup as we listened to a barber shop choir.

Slimmers world Christmas party

This weekend we were invited to the local slimmers club (Sunshine slimmers)

Christmas Party, we were picked up by coach and taken to the town of Episkopi, our first “Port of Call” was the Three Arches tavern, a cosy bar with a roaring log fire. We were introduced to the members of the club and shared a few drinks.

We then crossed the road to the Episkopi village Inn restaurant where we enjoyed a very good meal washed own with a number of bottles of wine, the slimmers had taken a break from their usual abstinence and we enjoyed the evening and the company.

Wine and Chocolate

Today we took delivery of 12 bottles of local wine from one of our friends in the village. Fytos grows the organic wine himself and delivers it to the door, last Night we cracked open the first bottle and both enjoyed the wine.

We went up to he local quiz night in the village, not our finest moment, we came last out of 6 teams, personally I blame the wine for our poor performance, still 6 bars of chocolate were decent compensation.

Aphrodite hills resort

We drove out to the Aphrodite Hills resort which is a 20 minute drive from Pissouri. The main reason for going out there was to attend a seminar, but we took advantage of our visit to take a good old “Nose around”

The complex is built around a superb championship golf course over looking the Mediterranean sea. There is also a 5 star hotel, a small purpose built village and a number of breathtaking villas, now all we have to do is get 6 numbers on the lottery !

"New" car arrives

Our friends Dom & Lisa are returning to the UK for a short period of time and kindly lent us their car. We are really pleased with it, it has air conditioning, a much better radio, a CD player and electric windows.

The restaurant with THE view

This weekend we drove over to Coral bay to check out a Christmas fair/market at one of the big hotel, to be honest we were both a bit disappointed with the stalls and the lack of variety of goods on sale. On the plus side we took a cold box with us and had a nice picnic on a headland overlooking Coral Bay.

On Sunday we went over to the Hillview restaurant at the top of Pissouri for lunch, the food is very good and the atmosphere is relaxing and the view from the restaurant have to be seen to be believed.

Early Santa in Pafos

A trip to Pafos reminded us that even in Cyprus Christmas preparations seem to come earlier each year. Street decorations and Christmas trees were popping up all over the town. 

As we wandered through Ktima Pafos (town centre) we came upon “Tea for Two” a small café-bar with a wonderful views 3km down to Kato Pafo. The Café does superb Ploughman’s sandwiches.

Lunch in Dora

We drove with Dom & Liza up to the mountain village of Dora, we met Andreas who runs The Paradise Tavern, he prepared a excellent meze lunch for us.

We all noticed the drop in temperature up in the mountains and coats and fleeces were the order of the day. The garden of the tavern has superb views down the valley and Mount Olympus in the background.

We then went over to Andreas’s second tavern in the center of the village where he had a log fire crackling away in the corner, we sat around drinking the local firewater, zivania, while Andreas told us some history of the village.

Aphrodite's Rock

This weekend we ventured onto the tourist trail and headed over to Petra tou Romiou (Aphrodite’s rock), which is only a 10 minute drive from Pissouri. There were quite of few German tourists in the area who braved entering the sea, the weather was clear, warm and the views spectacular.

The old coast road from Pissouri to Pafos is a truly spectacular drive, the road cuts through the surrounding hills with dramatic effect and around every bend you get wonderful views of the Mediterranean sea.

A Day in Larnaca

We went for the day to the town of Larnaka, we were both impressed with thre town Larnaka, it has a clean and tidy sandy beach and a pleasant palm tree lined promenade.

The shopping area and backstreets are worth exploring and we were impressed with the area around the church of Agios Lazaros.

On the way home we stopped of at the village of Zygi, the whole seafront is crammed full of fish restaurants overlooking the sea. Our final stop was at Governors Beach, a small, black sanded coved that sadly needed a good clean up of discarded rubbish.