Ayia Napa on Monday

The end of last week was taken up with Christmas preparations, and of course Saturday was Christmas Day. On Sunday some other friends invited us to lunch, which was very enjoyable, and we ate a few leftovers in the evening, but were all too tired to do anything much else.

On Monday afternoon, Tim had some young friends over for a game, so we decided to go out for the afternoon with Stephen and Dulcie. Richard suggested Ayia Napa, and although there's not a great deal there - shops and night-clubs, and beaches that attract singles groups in the summer - they'd never been there before, and we all felt like a walk somewhere different.

We thought we might have a look at the old monastery in Ayia Napa, but it was closed:


When we saw that, we remembered that it had been closed before, for some renovations. Maybe it hasn't re-opened, or perhaps it was shut due to the Christmas break.

Still, it was a lovely afternoon, so we walked around the surrounding area. There was a pool with large fish just opposite:

And trees shedding leaves as if it were autumn rather than winter:

There was a rather friendly cat, too:

And an attractive Greek Orthodox church:

Then we decided to walk down to the harbour area. I was struck by the number of oddly shaped Christmas decorations, looking roughly like sailing boats:

And of course there was the ubiquitous Santa with a couple of reindeer:

It's years since I was last in Ayia Napa, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the harbour area has been modernised, looking really quite attractive; even the fishing boats look as if they've been done up:

We were amused to see this:

Although when we walked closer to it, later on, we saw that it's advertised as a 'surface' submarine. An oxymoron if ever there was one!

Then there was this pirate ship:

Which in fact is a bar - it looked very quiet, but no doubt is packed during the summer.

We strolled gently around the harbour:

and found some more cats:

I was breathing deeply, enjoying the fresh, clean air around the sea.

By then it was around 4.30 and the sun was setting over the sea:

We walked a little further, but an unpleasant stench came up, rather spoiling the fresh, clean air feeling. So we turned back, and gradually made our way back to the car.