Now that IS progress!

 As the news from the "culture war" zone  that is post-Brexit Britain gets worse, Greyrocks salutes its home: A little island that is part of Spain, that is a co-operative partner in the EU!

Not only has it made us welcome and given us the residency card that gives us a few more  rights to move around Europe, but it has really "done the business" for us in terms of Covid vaccinations. Spain was a keen proponent of an EU-wide document showing vaccination. Eventually members agreed that they would each work towards July 1st for a start date. As Greyrocks monitors the Canarian press daily we read that Spain would be ready much earlier. The time difference meant we we were a shade too early on release date, but returning later we logged on, used our digital signatures and received the certificates back by 10 am!  Apparently 10 000 others had got theirs by 2pm. Wow!

"... nice when it's finished!"

 1. Harbour Bus Station

Apparently it used to be like this!

The network of local buses in Paphos is a wondrous thing! It has been vital to Greyrocks and ought to have reduced the number of hire cars; but, of course, it hasn't! It is cheap (EUR1.5 per ride or EUR5 for a day ticket), Covid secure and reliable. The end of the line for most routes is the bus station at the harbour and little port, near to where a lot of the eating and drinking action takes place.  We have now learnt to get off at the stop before that, as our first journey caused us to refit our recently removed face masks to protect us from the dust! There has been major renovation and building work going on since March. The "bus station" has been operating without permanent buildings, suitable surface, delineation, information, seating, pedestrian crossings or shade, and the rest of road traffic is diverted through it because of the archaeological park works (see below) Changing buses has been less than pleasant. Especially dire have been a couple of occasions when night had fallen, and there was no lighting so one struggled between fences, up and down surfaces and round untrimmed foliage! To top it all our bus sneaked out without warning from behind another and we missed it! On Sunday we took the 603B and it stopped along the road beyond the terminus. There were to be three days of even worse disruption whilst resurfacing was taking place! It was completed on time, but with only half open, and then on Friday there it was: fully delineated, and with signs of further improvement. In the space of that day some seats and awnings arrived! The surrounding roads and pavements are still a mess, but hey!

2. That thing in the Archaeological Park

WTF?

Paphos was the European Capital of Culture in 2017. Kato Paphos- also the resort area - is dominated by its archaeological remains, which are impressive, and our visits there are the subject of a subsequent post. As our frequent bus trips with their long detours took us near various bits of the "park" we were intrigued by disjointed but similar iron structures. 

We speculated for days before Mr Google informed as that it was "The Kato Paphos Bridge". The rationale for this is shown in the current free (French) plan of the archaeological park! The North-South road is a key and very busy route that bisects the site. The bridge will link the two parts for paying visitors as a pedestrian path (not as once suggested a monorail!) During the works the road through is closed causing hold-ups and bus detours, and only the western section of the park is open. Greyrocks found this out when trying to make their visit.

We had thought we could get in at a gate halfway up, but No! We had already unknowingly experienced another effect of the closures, when we decided to take a stroll down memory lane by locating "The Handkerchief Tree", which featured in all our three previous visits *Xmas 89, 90 and 91). This is part of the St Solomon's Catacombs, and will be incorporated into the park "when the work is over", but is currently free and reasonably accessible. Our two photos and this Trip Advisor comment say it all! 

Where's your Hankie?"

   3. Apartment Blocks in "Universal"

We are now into our second week at the "economy" accommodation that follows the "luxury" half of the seven week stay! It is in a part of Paphos known strangely as "Universal". It is not near the sea, the bus service is hourly (with gaps") , shopping is limited to quite a lot of convenience stores, and we have only recently found a restaurant-bar within a ten minute walk. But we like it!!! It is definitely another instance of "work in progress", with dozens of building sites - mostly apartment blocks with glass-fronted balconies. We have not expressed an interest!

 

On the planet for as long as Keo beer!

A Good Year!

 Several buses in the Paphos fleet have a complete exterior side celebrating 70 years of dominance in the Cyprus market for this iconic brew! The precise same anniversary for Ruth happened during Greyrocks' ten-day extended stay in the Paphos hotel. We have now moved on to simpler accommodation, but "more on that later"! She joined the extensive band of those whose special dates could not be celebrated as anticipated because of the pandemic and restrictions. In Ruth's case add the effect of *************** Brexit!

There should have been a modest "do" in a South London garden. That became a restaurant meal for six in Bristol, and then to avoid self-isolation in England, and because of the 90-day rule it had to be in a non-Schengen country such as Cyprus, with just Greyrocks involved! We did our best! We began with Bucks Fizz on the balcony, then breakfast in the usual (good) buffet deviating from the previous 21 mornings by having omelettes cooked to order. 

We spent much of the day beside and in the pool, and Demis the barman offered us two beers on the house. We popped out to the British-themed restaurant down the prom and after the modest bacon sandwich we were brought with some ceremony a decorated warm brownie with ice cream to share! In the evening we dined at a local Italian, and afterwards went to our hotel bar hoping to find someone for whom to buy a round. Deserted! But the Romanian barman there gave Ruth a free traditional brandy sour! 

And now we are both septuagenarians.

Cyprus in a pitta shell - part 2!

 During our Christmas visits 1989-92 we stayed in a modest complex of apartments in a perfect position on Kato Paphos (that is the "lower" part of town near the small harbour) On our walks with the buggy we would marvel at the only big hotel - the Annabelle - which was at the start of a run of small beaches. This part of the coast of 1.7 km now houses 20 huge hotels with a very pleasant dog-free promenade between them and the sea.  Half of them are fully closed at the moment, and some clearly have very few guests. Just three companies between them own almost all. Some are 5* and some 4*, and there are some very elegant designs, novel features to the pools. and flash styles of sunbed on concrete or grass; but that is where guests will do their sunbathing, since the "beaches" - which are all public are "nothing to write home about"! Rocks, weed and tricky access are a deterrent - even where one's "native" hotel has installed bits of furniture (which is private) The serried ranks of the sunbeds at the big hotels is one of the reasons we feel lucky to be in the rather smaller place where we spent 23 nights. It is reviewed on booking.com The other is the distance from the social centre.

The quest for half-decent beaches continues, We found Rikko Beach and went on consecutive Sundays. It is the only place where we have wanted to enter the sea! A longer bus ride took us to Coral Bay, which was more promising in natural terms but had no facilities or furniture, and a lot of messy work going on in preparation. We had passed a very brash set of bars etc, so we moved on a bus stop or two, had a beer and a long chat with a waitress of British descent and took the bus back! More recently we tried Faros (lighthouse) Beach. An interesting area with the archeology, old lighthouse and coastal path - but the beach? It was a warm day and people were trying to get into the sea and coming straight out. We will struggle on from our new accommodation, We realised that during those three previous holidays on the island the weather was so bad, and the offspring so young that none of this mattered! We also recalled that this time we had seen some of what Larnaca has to offer and it looked "normal" seaside standard! We might have to go East next time: Agia Napa beckons!

What cannot be denied is that the weather has been glorious! On one day there was a spot of rain, and on about three or four there has been cloud cover worth noting. The wind is predominantly from the West, and can get a bit frisky, but Greyrocks spends most of the year in either Fuerteventura or SW Crete:- both renowned for wrecking people's holidays with fierce and continual wind! It was a relief to leave behind that evil North wind, and we conclude that Cyprus has a somewhat longer sunny season than Crete.

With the revised schedule we are just about halfway through our extended stay and still smiling!