Paphos, Cyprus - the harbour

I drove into Paphos this morning to drop off the car. When I picked it up, Jimmy drove me in and I followed him out, but I thought I remembered the way. I have also downloaded OSMand onto my phone. This is a satellite based navigating system (no data) but I am just getting the hang of it and, as Nicola well knows, I tend to argue with nav systems. This morning was no exception as "she" wanted me to go into Paphos a different way than Jimmy had taken me. Missed one lousy turn and found myself down by the waterfront. So I listened to "her" from then on and found the rental office. I have booked the car again for 2 weeks while Nicola and Dave are here.

As I had come from the waterfront I knew it wasn't far away so walked down to the sea. Goats, between the sea

and the apartments.

Nobody was swimming today

or playing volleyball, as the wind was blowing at 70km/hr.

Luckily I was walking away from it as I followed the coastal pathway with the sea on my right

and the lighthouse on my left.

It looks as if the lighthouse is actually in the archeological park. I will find out when I go back there.

Looking back, the way I had come.

As I neared the harbour it was time for some "splash photography".

There's something very compelling

about crashing waves

especially when the wind is lifting the top of them.

The castle by the harbour has a moat and looks promising

but inside it is just a shell.

Views from the top were nice but awfully windy.

Back downstairs, I walked the harbour; fishing boats

with buckets of nets along the sides,

the marine police,

and a variety of tourist boats - pirate ship, dive boats, day cruisers, deep sea fishing boats and this strange looking craft called The Nautilus that used to show 7D films inside but appears to be out of business (maybe due to that damage on the side).

I walked along the sea front, checking out the various menus

I chose "The Moorings" because of the friendly, low key greeter, table in the sun and out of the wind and the sign for "Happy Hour" from 12 to 1:00!

A piping hot jacket potato with fresh mushrooms and a creamy sauce, small salad and a glass of wine

was 8 Euro, about $12.

I took the 618 bus up to Karavella Square, walked down to the Tourist Office to see if they had info about driving on the Akamas Peninsular (west of Paphos). Info was - you can't, unless you have a 4 wheel drive vehicle. That explains why there are ATV "Safaris" offered. Back to the Square and I caught the 630 bus back to Pissouri. I dropped in at Kay and Jimmy's to have a visit with Kay and find out what time I had to meet Jimmy for the walk tomorrow.

Pissouri, Cyprus - one walk and two lunches

Yesterday I , again, walked with the Wednesday group. I drove Jimmy and myself into the outskirts of Paphos where we met at "the second roundabout"

After a short walk we were at this tiny chapel. I took this image from the Pahos Life website as my photo, as you can see below, was lousy.

On the right is the chapel, behind the white fence is a spring that runs all year and just to the left of it is a small shrine.

St George's Church

Inside the shrine.

Inside the church. Cars kept pulling up outside and people would come into the church, pay their respects, light a candle or take a candle out to the shrine. They wouldn't be there for long but I waited a few minutes for the church to empty before taking pictures.

According to Wikipedia, St George was Greek and his father died for the Christian faith. He and his mother moved to Syria and then, as a young man, he joined the Roman army. He was sentenced to death for refusing to recant his Christian faith. So where does the dragon fit in? Supposedly while he was living in Libya, as a young man, a dragon was terrorizing the town, demanding first sheep and then human sacrifice. George slew the dragon, saved the young sacrificial girl and gave his reward to the poor.

Further along the base of the cliffs there are more caves

Some of them have been carved out

and a few of them are shrine caves with candles burning and iconography.

St George is the most prevalent icon but  Christ and the Virgin Mary are also strongly represented.

Oddly a couple of the shrine caves had art installations added to the mix.

I couldn't find out much about the caves on the internet, or how they came to be shrines. None of the walkers knew either.

This little shrine cat was very affectionate and followed us for a way.

More art, high up on the cliff.

We walked through muddy farmer fields and between orange, grapefruit and lemon orchards. On one track through an orchard there was a small tree absolutely covered in small orange fruit. They were about the size of a cherry tomato but a bit more oval than round, not quite the same colour as an orange, smooth skinned. I asked what they were and we stopped. Kumquats was the answer and I was told you eat the whole thing, skin, pits and all. So we did. A crunchy but not unpleasant skin and a tart, citrusy centre. It was very tasty.

Here we debated the comparative merits of geese vs dogs as burglar deterrents.

After the walk, a short drive took as to the restaurant where we had preordered from a menu e-mailed out. I had Moussaka. Most had the pork ribs in Jack Daniel's Sauce. The pork here is supposed to be very good.

I drove down to Papantoniou's this morning to get the gas canister refilled and do some shopping before the car has to be returned tomorrow. Jimmy had also persuaded me that buying a box of wine was much more economical than bottles and I was going to be here long enough to justify it, so I went to the Cava and bought a 13 litre box for 26 euros (about $3 a litre). I had had the wine at Kay and Jimmy's so knew I liked it.

Today, Nikki had invited me to the monthly lunch of the Air Crews Club. This organization exists in a number of countries and here is made up of previous RAF members though many also flew commercially upon leaving the military. It was held at the Hillview Restaurant which sits right at the top of Pissouri. Nikki and John picked me up and introduced me around when we reached the restaurant. We had drinks and then sat for a presentation by a military historian on the Manhattan Project. I learned more than I needed to know about the science, organization and effects of the bombs dropped on Japan. Then we had a delicious meal. We, again, pre-ordered from an e-mailed menu.  I chose Spinach Soup and Chicken Breast in a Honey, Wine and Mustard Sauce. It was yummy and served with roast potatoes, broccoli, carrots and glazed zucchini. I passed on the desserts as I was too full to even finish the chicken (I got a doggy bag). There were lots of interesting people to talk to who had been posted to or had traveled to a variety of places. A surprising number were also sailors and raved about the coast of Turkey for sailing. They said that Croatia has been discovered and is now spoiled, over traveled and expensive while Turkey is still unspoiled and reasonably priced.

The view from the restaurant. It was a miserable day, weatherwise, pouring rain at times and generally overcast. This view would be much better in the sun.

Cyprus - Kourion

Continuing on from yesterday's post, it was a short drive from the Stadium to the Kourion archaeological site, which sits on a hill beside the sea, not far from the city of Lemesos. The ticket office is on the road at the bottom of the hill, where you pull over, park, walk up to the office, then back to the car and the guard opens the gate. What a cumbersome process and it must be a real bottleneck in the summer. Other than that it is a very well organized site - there's a visitors centre with a model, small book/gift store, washrooms, vending machines. smooth paths (wheel chair accessible), covered mosaics, braille signage and shaded benches to look at the views. There was a tour bus in the parking lot but it's a big enough site that I saw very few other people.

As I started to explore, it started to drizzle so I was pleased that the first complex was covered.

Hard to tell from this photo but the villa would have had a commanding view from the hilltop, across a lush bit of coastal plain to the sea.

The rain was getting on to some of the mosaics

making them brighter and clearer.

Still raining, I slipped the hood up on my raincoat and made my way from  the covered villa (that wooden roof on the left of the photo) to the theatre close by.

It has been completed restored and is used for community concerts and events. It would be fabulous to see something here, with the Mediterranean as a backdrop. You would need to bring a cushion to sit on. I assume the Romans did too.

It was a short walk to the next monument and I noticed that Cyclamen  were growing wild all over the hill.

This was labeled "The Earthquake House". Cyprus became Roman in 50BC. This house is dated at late first or second century AD but was destroyed by the 4th Century earthquake that destroyed so much of the islands buildings. The excavations revealed every day life in Kourion at that time and the finds are housed in a museum in Episkopi, nearby. That's for another day.

From here I could look down on Kourion Beach and along the coast towards Pissouri.

I have been told that as winter moves into spring

I will see more and more colour. This nasty looking bush is in bud and looks like it will be a mass of yellow flowers soon.

This one is already covered in pale purple blossoms.

At the highest point on the hill

there was a lookout and you could see

all of this huge site from up there.

Next up; the Early Christian Basilica, built in the beginning of the 5th Century AD. This was a huge Cathedral, in the Roman style with mosaic floors

and extensive use of marble for statues, floors,

walls and other architectural elements.

From here an even better view of the beach

and the cliffs.

Next I moved on to the House of the Gladiators

named due to the subjects of the mosaics there.

Further down the path, the House of Achilles. I had seen this from the road as I approached the site.

Back up the path to a huge excavated area, starting with the public baths.

Though many contemporary cultures see bathing as a very private activity conducted in the home, bathing in Rome was a communal activity. While the extremely wealthy could afford bathing facilities in their homes, most people bathed in the communal baths thermae. In some ways, these resembled modern-day spas. The Romans raised bathing to high art as they socialized in these communal baths.
(from Wikipedia)
They had steam baths, hot baths, warm, cool and cold baths as well as rooms for massage and relaxation.
A key invention in the history of baths was the hypocaust which was invented at the end of the 2nd century BC. Though evidence of the floor heating systems exists in earlier models, it seems that the Romans really developed and perfected this technology. The invention of the hypocaust caused bathing to take off as a cultural phenomenon. The hypocaust is a furnace, and the hot gasses from the hypocaust were allowed to circulate in a 2 foot space beneath the floors of the baths. The floor was usually supported by pillars of bricks, terracotta or stone, with 0.6 meter square tiles resting on top. Chimneys and pipes circulated the hot air through the space under the floor so that the fire from the furnace never touched the floor of the baths. Later on, Romans began to make the walls of the baths hollow allowing the hot gasses to circulate within the walls, after heating the floor, heating them to about body temperature (from Wikipedia)

This was, by far, the largest bathing complex I had seen yet.

The entrance to the baths was at the end of the Agora, the public market place. Here there would have been shops and stalls down each side of the open, paved area.

Of the 16 marble columns found in this area, 6 were found in situ.

This was a huge cistern with pipes to it and settling ponds. It was lined with a waterproof plaster. They would have needed a lot of water for the population and those baths. Though I did find an article about criticisms of the baths from local Romans, that the water wasn't changed often enough and that you shouldn't bath if you had an open wound as it would get infected.

By now I was ravenous and went down to the only restaurant open on the beach. I had a "Cypriot Breakfast" - bacon, fried eggs, a spicy sausage, grilled haloumi and a salad. Food was good but the service was terribly slow.

From my seat inside I could watch a group of fisherman pulling in fish after fish in the pouring rain.

By the time I finished eating the rain had stopped and it was getting brighter.

My drive home was through periods of sun interspersed with torrential rain.