6 April, 2023

We wake up early at around 7:30 am local time and it is a beautiful sunny day. The maximum temperature forecast for today is a very mild 19 Deg C with a low of 12 Deg C. It already feels much warmer than that.

True to her word, Lynn heads down to the gym at 8:00 am while I take a shower and catch up on some emails. I also checked out the blog and found that when Lynn edited the blog in the Belfast airport hotel she didn’t save it correctly so I had to rewrite 3 days of the blog. NOT HAPPY!

We chose to have breakfast al fresco this morning to take advantage of the beautiful weather.

Lynn wants to walk to the harbour via the coastal walking path after breakfast then back along the streets to look for a suitable laundromat for later in the week and again for just before we leave Cyprus.

We walk past a number of beach resorts on the way but ours seems to be better than most. The pathway is quite busy but we can’t imagine how busy it could be at the height of tourist season. It is about 3 km to the harbour but with a cool sea breeze it is very pleasant.

At the harbour there is an archeological park which is more a tourist attraction than a serious dig site. At the harbour is an old fortress called Paphos Castle on the original harbour sea wall.

The castle was originally a Byzantine fort, the castle was rebuilt throughout the years and used as a prison and warehouse. Now it is a tourist attraction. Not quite in the same league as the Alexandria Fort in Egypt.

All along the harbourside are bars and restaurants all touting for business. We will probably come down here for dinner a couple of times this week just to say we ate here.

There are also lots of tourist boat tours, hire cars, etc operators along the harbour foreshore but Lynn is on a mission to find a laundromat in town, which frankly is a doomed mission as there is no way that I am lugging two bags of laundry 3 km from the hotel when there is one close to the hotel.

After faffing about for half an hour walking the back streets of Paphos Harbour looking for an illusive laundromat I have had enough and head back to the hotel via the main road where I know that there will be a number of laundromats. Chances are that there will be one near the University which is only about 300 meters from our hotel.

I was correct. Although I found two laundromats within 1 km of our hotel I found one at the University just around the corner. I was back and cooling off in our room for about half an hour before Lynn returned.

I have proven again that there is no need to turn a task in to a career. That is a couple of hours of my life that is wasted. I could have been having a cold, cheap beer down by the harbour.

When Lynn finally returns we head to the pool with the intention to cool off and lay in the sunshine to try and get some colour in our very pale English skins.

I crept up to my waist in the pool but it was way too cold for me. Lynn managed a full lap before returning to the sunny spot on the sunbeds to warm up. I think the only swimming while we are here will be in the indoor heated pool.

While we were wondering about the harbour this afternoon I noticed a steak restaurant that was reasonably priced. It has been a long time since I have had a good thick steak as the prices for wafer thin steaks in the UK are almost three times what we would pay in Oz.

Lynn had a steak salad which she advised was very good. Mine was an aged T Bone and very thick. I asked for it to be cooked rare but it was more like blue than rare. Still it was very tender and very big. That should last me for steak until after we return from the Scandinavian trip where I suspect that the only red meat there will be reindeer.

The sun is just setting as we hike back to the resort and twilight seems to hang around for quite a while. It is getting chilly in the evening air.

Back at our room Lynn notices that she has walked 21,493 steps or the equivalent of 13.97 km. I am tired just thinking about it.

7 April, 2023

It is going to be 21 Deg C today and Lynn is up at 7:00 am this morning for her gym and early morning walk. I am lucky to be up by 8:00 am. Lynn took a walk to the left side (as you face the sea) of the resort this morning and ended up at a tiny Greek Chapel.

As she does, she goes inside to check it out. It is Easter Good Friday today but the Greek Orthodox Easter is not until next Friday so the church is empty this morning.

Another beautiful day out so again we ate breakfast al fresco in the warm sunshine. So nice not to be hunkered down due to cold driving rain and wind.

After breakfast we headed down across the walkway to the far edge of the resort to find a couple of sun beds right by the sea. The plan is to make sure that we don’t get our now non-Ozzie skin sunburnt. I checked out the sea water but it still too cold for a swim plus there are way too many rocks amongst the coarse sand. Still, the water is crystal clear but free of any sea life. The Med is quickly becoming the Dead Sea.

I think that we managed to get slightly burnt today but Lynn has a thick coverage of factor 50 sunscreen on. Not sure that it will help her very pale complexion.

It is still a warm evening when we walked less than 100 m to the ‘Tea for Two’ Restaurant down the main road behind the resort. Neither of us was very hungry so Lynn had a tuna mayo baked spud and I have a moussaka and salad. They were excellent but still way too big. The restaurant has some amazing ice cream desserts but by the time I downed a fabulous chocolate thick shake we had yet again over done it. At least we by passed the beer and wine tonight.

8 April, 2023

Lynn developed a head cold over the past few days. She blames it on a passenger behind her that sneezed a few times during the flight to Paphos. I think that she caught it before we left. Anyway, she managed to keep me awake most of the night last night so I am exhausted by the time we head to breakfast at 9:30 am.

It is cold and cloudy this morning so we can’t lay by the pool to rest up so I head back to bed while Lynn goes to the pharmacy for some cold meds. We still need to book some activities for while we are here in Cyprus so it may be a job for later this afternoon while this last blast of winter curtails our activities at the resort.

We are now both feeling like crap and I really can’t be bothered eating so Lynn heads out for a toastie and brings me back a milkshake. I hate wasting a day in a new country but luckily the weather is also crap so it is off to bed early tonight.

9 April, 2023

Another dull day here in Paphos and although we are both feeling unwell we manage a light breakfast and we turn up for the Cyprus wine tasting at the downstairs bar at 11:00 am.

The wine tastes quite bad but maybe it’s the medication (although we are not the only dissenters).

Despite the wine being less than ordinary the local port is very drinkable. Not that we drink port these days. We need a coffee after the wine tasting to ease the pain to our palates.

After a quiet couple of days we need to take a walk so we head off along the beach front to the Greek Chapel. It is not far away but there is a threat of rain so we are back inside a half hour.

One of the hotel activities this afternoon at 2:00 pm is lawn bowls. Since it is starting to rain the game has been moved indoors. Unlike my parents I am not a big fan of bowls. Possibly because I have a bad twitch in my right hand that causes me to turn my wrist over when bowling underarm. Lynn however, like her father, is very good at bowls so we sign up for an afternoon of “ends”.

I put more bowls in the gutter than on the green stuff but Lynn was the best of our group. It was a bit of fun but not something that I plan to take up when we stop traveling.

10 April, 2023

We are both feeling a little better this morning, or it might be the drugs that Lynn bought at the pharmacy. Still, we have washing to do today so we head down town after breakfast to the laundry. Kristia, the laundry owner will do our two large bags of laundry by 3:00 pm this afternoon so we will use the two trips as our exercise for the day.

On the way back to the hotel after dropping off the laundry we notice that there is a medical centre across the road from our hotel so Lynn considers making an appointment to try and get more blood pressure medication. While standing outside the practice somebody from the practice asks if we need to see the doctor. ‘Are they touting for business in Cyprus?’ I think to myself. We tell him that we are considering get a prescription for meds and he advises that Cyprus, like Spain, doesn’t require a prescription for ongoing pharmaceuticals. Since there is a pharmacy almost next door to the laundry we will stop in this afternoon before we collect the laundry.

Back at the resort we manage a couple of hours on the sunbeds before it starts to rain again. By then it is time to head to the laundry via the pharmacy. How bad are things getting that going to the pharmacy and the laundry is noteworthy? Still we manage to stock up on pharmacy items so that we have sufficient stock to last until we are due back in Brisbane in the third quarter of next year. Also Kristia has done a great job on the laundry and only charges us Eu20.00 in total.

This evening we are invited to a cocktail party as new guests of the hotel. The only cocktail offered is a Brandy Sour which is very strong and almost drinkable. The other option is a sort of sparkling local wine which probably doesn’t rate as the latter. Some finger food is offered and we chat to a couple from Leeds in the UK who are regulars to Cyprus. They have made the trek on at least 8 occasions.

11 April, 2023

The wind has whipped up from the west this morning and although it is sunny the wind is very cold. We are well enough today to start to do a few more activities. First up is a Cyprus version of French Boules. This Cyprus version is held on artificial turf on a concrete base. Lynn and I are teamed up as Team Australia and we easily take our heats to be in the finals with an Englishman and his daughter. The Ashes of Cypritic Boules…

As usual Lynn has a brilliant round and we defeat the Poms 2 nil.

Next we line up again for a Cyrpus version of shuttle board. Again the Aussies win the heats and are in the finals. We find out that the same Poms are our opponents. Lynn again smashes it and we are assured of a win but it all seems a bit unfair so I drive my chuck hard and give the game to a very happy father and his 9-year-old daughter.

With all this sunshine and cool wind we decide to walk the 3 km to the Kato Paphos Archaeological Park. Lynn wants to check out the ruins. Since we are seniors we get in for free. The site is not particularly well signposted and really nowhere in the same league as other sites in Greece but the mosaics are very fine and in good condition.

Some of the mosaics were on the paths underfoot of the tourists, some just outside in the sun but a few were well protected inside a modern structure.

The mosaics were so detailed it was hard to imagine that they weren’t artworks.

Many of the excavations have been covered with sand again as this site is very exposed to the sea and shifting sands from the nearby beach.

After checking out the main dig site and the mosaics we headed to the headland about 500 meters further on. From here you can see Kefalos Beach and downtown Paphos. It reminds us of Athens. A harsh, densely- populated concrete city. If we manage to get a hire car next week we may drive through downtown Paphos but it is not worth walking to from here.

We reached the lighthouse on the headland then Lynn tried to find the ancient amphitheater but she took us the wrong way but eventually we doubled back to find it just under the lighthouse.

It is time to walk the 3 km back to the resort. I am in desperate need of ice cream. Although it is not that hot, the wind has dried us out so we stopped in at our favourite cafe near the hotel. I have be wanting to try out their banana split since our first dinner here but have never been able to fit it in. Today is the day.

When the “to be shared” banana split arrives Lynn informs me that she hates banana ice cream. A bit late now so she only eats the vanilla ice cream and I get the lion’s share of banana ice cream. We walked over 9.2 km today so we can indulge in a fat attack. Yummy!

We have already been in Cyprus for a week and it feels like we have done very little. Still, most people who come to Cyprus come for the weather and to relax by the seaside. We have certainly done that so the plan for the second week is to go and see a bit more of the country.

On the way out to dinner tonight we stop on the way to the restaurant at a tour and hire car agent and ask about renting a car. The agent is not very helpful and just tells us that they have no stock. I have also made an online inquiry but also had no response. Maybe this island lifestyle has the locals in a “can’t be bothered” mode.

Tomorrow I will stop in at the Car Rental shop that is near the laundry.