Sunday 5th June - Limassol, Cyprus

A new port for me, although Peter has been here before, and doesn't remember it. 

When I was looking through t'nternet, at trip advisor etc, Limassol is nice enough, but it doesn't have any sort of stand out features to it.  The best thing to do whilst you're here is to visit Kourion, an archeological site about 10 miles away from the cruise terminal.  There weren't any tours specifically to that site, and we are not supposed to use public transport at the moment, so that idea was put aside for this visit.

Instead, we got the shuttle bus into the old town and went for a wander. 

The first thing we came across was Limassol Castle, an unassuming square block not far from the shuttle bus drop off point.  It didn't look that inviting to be honest, and we weren't sure where the entrance was or if we should go in.  We did find a sign that said get your tickets, 4.5 euros, so we thought what the heck.

What a surprise.  For something that looked like just a square block from the outside, there turned out to be three floors.  The fort was built on top of a church, which was built on top of a church etc. The fort was also a museum exhibiting amonst other things a headless skeleton, loads of carved tombstones, pottery, silver and weapons. 

Clay hand grenades!

 

There was also the top level of the fort, with views of the surrounding city.

 After the walk, we found the cathedral, but there was a service going on, so we kept out of the way. 

We wandered along a few streets and eventually found ourselves on the main pedestrian boulevard along the sea front.  We took a walk along it until the end, from where we could see a very busy beach.  

We decided that we didn't want to paddle with that lot, and that it would be better to soak our feet over the breakwater. We scrambled over the wall and boulders to eventually sit with our feet in the waves. Lovely and cool.

We walked back more or less the way we came, stopping at a restaurant called Red, where we enjoyed panini twists with pesto and sun dried tomato dip.  Really really nice. 

Further down the boulevard we experimented with our camera on a couple of fountains, before eventually arriving back at Limassol Marina and our nearby shuttle bus pick up point.

Arty photo

 

A pleasant day all in all.  Would definitely go back for those pannini rolls, but Limassol itself did not leave a lasting impression.

Back on board - the ship set sail and then dropped anchor outside our next port, Paphos, at about 10.30pm.  Nice views from the balcony.