Tuesday 15th May Yet another day of hard visiting. After a basic breakfast we invested in day tickets for the local bus network & went down to the harbour bus station & then caught another to the 'Tombs of the Kings' archaeological site which covers about a square kilometre of tombs of varying sizes excavated & tunnelled into the limestone with multiple rooms. The fashion began in about 300 BC & was strongly influenced by Egyptian practises o...

Monday 14th May After a very spartan breakfast in the room we walked down the road to the tour pick up point. One thing the Cypriots all seem to be is punctual & at 8am 3 buses turned up & we joined ours to go to the bus station. Here we divided into 2 groups, one for Russian speakers & the other for English speakers. After some careful consideration we joined the latter group as we knew our Russian was pretty poor. The bus took off & picke...

Saturday 12th May We both slept well & thought we should get out early to visit Kourion, an ancient abandoned Roman town set in hills above a fine small plain. Mistake one was that nothing was open before about 8.30. We had walked round all the cafes but none would serve us as they were setting up for the day. Eventually we managed to get orange juices across the road & we set off to find the local bus depot after a couple of false starts as street ...

Thursday 10th May Up & off to catch a bus to Kyrenia/Girne on the northern coast. The bus went back towards Nicosia before turning north to cross a range of rugged mountains to the coast. Kyrenia is dominated by a huge castle which protects the small harbour full of pleasure & tour boats. We arrived at about mid day & walked a long way with our cases before realising that we had passed close to the hotel some way before as the map didn't have t...

Monday 7th May Woke up to a clear sky & a lovely day so went to a café for breakfast. Jane had seen a walking tour listed for 10am starting at the Ledra St tourist office so off we went, only to find an information booth telling us it started elsewhere. Off we trotted & limped but it was too late we thought. Jane spotted a small group of followers which we caught up with & to our surprise & joy this was the tour group. The group arrived at ...