Cyprus

Hi all,

We drove off to Manchester airport and headed to the sun ( we hoped). Arrived late and in the dark so did not see much on the minivan trip in.
Arrived at the hotel large white and seemed  really nice
 sadly there was no food available except for cheese and ham sandwhiches but iot was 9.30 at night . First impressions was that there were a lot of retired as people in the bar and foyer.
We went on full board so got three full buffet meals each day and all the alcohol we could drink. I had a couple of cocktails the first night but they were horrendously strong and I did not feel good at all .
Next day the sun shone so we headed down for breakfast, a nice selection of hot and cold buffet food. Filled up then headed out to explore the hotel ( joined in the archery and boules with the entertainments person and guests).

Then off to the local beach where we sat and enjoyed the warmth.
Walked around the area it is very quiet being off season but you could see that a lot of people must come as there were big carparks and lots of holiday home.
Over the next few days we visited the local town Pafos and and the roman ruins with fabulous mosaics. Sadly it rained really heavily and we had to hide in the mosaics building.

 On another day we went to Lemasos which was a bit disappointing and did not have much to look at.

Also a day trip we thought to ta beach/ cute fishing port.... sadly the bus dropped us on top of a hill miles from any sea.  we had 6 hours till the bus came back so walked in the direction of the sea  i e down hill. Actually and nice walk through masses of mandarin orchards ( a few I had straight off the tree yummy) .

Finally found a sign saying beach and camp so we headed that way sadly it was a boggy path  really muddy and yucky and the camp had been abandoned for winter except for what looked like homeless peoples camp site. ( not happy ) finally emerged onto a beach but it was fine gravel ( the sort you have in the bottom of a budgie cage) so it stuck to our feet and acted like sand paper. We headed up the beach passing a pill box stuck in the sea. P decided we should change direction as we seemed to be heading no where. Good choice as we came across a really good paved beach path. Walked along that for an hour and came to a fishing port, not cute but brand new.  Stopped for coffee and a snack. We then headed back up the hill but the cafe owner had told us we could wave a bus down if we saw one. Luckily for us one went by and gave us a ride to the top
( turned out to be a long way). Still a long time till the bus due so we found a bar and watched the foot ball and had the coffee in the photo.
Finally the bus came back and we headed back to Pafos and then the hotel.
Every night we had entertainment at the hotel ( and bingo  yes it really was a retirement home)
we had Greek dancing, three men and lots of oom pa
a cabaret with four dancing girls doing a range of what seemed like zumba with a lot of changes of costume.
karaoke
casino man did not show up because of the heavy rain.

photos of our trip 

We went to the Tombs of the Kings world heritage site ( no kings just rich people ) they had dug out masses of the stone in this area and built underground tombs, it was fascinating walking about and must have been amazing when it was a working area and a lot more colourful and full of activity.

A nice place to visit but more sun would have been nice.