Day 132: Limassol, Cyprus

Thursday, 18 May 2017
At Sea — Mediterranean Sea … En Route to Rhodes

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:30p (EEST) … UTC 6:30p (18 May)
Temp: 69.4F (20.8C)
Position: 35.05.85N / 31.13.87E

Please be a traveler, not a tourist.  Try new things, meet new people, and look beyond what’s
right in front of you. Those are the keys to understanding this amazing world we live in.”
~ Andrew Zimmern ~

Insignia should have been in Alanya, Turkey today … the only Turkish port on the original itinerary … also the only port for which Mui had agreed to plan our activities.  We were both happy to have it on the schedule as neither Mui nor I had been to Alanya in quite a while.  He’d already figured out what we’d be doing in port when we found out in May 2016 that Alanya had been replaced by Limassol, Cyprus.  Disappointed?  Of course.  But at least we were getting a new-to-us port in its stead … and one that had quite a bit to offer in terms of sightseeing.

My one vivid memory about Cyprus goes back to the Greek-Turkish skirmish over the island.  I was in high school then.  I remember military jets flying overhead; my dad painting the headlights of the family car blue so he could drive at night; and blackout curtains in the windows.  After northern Cyprus became the Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus], my parents went to visit the island — just the northern portion.  For some reason, us kids didn’t go on that trip … maybe because we were in school.  The reason doesn’t really matter anyway … those memories are from the past … let’s get on with today.

Originally, Mui and I were just going to get off the ship and go a-wanderin’ in the city — the second largest in Cyprus … officially Lemesos … but still referred to as Limassol.  Then, fellow-RTWer Bill managed to organize a private tour with Ascot Travel Cyprus.  All of the vans were already booked, but Ascot had a 7-passenger Land Rover available … at a cost of €350 + admissions; payable in full in advance.  The itinerary would take us to two of the world-famous Roman era ruins outside the city.  Sounded great to us, so we decided to join Bill and Star … with another couple rounding out our group.

We met up with our tour mates at 7:00a — Insignia’s scheduled time to to dock for a short day in Limassol.  We got off the ship as soon as it was cleared, but were stopped by a couple of guards when we attempted to walk the short distance to the gate.  Apparently walking through the port wasn’t allowed.  OK, so we’ll take the shuttle.  But the shuttle wasn’t scheduled to start running until 8:30a.  Hmmmm!  Long story short, the shuttle showed up early.  A local woman coordinating the departure of the O tours said a few words in Greek to the driver and he agreed to transport those of us gathered on the dock to the shuttle drop off point.  In no time, we found Chris, our driver/guide, waiting for us … and he was driving a minibus instead of a Land Rover.  Excellent … so much more comfortable.

Soon we were driving on deserted streets, heading out of the city.  Our route took us through Akrotiri, the British military base.  Chris said that the Brits came to Cyprus in 1878, leasing the land at the time from the Ottomans.  Our first stop was to have been Kourion, but when we pulled up to the gate we found it still locked.  Turns out the site doesn’t open until 8:30a.  So, we switched the itinerary around and pushed on to start at the furthest point of our tour, making some interim stops along the way.

The first stop was at the site traditionally accepted as being the birthplace of Aphrodite — the goddess of love and beauty.  The spot at which she rose from the sea is marked by the Rock of Romance.  Actually, the name of the rock is Petra tou Romiou [Rock of the Greek], and it is associated with a Byzantine frontier guard who is said to have kept Arab pirates at bay by throwing rocks at them from the nearby hillside.  According to legend, if a woman swims around the rock three times she will become 10 years younger.  None of the women in our group took Chris up on the offer to give it a try … the sky was overcast, the morning temp was cool, and the water was bound to be cold ;-)

The Rock of Romance — and the place where Aphrodite rose from the sea —
is the smaller of the two rocks in the distance.

As we made our way to the next roadside stop we briefly encountered some heavy rain.  Our reward for enduring the wet stuff — a brilliant rainbow with a rather long arch.  The rain was down to a drizzle by the time we arrived at the Catacomb of Solomonis.  The site is where the Romans imprisoned Solomonis — and her seven kids — for preaching Christianity.  When she refused to deny her belief, first her kids were executed and then she was.  This happened around 50AD if I understood Chris correctly.  In the 11th century a church and a shrine were built at the site.  This is what we were here to visit.

Parking on the side of the road, Chris escorted us to a ‘wishing tree’ … on the branches of which small pieces of cloth and paper were tied … each representing the wishes of a visitor.   We went down a short flight of stairs near the tree to find ourselves in a small courtyard.  There were two doorways blocked by wrought iron gates, a couple of other entries that led to the catacombs, and a small cave.  Not much to see really.

A peek through the gate  into the church at the Catacomb of Solomonis.

Our next stop was at Chrysopolitissa … a place of worship since the 4th century.  Today, in addition to visiting Ayia Kyriaki — built in the 16th century and still used for worship (as we found out when we went inside) — one can visit the ruins of three churches that stood on the grounds previously.  Most of the ‘movable’ items that were excavated, however, are in museums.

The first church was an early Christian basilica dating to the 4th century and for which the site is named.  It was the first Episcopal church of Nea Paphos and was constructed using architectural materials from earlier Roman buildings, such as the theater that was abandoned when the church was built.

The second church was another early Christian basilica from two centuries later.  One might describe this as the second phase of the earlier church as it was constructed by drastically renovating and transforming the church that was already on the site.  This church had marble cladding on the lower walls and preserved mosaics and frescoes from the higher reaches of the earlier church.  When the Arabs invaded the area in the mid-7th century, they made some alterations and added Arabic inscriptions invoking the name of Allah for fallen Muslim warriors.  The signage didn’t state it, but I have a feeling that the abandoned basilica was used by the Arabs as a mosque.  This structure collapsed partially during the earthquake of 685 AD.  Afterwards, the area served as a quarry and the materials were reused in the construction of other buildings — both secular and ecclesiastical.  There were even kilns built to render the marble into lime.

Within the ruins of the early basilica, a small Gothic church was built during the 13th and 14th centuries to continue the devotional use of the area.  It is thought that this was the Latin Cathedral of Paphos.  Transformed and rebuilt multiple times, this church was finally demolished around 1500 when Ayia Kyriaki was constructed on the site of the original basilicas … but with a much smaller footprint.

The ruins at Chrysopolitissa and Kyriaki Church.

As we wandered around the ruins, slowly making our way to the church at the far end, we were charmed by the mosaic floors that have survived to this day.  We also saw a marker for Eric Ejegod, the King of Denmark, who died suddenly on his way to the Holy Land and was buried here.  Another site of interest on the grounds was a column referred to as St Paul’s Pillar.  Local tradition has it that the people of Paphos tied St Paul to this pillar and whipped him 39 times as punishment for trying to convert people to Christianity.  There is no mention of the pillar by medieval travelers, but there is of an underground prison where he was kept.  Religious records show that St Paul traveled to Cyprus in 45 AD with Saints Barnabas and Mark.  Paphos was the capital and seat of the Roman Governor then, so a visit here by St Paul is within the realm of possibility.  After St Paul’s preachings of Christianity, the governor is said to have converted to the new religion.  Thus triggering the Christianization of Cyprus.

Seeing these places on our way to Paphos was interesting, but our stops gave the tour groups time to arrive at our next stop ahead of us.  Our timing worked out fine, however.  For one thing, the rain stopped before we got to Paphos.  For another, we wandered the site in reverse and by the time we got to the main points of interest, the groups were already moving on.

Chris escorted us to the entrance of the archeological site, where we purchased our admission tickets — €4.50/person.  He then gave us about 1½ hours to explore the site.  I suggested to the group that we all go our own way and meet up again at an appointed time, thus allowing everyone to move at their own pace.   This worked out great.

Paphos (also Pafos) — or Kato Paphos … as the site was named on the map we were given with our admission tickets — is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It includes the remains of the ancient city of Nea Paphos, which was Aphrodite’s Sacred City.  Here there are sites and monuments from prehistoric times to the Middle Ages, though most of what remains today dates back to the Roman period.  The catacombs and ruins we stopped to visit en route are considered part of the archaeological site.  Paphos is best known for its incredibly well-preserved mosaic floors in four of the Roman villas.  And what mosaics they were!  They caught and held our attention almost to the exclusion of other structures at the site … such as the baths, agora, castle, and theater … though we did end up giving them a cursory look-see before we ran out of time.

One of the beautiful mosaic floors at Paphos.

The rain, which held off while we wandered around the ruins, once again started to fall as we made our way back to Limassol for one last stop before returning to the ship.  We were hungry, and a Greek lunch sounded mighty pleasing, but our time was short, so we decided to skip having a meal in lieu of seeing more ruins.  Luckily, everyone had snacks to munch on, so we didn’t go entirely hungry.

By the time we reached Kourion (also Curium) — the hilltop on which the acropolis of the ancient city-kingdom by the same name was established in the 12th century BC — the rain was over again.  And best of all, there were no tour groups.  Settled on and off since the Neolithic Period (5500-3900 BC), the remains seen today go back to the kingdom’s Greco-Roman period.  Chris gave us about an hour to wander around here.  We could have had more time, but with sailaway scheduled for 3:00p, we wanted to get back to the ship by 2:00p or shortly thereafter.  We could have used more time here … easily.

We started off at the House of Eustolius — the 4th-5th century AD residence of a rich man.  Here, again, the mosaic floors were of particular interest.  This part of the site was covered to protect these valuable archaeological treasures.  Situated in a prominent spot on the hilltop — with a wonderful view of the Mediterranean — the house kept our interest for quite a while before we finally moved on to check out the rest of the site.  The plan was for everyone to explore at their own pace, but our pace matched that of Bill and Star, so we enjoyed their company even as we enjoyed what Kourion had to offer.

The House of Eustolius … beautiful mosaics … beautiful view.

Essentially, we followed a paved path that wound through the site, going off-trail occasionally to get a closer look at some of the finds.  We skipped the theater — destroyed by an earthquake during the 4th century AD, it’s been restored and has the modern accoutrements necessary for it to serve as a venue for plays and concerts.  We made our way through the agora and the ruins of private houses, and found ourselves at the site of an early Christian basilica that is thought to have been built during the 5th century AD and renovated during the following century.  It’s setting overlooking the sea was quite spectacular.  The public baths were next.  Here what caught our eye was a single column carved in a manner that took our breath away.  The carving was far from elaborate … just grooves going all the way around from top to bottom … but those grooves were so precise and smooth that it was mind boggling that they could have been done by hand.

The last stop we hurried to in Kourion was the House of the Gladiators.  A Roman house from the latter part of 3rd century AD, the ruins were covered to protect beautifully preserved, colorful mosaic floors featuring scenes of gladiators in combat … hence the name.  From here I wanted to go to the House of Achilles to see the mosaic floors there, but we were out of time and had to start hoofing it back to meet up with the rest of our party and head back to the ship.  We made a few brief stops along the way to snap photos of the scenery, but did not otherwise dally.

Very pleased with our day, we were back on the ship shortly after 2:00p.  We watched the sailaway from our veranda before heading up to Horizons for the Chocoholic Teatime at 4:00p.  This was only our third time going to tea in the time we’ve been on the ship.  The chocolate desserts were tasty, but my fave was the scones with clotted cream and jam … the egg salad sandwiches were good too.

All kinds of yummy goodies at the Chocoholic Teatime.

We really enjoyed our day in Cyprus.  The island is just 47 miles (75 km) from Turkey … it would be easy for us to return for a week or two and drive around to explore what we missed this time.  Maybe not in 2017 … but 2018 … perhaps.  I’ll add Cyprus to our potential plans for that year and see how things shape up.

We should be sailing to the Greek island of Kos now.  However, the Captain advised us before leaving Limassol that the port has been replaced with Rhodes due to a forecast for strong winds in Kos tomorrow.  There goes our quiet morning at sea.  We might take the day easy anyway — we’ve been to this port twice before … once on a cruise and once before that on a land vacation.  We’ll see what happens when we get there tomorrow.

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