Date: September 28, 2018 – October 4, 2018
Location: Pissouri Bay, Cyprus

It was a clear morning when we took a bus from Chamonix to the Geneva, Switzerland airport.

We boarded a plan to Athens, Greece where we had a layover and then went on to Cyprus. We finally said goodbye to mainland Europe after spending the last 5 months here!

This is flying over the Swiss Alps.

In Cyprus, we were met by our friends Brad and Alyssa. They were extremely generous and let us stay with them and their dog Rusty. Rusty always meets you with a toy – or two.

They also foster puppies, and at the time had Sadie. Sadie has now been adopted, and about a week after we were there she went to her new home in Scotland.

On a walk we saw the Saint Spiridonas church.

The church is built into the rock.

Our walk took us up on hill and there was a view overlooking Pissouri Bay.

Here is top of our short walk.

Omodos, Cyprus

Omodos is a village with cobblestone streets. And lots of cats. How many can you spot in the photo below?

Timiou Stavrou Monastery is located in the village. To visit a monastery, women need to be covered up. Robes were provided outside.

We went inside the Timios Stavrou Monastery.

Omodos is surrounded by slopes, and on many of them grape vines are growing. The area has over 50 small wineries. After seeing the monastery we went to the Stou Kir-Yianni Wine Cellar.

The owner was in the shop pouring the wine for us. The wine was good and we purchased a few bottles.

On the street in Omodos.

For dinner, we left Omodos and went to Aphrodite’s Rock Microbrewery where we met up with some of Brad and Alyssa’s friends. The company is one of the few breweries on Cyprus. They also make cider. The food was really good.

Paphos, Cyprus

Driving along the coast towards Paphos, you can see Petra tou Romiou, aka Aphrodite’s Rock. Of the three rocks in the water below, Aphrodite’s Rock is the middle one.

There is a narrow tunnel under the road to get to the beach.

The Legend is that Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love and Beauty, was born at this spot.

It also is said that if you swim around the rock three times you will have eternal beauty. Or internal beauty? Either one sounded great to Brian and he wanted to swim around, but we didn’t bring our bathing suits.

After Aphrodite’s Rock we continued on to Paphos. In Paphos, we saw the Medieval Castle of Paphos and then went to the Paphos Archaeological Park.

The area was discovered in 1962 by a farmer plowing his fields. Today there are many mosaics that can be viewed. The archaeological site is still being excavated.

The area was the ancient city of Pafos, founded in the late 4th century BC.

The city was the capital of Cyprus and continued to be after Cyprus was annexed by Rome In 58 BC.

In the 4th century A.D. an earthquake damaged the city and the capital was moved to Salamis, which was later renamed Constantia. It was after the Arab raids in the middle of the 7th century that the city went into decline and was abandoned.

In the last few years Paphos’ old town has been modernized with many small shops and pedestrian streets. We happened to go there on a Sunday and most places were closed. There are many corners with art work set up on them.

Brian went for a swim and Rusty decided to join him. Sadie – who had never swam before – even took a leap to try and land on Rusty’s back, but she doggy-paddled for a little before Brian saved her and lifted her out. I don’t think she’ll be swimming again anytime soon!

Ancient Kourion

Another stop during our visit was to the Ancient Kourion area, where we saw the Kourion Ancient Amphitheater.

The amphitheater has been restored and is now used for open-air musical and theatrical performances.

Kourion was destroyed by an earthquake in 365 AD.

Kourion was built on top of a hill. Looking down the coast you see pastures. There are no houses on the water (yet). That would be prime, beach-front real estate back in the US!

Before going to lunch, we stopped at Apollo Hylates temple.

Our Cyprus Meze Meal!

Meze is a traditional Cyprian feast of small dishes. For dinner, we went to Kastro Restaurant and ordered the Meze.

The meal started with cold appetizers.

Next up was hot appetizers. If you haven’t had grilled Halloumi, we highly recommend trying it.

Halloumi is a semi-hard, unripened, brined cheese made from a mixture of goat and sheep’s milk. Halloumi is made in Cyprus, so when you buy it make sure to look at it is from Cyprus to ensure that you have true Halloumi.

After the appetizers was a round of meats, which Brian missed getting a picture of.

Here is the second round of main dishes.

All of that was followed by dessert.

The Meze was a LOT of food. It was a fantastic way to try a sample of many Cyprian dishes.

Back at the house Brian and Sadie teamed up for tug of war with Rusty.

On the way up to Troodos Village, we stopped and did the hike to Myllomeris Waterfalls.

The hike was nice along a small path.

Here is Myllomeris Waterfall. The water falls 15 meters – just under 50 feet.

Here is a lookout on the side of the road up to Troodos Village.

Troodos Village is the highest town on Cyprus at 1750 meters or around 5,741 feet.

Looking out from the Troodos Village, all you see is mountains.

We had a great time in Cyprus! It was not a place we had considered traveling until Brad and Alyssa moved there.

Our most sincere thanks go out to Brad and Alyssa for letting us crash with them and for driving us around to take in the sights – we had a fantastic time!!