Limassol

After a slow start to the morning we adjourned to the nearest tavern for a cup of coffee before setting off to explore along the Old Road towards Limassol.

Holy Monastery of Christ the Symvoulas

We had no real plan other than to explore whatever seemed interesting! Our first diversion was to a monastery, along a narrow road up a pretty valley.

Just don't tell General Synod!

We arrived at the entrance and quickly realized that we could not both go much further as the main gate sign said little else other than that only men were allowed to go through! There was a small visitor center with a tiny chapel. It was clear that few visitors were expected today. However,we did avail ourselves of their loos!

Remains of baths

Our next stop was at the Sanctuary of Apollan Hylates, a site largely of Roman remains. This was once an important stopping point on the road to Paphos. There were baths, temples and lodging rooms as well as a block of houses,  no doubt for the wealthy.

Temple of Apollo

The tallest remains were two columns of the temple to Apollo, although these may have been re-erected during restoration. The sanctuary suffered at least two big earthquakes and after the one in the fourth century the place was abandoned. Some things are too expensive even for a Roman Emperor.

Houses in Sanctuary

We continued through Episkopi, Colossi and then Akrotiri. We were by then looking for a place to stoop to eat our sandwiches but the route came to an abrupt end when we reached the gates to RAF Akrotiri. An important function of the base was evident by the huge radio aerials all around. No doubt a lot of 'listening' happens through here!

We backtracked to the road signed to the monastery of the cats. However, it did not seem if it welcomed visitors so we turned around and shortly afterwards pulled in to sit with the car windows open. There was a pleasant breeze as we ate our lunch and listened to the somewhat specialized news on BFBS.

We then continued along the coast into Limassol. We were optimistically in pursuit of a tourist information centre. Our map indicated one either side of of the town. The first was supposed to be near to the docks. However we saw nothing resembling such a place - perhaps it was inside the passenger terminal.

We continued along the road to the town centre. Road signs indicated the 'tourist area' ahead but still nothing. We had all but abandoned hope when our destination appeared on he opposite carriageway.

After finding a way of turning back we parked at the beach and proceeded to extract as much useful information as possible from a very helpful lady in the center and we came away with a couple of useful booklets as well.

Queue for Limassol port

From the beach we could see about eight ships queuing to get into the port.

We took the motorway route back. The maximum speed is 100 kph, even less on the section through Limassol. (Actually we later realised that we may have misunderstood some of the signs, speed signs are mostly spot restrictions at bends, intersections or other hazards, but we were not taking any chances!)