It's been a long time since we were last on the island of Aphrodite (11 years and 10 months in fact), and it was wonderful to bring the whole family back to my birthplace, and share some of my memories, while making new ones.
Plus, sun.
My photos have uploaded completely back to front, so no better reason than to start at the very end: Pafos.
Pafos: not a place we stayed in for long the last time, so it was good to discover it a bit more in-depth by starting and finishing here. The closer we got to Easter, the more full it got of northern, White people, but when we were off the main drag, it had a fun vibe (and cool accommodation). But overall, it's clearly a place where small local housing is being replaced by brand new luxury apartment blocks and hotels, and the ways of life are also changing. The whole place feels developed, burgeoning and commercial - not how I remember Cyprus.
We still love Pafos.
So, starting at the end, we finished our last day in Cyprus with a sunny but very windy day along the hotel-clustered waterfront:
Aphrodite's Rock: we were blown away. The Rock stayed put.
We stopped off for a few days in my birth city of Limassol:
And visited our old Church:
Old School:
Old home:
And Lady's mile beach:
As well as Episkopi:
And Kolossi Castle (all old haunts):
And this was the hotel El Puma found for us!
Stavrovouni Monastery (boys only):
With fabulous views all around:
Hala Sultan Mosque, the third most important mosque in Islam:
We spent a day in the north of Cyprus. It was actually almost a relief after the construction and commercialisation of the south:
We had decided to spend a few days in Troodos. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so great and we are actually cold for the 2 nights we were there. I can imagine in the heat of the summer it's quite a relief.
We followed some hiking paths and wandered through the pines - although on one day we had to hide from the unexpected hail under them.
Coral Bay:
Last time we were here, we said we would explore a bit more to the north of Pafos, so on this trip we visited Polis and walked around Aphrodite's Baths:
But our first stop was Pafos:
And a lovely hotel with a pool!
Summing up our time in Cyprus:
