Cyprus

Limassol…day 1

It’s now Day 7 of our trip and so far we’ve seen and done a lot. We have to maximize the time we have left here…so these next couple of days are going to be a mix of seeing family, sights and the beach. Gotta fit it all in, right? Today, we are going to meet up with my Yiayia’s Goddaughter Marina. First, we wanted to see a few sights….so first up was the Sanctuary of Apollo Ylatis. This is the ruins of a 7th Century BC shrine to the sun-god Apollo as well as areas marked clearly for dormitories for Pilgrims traveling through, ancient baths, a portico, gymnasium, gardens, etc. There was much to explore, so let’s get down to some pictures:

There was much to see here. Mom did a great job of maneuvering around all of the rocks and steps with her back. Dad found a ‘throne’ to sit on with ‘his queen’:

And Alex found a small cave to explore:

From inside, this is what you see:

We could only guess what the area was used for. As we walked around, we were all amazed that this place was in such great shape for being built 25 centuries ago!:

And yet, we can’t even get a bridge built in America! Alex was in rare form today:

Yup…that’s MY kid. Anyway….we started down the ‘forbidden road’ to Apollo’s temple:

And apparently, Keith was in rare form too:

The columns were a re-creation built in the 1980’s to give an idea of what the entire structure would have looked like:

The rest was the real deal:

From here, there are 2 ‘roads’ that originally led to Paphos to the west and Kolossi Castle to the east. We saw Paphos earlier this week, so our next stop was the Castle. Mom, Dad & Thea were tired, so they stayed at the cafe close by while the rest of us went to explore the Castle:

This was a well kept castle smack dab in the fertile valley…it was originally built in 1210 AD and used by the Knights of Jerusalem but were sacked several times over the years. This iteration was from 1454. It was 3 stories tall with a drawbridge (originally) as the entrance:

The pulley system on the door was crazy!:

Once you walk inside, this fresco was the first thing you see:

WOW! Then you turn and can see the rest of the room, which originally had paintings on the walls before it was destroyed in the sacking and looting:

Beautiful! We walked around a bit on this level, then went up the stairs:

Yes, they did make us dizzy going up (and back down). I imagine how those who were in full armor felt having to go up and down those stairs…but I think because this is all they knew, it was just what was done. (The stairs in the Cologne Cathedral in Germany were exactly like this too…all 533 of them!) Once on the roof, you get to see the gorgeous views where they once were able to keep track of what was going on in the fields as well as keep an eye on any enemy ships coming in:

And of course, the defensive arrow slits all along the walls:

Back downstairs, we saw a few more neat things:

This was the Sugar Mill complex..a very big trade back then. From here, it was time to go to Marina’s house. We attempted to find it with the GPS, but as usual, it got us quite lost. We had to have her try to find us in the middle of the city…so NOT fun. Eventually we got there and she had the typical Cypriot spread out for us: breads, cheeses, Greek Coffee, etc. It was a nice visit and before we left town, she took us over to where Yiayia & Papou used to live. This house was where they lived once they went back to Cyprus after their children were out on their own:

Mom & Thea said it had changed quite a bit and did not like the results. We said our good-bye’s to Marina, but not without a quick picture: