Being Creative: 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.