A blog about sewing, cooking, and all those other great domestic things, except cleaning bathroons!!!!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Cyprus, June 2012


We started our trip by going to Zurich on Saturday night by train.  We stayed in a hotel near the airport.  Pierre was happy to finally relax while watching....



football! (It's Euro time)



The next morning we heard a very loud noise getting closer and closer and when we looked out the window this is what we saw.  We were right near the landing strip.



We were also at the corner of these two streets.....



The person who came up with these two street names was obviously preoccupied with his digestive system.



We're off.......







When we got to Larnaca airport we picked up our rental car and when I got in I felt there was something missing!


Here is my fearless husband driving on the wrong side of the car.....and the road.
But, it was worth it because as we got off the wrong side of the freeway we were greeted with....





this,



and this.  Our hotel in Ayia Napa.



The next day we went exploring at the Cape Gkreko in the southeast of the Island. It is a tip that juts out into the sea.  It's like a state park that you drive into. There wasn't alot there but cliffs and...





this!   Pierre called this "Suzette's swimming pool". We went down on some rocks and were able to swim right out into the water




It was just beautiful!

Here's our rock.  We were really all alone, it was so peaceful. I didn't think it was possible to find a place without tons of people, but we noticed that most people like to stay at the hotels and public beaches.  Luckily for us!
A tree we saw on the side of the road

A Greek Orthodox church in Paralimni, a little town north of  Cape Gkreko. We really didn't sight see much, this church was on the town square where we stopped to have a beer before lunch.

In the afternoons we went back to the hotel to sit on the beach (here) or by the pool (no picture....too much flabby flesh). 

It was a beautiful beach!


On Wednesday we drove west back to Larnaca airport to return the car.  On our way we took the side roads and accidentally found this little fishing port and restaurant by turning down the wrong road. So we stayed for lunch on this lovely terrace right on the beach. 


This picture is for Dad.  I ate fresh sea bream grilled with olive oil and herbs. Very Yummy!


Then we took a taxi from the airport to arrive at our new hotel in Limasol for Pierre's meeting with the international commitee of the IPA.  We had a huge room!




And this terrace was amazing...



there was even a jacuzzi, but we didn't need it, as Pierre said, there was way enough water for us to be happy


While Pierre was in his meeting I spent the days with Maurice (the secretary's husband that I met for the first time in Ireland many years ago) and Rika ( the Japanese wife of the 1st vice-president, he's French, we first met at their house in Paris last year) We did some visiting in the morning then went to eat lunch in a local tavern with yummy, yummy food (weight watchers??? What's that?) then we went back to the hotel to swim until the others would meet us around 6. Rika and I would stay by the pool and Pierre and Daniel (her husband) would come for a swim with us. Then we had dinner all together with the other members of the commitee.


And even though we are not policemen, in the IPA these are the kind of places that we visit.  The two ladies in this picture were the policewomen who showed us around for two days.


We were riding around in an unmarked police car, when we opened the trunk to put our purchases this is what we found.


We visited an old village called Omodos.  There we visited the Monastary of the Holy Cross.  It was founded by St. Helen in the 4th century. In the reliquary in this photo is a piece of the true cross and in the one behind it there is a piece of cord used to attach Our Lord to the cross.  It was written in the museum that St. Helen stayed in Cyprus for a while and that there are 4 monastaries on the island that she founded and left pieces of the true cross.



Inside the church
St Philip's skull.


Inside the courtyard of the monastary


This was in another village the next day, that blue paint was everywhere!! I loved it.

A little alley way between houses




More blue paint









I can't wait to go back........

My Gardens

 I will start by showing you some pictures of the gardens I took the week before we left for Cyprus. Here is the herb garden by the kitchen. The boys and I used some old wood planks left over from the scaffolding when we built the house.  Needless to say it wasn't too pretty after spending time outside for 11 years.  So, I painted it my favorite blue.
On the left are radishes.  This is what they looked like 2 weeks ago and now they are huge!  I have never had such beautiful radishes.  In the middle under the little structure is a cherry tomato plant. Then I planted thyme, rosemary, cilantro (the guys are so happy about that! Not really, they can't stand it) parsley, basil, and Thai basil, which is actually a lemony basil. It is really yummy in salads.


Here is a little garden with the old planks, filled only with pole beans. In this picture we were in the process of putting strings for them to climb on.  We finished but I am afraid that they are too short. We'll see....

Here are the two original gardens with a third we just built with the rest of the old planks, that is filled only with corn.  The first one in this picture has mint, chives, salad, cucumbers, and Michelle's garlic.  The second one has tomatillos, lemon cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and snow peas.
I will send an update on the growth in a few weeks.