Exploring by car

Trooditissa Monastery

Today was available for some exploration beyond Larnaca to places that we aren’t going to later on in the trip.  I had hoped to get a rental car with the backup plan being going to Limassol by bus.

We managed to get a car reasonably cheaply at EUR40 for the day.  We had little success finding something reasonable for just a day in advance and also on the ground when we asked around.  But fortunately, we found one!

We picked up the car around 0830.  I noticed the photo of a Christian saint on the wall of the office with Arabic writing saying St Anthony.  I struck up a conversation with the man who is Beirut.  I asked how the city is after the port explosion due to stored fertiliser.  Well, he lost his house and his job as an accountancy lecturer as the campus was partially flattened.  That’s a pretty awful story.

The little Toyota Aygo wasn’t the best car to have.  It was about a 2h drive, on the motorway first and then windy mountain road, to get to Trooditissa Monastery.  At around 1200m above sea level, we were at a pleasant 26 degC in the shade of the monastery walls.

This monastery isn’t highly-touristed and didn’t provide any wraparounds to cover our legs.  We had brought a change of long pant but with no one around, I snuck into the main church briefly while Kim stayed outside.

The monastery has origins in the 12^th Century as seen by some old rock walls.  However, a large portion have freshly plastered walls.  Likewise with the roof tiles.

We had considered going to the Kykkos monastery but it would add a 90 min journey roundtrip to our day.

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Around the Akrotiri area

From the monastery, it was about an hour’s drive to Aphrodite’s Rock (Petra tou Romiou). According to legend, it is the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love.  For us, it’s a gorgeous spot to look at and to swim.  Unfortunately, it was far too early in our excursion to get wet and salty.

Expecting a tourist trap at the nearby eatery, we headed to the next town Pissouri where we shared a light lunch.  Last night’s rich dinner had filled us right up and perhaps the heat had also curbed our appetite.

I was impressed by the multi-lingual staff there.  They looked local enough, spoke with strong British accents in English, Arabic and also a language I couldn’t understand (presumably Greek).

The continuation of our drive took us in and out of British territory in the Akrotiri area.  We ended up at Kolossi Castle around 1400.  This cube-like castle was built by Crusaders in 1454 but earlier versions of the castle existed as early as 1210.

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Quick visit to Aya Napa

It was only 20 mins drive to Limassol where I showed Kim around the marina, old town and waterfront area through the windscreen.  He would have loved to see some of the gorgeous boats in the marina but parking proved too difficult.

We drove through most of the length of Limassol’s waterfront before joining the motorway to Aya Napa at the far eastern end of the island that’s not under Turkish control.

The area was very different from Larnaca’s waterfront.  There were lots of younger people, shirtless, bare butt-cheeks here whereas Larnaca seemed more family-oriented.  There were many tacky shops and restaurants too.  This is probably party central.  On the roads, there were many stretched limos.

We went off the main road to the beaches and were surprised that they weren’t very nice.  Rocky and with today’s onshore wind, very choppy.  I had expected such a large resort area would have been built around the best beaches.

We returned to our area to return the car and swim in our better slice of the Mediterranean around 1745.

We finished our long day with dinner at Alexander again.  Despite ordering less food and less pricey drinks, they still offered us free dessert.