Blogs from Limassol, Cyprus, Middle East
September 1st 2011
INTRODUCTION This blog covers two visits to Cyprus, two weeks in the spring of 2010, and eight days in the early summer of 2011. In both cases, I was accompanying my wife who was going there for business. We used an apartment in Limassol as our base, and took several day trips from there to the different sites around the island. During these visits I managed to see most of the regions of the island, with the exception of the Famagusta and Karpas regions in Northern Cyprus, and the Akamas Peninsula in the Republic of Cyprus. We used a mix of public transportation, car rental, and organized tours for getting to places; Cyprus is not a place where one can get to most attractions by public transportation, although the bus system is good for trips between ... read more
August 27th 2011
KOURION There are several sites of interest for visitors around Limassol (15-30 minutes driving distance). First and foremost is the Kourion classical archeological site, one of the best-preserved and most striking remains not only of Cyprus but the Mediterranean in general. Kourion was one of the ancient city-kingdoms of Cyprus, and has remains from Mycenean, Classical Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Early Byzantine times. ' As one approaches Kourion, one immediately notices its prominent location: on top of a mount, facing the sea, where cliffs meet a beach down below. One of the pictures shows a view from the Kourion site atop the bluff, looking westwards and south; Kourion beach can be clearly seen (not a bad beach from most accounts either). Besides its location, Kourion posseses other attributes, starting with a beautifully preserved (ahem…, well reconstructed) ... read more
June 23rd 2011
Our 5th tour in as many days took us over to the ancient ruins of Kourion. The most impressive part of this extensive archaeological site is the luxurious house of Eustolious. This home was originally built in the early Christian period around 330-400 AD. It had and extensive layout with Roman baths, well preserved mosaics, and even stone pipes to bring water into the house. The greek writings in the tile floors also proved that this was built by a Christian family. Right next to the house was a theatre originally built in the Hellenistic period (310-30 BC) and rebuilt/expanded in the Roman period (30 BC - 330 AD). Paul and Barnabas once visited Kourion, but their most famous missionary work on the island of Cyprus was in Paphos. We made a stop to see the ... read more
May 2nd 2008
Yesterday we did manage to get to a water park. Bill and Wayne did not join us, because they had been up late gambling and drinking the night before and were too tired. So, it was just the girls and the kids. We were a little unsure about the currency in Cyprus, as I don’t think they have totally thrown away their old currency in favour of the Euro. I had nothing to fear, the taxi’s and the water park both gave me prices in Euros right away. I even paid the admission to the park by Visa. The morning was beautiful. The sun was out and it was quite warm with a bit of a wind. The kids had a great time. It is an awesome waterpark. There is a wave pool, and several slides, ... read more
May 1st 2008
Yesterday we were in Rhodes, Greece. I stayed at Adventure Ocean till about noon. In town we wanted to go see the Palace of the Grand Masters, but it was closed because of recent damage. Mom got us ice cream for lunch, then we wandered around town for about one hour and a half. On our way back to the cruise ship we stopped and had a gyro. A gyro is a pita wrapped around chicken, onions and tomato. It was very good. We sat down in a square where I dropped some of my gyro. All the pigeons came flying to my chicken that fell. The first one who got there started to follow us back to the ship when we left. Last night we did rock and roll night. We played freeze dance, where ... read more
July 17th 2006
Today was going to be a long day. We planned to drive up to the Troodos massif and visit some of the World Heritage Byzantine painted churches. The painted churches were built at the time the Venetians controlled Cyprus. The Venetians were Roman Catholic but the locals still remained Eastern Orthodox, and they fled to the upper parts of the Troodos mountains where they built a series of 'hidden' churches. From the outside they look like barns or Swiss chalets, with sloping roofs for shedding snow. On the inside they are elaborately painted in Byzantine style biblical themes. There are many churches, but 10 of them have made it on the World Heritage list. They are pretty spread out, and you must hunt down the person who keeps the keys, so it is only possible to ... read more
