Cyprus: Day 2

I know, I know gentle reader, my honeymoon posts are a bit late but wi-fi in Cyprus was hard.

 

Today we took our first roadtrip of the honeymoon. That is the reason why we hired our car in the first place. We decided to visit Pafos on the west coast of the island and the drive there was smooth and quick. Traffic is very light on Cyprus and every other car was a tourists hire car. You can tell the hire cars from privately owned one by the red license plates.

 

We decided to skip Limassol, you can hear about that another day, and head straight to Pafos. Our first stop was the birthplace of Aphrodite which  is just south of the city.

My Goddess of Love at Aphrodite's birthplace.

The rock itself is a large block of limestone which juts out of the sea just a few meters from the shore. People can swim out to this little island and Lena went for a paddle.

After visiting a towel, two hats  and a Cyprus flag for my collection we headed to Pafos town. First we had lunch at a nice little Taverna called Karlinas and we were actually served by a Scottish lady who had lived on Cyprus for 15 years. Lunch was delicious, Lena had lamb and I had a pork kebab.

 

We then headed to the Tombs of the Kings which is an archaeological wonder about 2500 years old where tombs had been dug directly into the limestone rock. They are splendid examples of ancient history but the lack of shade available made the visit hot and uncomfortable.

The hand-carved Tombs of the Kings at Pafos.

We drove out of Pafos and headed north to a place called Polis where we visited the Baths of Aphrodite. A natural spring with a shallow pool where the Goddess apparently bathed with her lovers. It is a beautiful place, with lush greenery surrounding the pool and views of the Med are amazing from the nearby cliffs.
  

At the little shop we finnaly succumbed and bought a selfie-stick. Those of you who read my  Rome posts back in February will know how I feel about them.

 Selfie stick pose

We decided to drive back to Larnaca and our hotel but Lena asked if we could cut across country through the Troodos Mountains and see some of the wild Cyprus scenery. The road was wild and narrow and twisted between high cliffs and steep valleys. It was incredibly beautiful but a little bit scary too.

Jason proved to be exceptionally helpful at times.

Jason? Who is Jason? I hear you ask. Jason was our GPS Sat Nav system. His help and advice had been invaluable on the trip but today, he let us down. Instead of keeping us on roads he took us completely into the wilds on rocky mountain paths.

After an hour or so of bumps, and tightest of tight bends we ended up back on a tarmacked road and we headed back to the hotel without further incident and arrived there about 11 hours after we left.

#pafos #karlinas #birthplaceofaphrodite #tombsofthekings #bathsofaphrodite
#troodos