Wednesday 21st November 2018 - Homeward bound

It was another early start this morning as we set off for Paphos airport and the journey home. There being little of interest to write about today, I though I would just include a few photos that I didn’t have space to use earlier on.

From Thursday, the first day of the holiday, this is a photo taken out of one of the windows of one of the towers in Kyrenia Castle.

It really shows the thickness of the walls.

On our second day, Friday, we travelled to the west, to Güzelyurt.

This is one of the derelict piers that used to be used for loading the copper ore onto boats. It seems rather sad that copper is no longer mined because the mines are in ‘no man’s land’, but possibly there is little copper left anyway, since it has been mined in the area for thousands of years.

On Saturday we travelled to Nicosia.

This is a photo of the outside of the Great Khan, the caravanserai built in the 16th century which I liked so much. You can see the wonderful chimneys which were used for each of the upstairs rooms so the travellers could light fires and stay warm. By that stage of the day, Paul would have liked a fire to keep warm, he was wearing my cardigan he was so cold!

On Sunday, we visited St Hilarion Castle and Bellapais monastery

This is another view of St Hilarion castle, taken from the middle ward looking down towards the Barbican. You can possibly appreciate the sheer size of the place, when you consider that the middle ward is behind me, and there are two levels above that, the royal apartments and the Prince John Tower.

This is another view of the beautiful gothic cloisters Bellapais Abbey, which was partly destroyed by an earthquake.

Monday was our day of rest, and we spent it looking more carefully round Kyrenia.

This is a view of a typical Cypriot kitchen in times gone by.

On Tuesday, we visited Famagusta and a number of places nearby

These are some of the other beautiful medieval dunks in Famagusta.

After that, we returned exhausted to the hotel to pack for our journey home.

There is little to say about the journey home. It was pleasantly warm in Cyprus - 25C on our last day, and about 10C when we landed in Gatwick. So there was some hasty suitcase opening to put on warmer clothes! 

This was the scene from my bedroom window on Thursday morning

It was a bit of a shock to the system, after lovely holiday weather in Cyprus!