Road works in Limassol

Some friends - whom we hadn't seen for years - are on a Mediterranean cruise, following the footsteps of St Paul. Yesterday they came to Cyprus, and - not really wanting a lengthy coach tour via Paphos and elsewhere - came to see our new house, and took us out to lunch. Which was very pleasant.

In the afternoon Richard drove them back to their ship. We think of Limassol as a long way away, but it's only an hour (if the roads are clear) from our house to the port, which isn't really a long way although it seems it, living on such a small island.

I hadn't been to Limassol for at least a year. I knew there were plans to build a huge bypass to go over (or, in one case, under) the six or seven roundabouts that can get very slow in peak traffic hours ('rush' hour seems like an odd phrase when all the cars are crawling along). But I was still a bit shocked to see all the roundabouts churned up - no nice grass and flowers any more, just dry earth, concrete, and blocks.

The first roundabout approaching Limassol is the Germasogia one (pronounced something like 'yerma-soya') which doesn't yet have a flyover built. I don't think I've ever seen so many trucks and diggers, and various constructions in one location.

This is what it looked like from the back seat as we approached the roundabout:


I caught this one as we went around it:


Then on the way back, as it was starting to get dark, I took this one as we approached the same roundabout from Limassol:


One section of the flyover was open, but another longer section was closed for the day, and some parts, such as this bit, are not yet built.