DAY FOUR The old part of Atocha Station is a neat classical, Victorian style building, huge with a glassed roof, full of tropical plants and misters. We had plenty of time to look round before our train to Toledo this morning. Toledo was a fascinating city. We spent our time wandering around the old town, entering through the main gate in the wall. We went to the Alcazar first, the old fort / palace, a neat building but the museum inside was mainly military with little on the history of the building and what it had been used for. Next was the Taller del Moro where we could look round three rooms of a 14th century Mudejar palace (Mudejar refers to architecture etc. built by Moorish craftsmen under Christian rule). There was some excellent carvings in ... read more

Going to Nicosia was a long day. We all went as far as Larnica, where we had a look around the paleontology museum. It was small, but ok, and we were lucky to get in as it was about to be closed for a clean-up following flooding a few days ago. We couldnt get into the municipal museum, in the same building, as that had already been closed. Mum and Jo stayed behind in Larnica while Dad, Colin and I went another 1/2 hour or so along to the divided capital of Nicosia. We parked just outside the odl city walls, had a quick lunch, then set off for our afternoons exploring. We walked along the top of the walls to the Liberty Monument, a memorial to Cyprus's struggle against colonial rule, EOKA fighters raining the ... read more

We took a well maintained secondary road over the hills at the base of the Akamas peninsular. The road wound almost straight up, across a small plateau then straight off the other side, with some good views all the way. We stopped in a village called Agios Georgios where there is a 6th century basilica and other ruins with some more mosaics. The site was smaller than we’ve seen already, but the foundations had been reconstructed better and it was easier to see what was what. From there we went up to the Avagas Gorge. We walked along a gravel track for about 1km before actually entering the gorge. It was pretty spectacular, the sides narrowed right in and it was damp and dark at the bottom. We walked a fair way up before stopping for ... read more