Visiting CyHerbia

 For the third of our full-morning outings, we had decided to visit Cyherbia. Our extra guest this time was 19-year-old K, who had never been there before. We visited for the first time two years ago, when the family was staying, and had thought it pleasant but not too memorable. However when we asked our ten-year-old grandson what he particularly wanted to do this year, his first response was 'the maze!' 

We've had quite a bit of discussion about whether the Cyherbia hedged construction is technically a maze or a labyrinth. It's called both in different places. According to Google, a labyrinth is a complex but essentially straightforward path with no digressions or ways to go wrong, whereas a maze has false paths that lead nowhere. Under that definition, Cyherbia has a maze. 

An adult is supposed to accompany each child, but it was impossible to take that too seriously. Our grandson rushed into the maze cheerfully, and we could hear him most of the time, although we couldn't always see him. The rest of us wandered in in ones and twos. 

I know the infallible (if not very efficient) way of getting through a maze, by keeping a hedge always to my right, so using this method I fairly quickly found myself at the lookout point where, at the top of some steps, I took that second photo. Our grandson was still happily getting himself lost but we could see his hat and he waved a hand when he asked. 

Eventually we persuaded the children that it was time to move on to the next attraction. When we arrived and bought the tickets, we were given two sheets of questions for the children, similar to the kinds of things children on school field trips have to fill in. Our granddaughter was quite interested at first, and wanted to do this with her mother. But our grandson decided he didn't want to do it, so our friend K took over his sheet. In the maze, they had to find different models of birds which were hidden in some of the dead ends. 

Our next stop was the fairy garden, which is beautifully made and maintained. 

There were questions about that on the sheets too, requiring some observation and counting. I never found that kind of thing very interesting when I was at school, but it does mean people slow down a bit and have a proper look at what's on display. And they weren't excessive questions at Cyherbia. 

There's so much detail in the fairy garden, it was well worth spending some time looking. 

As we moved on, I was surprised to see a realistic looking deer by the path:

By this stage we were 'walking around Cyprus', with plenty of little information notices to read, describing different locations. And filling in questions on the sheets... 

There was a lot more: a bower where we could sit for photos, a little house explaining the flora and fauna of the island, and so much more. Towards the end we went around the extensive herb gardens, enjoying the aromas (and finding more answers to questions on the sheets). 

There was a little playground, too, although it was only supposed to be for children up to the age of seven or eight. And then we sat down in the café and were brought our complementary herbal teas. We think they were mainly chamomile; I drank about half of mine, but it wasn't my favourite taste. Still, it's a nice gesture at the end of an hour or more of gentle meandering around the area.

We had promised the children another visit to the maze, so we went back there and they went through a couple of times, including having a race. There weren't many other people around, so we didn't think it would be disturbing anyone. 

As with the camel park and the paradox museum, we couldn't take any food or drink into Cyherbia. And whereas there are suitable parks nearby the other two venues, Cyherbia is rather out of the way, with nothing obvious nearby. 

So we drove back to Rizoelia park which is in Aradippou, and had our picnic there. It's on a hill with an excellent view over Larnaka. 

Visiting the Camel Park in Mazotos

Two years ago, our older son and his family visited us over the Easter school holidays. During that time, our son and daughter-in-law went away for a weekend, leaving us on full-time grandparent duty. So one of the things we did, as described in this post, was to visit the camel park. We didn't know much about it at the time, and had not previously been. And on the whole, it was a great success.

This year they have come to visit again. We are delighted that we have been able to borrow a seven-seater car from friends who are out of the country, meaning we can easily all go out together.  We know how easily time can race by if we don't plan anything, so we decided to do three specific visits needing a car journey in the first week. As a bonus, we were able to take a teenage friend with us each time - three sisters whom we know well and who get along well with our grandchildren. 

The first planned trip was to the Camel Park. We had a lot of discussion about whether to try to eat there, or look for somewhere else to eat out. But we remembered this being difficult two years ago, so in the end we agreed to take a picnic. Not that we could take it into the camel park: outside food is forbidden. But it's not far from Angeloktisti Church and we were assured that there's a nice park nearby with a playground, and places to sit. 

So, with our 14-year-old friend E accompanying us, we drove to Mazotos and easily found the camel park. We had expected it to be quiet, as Cyprus schools had not yet broken up for Easter. 

However, there was a coach outside, and a lot of young children racing about; evidently a school trip was happening. However, this didn't prove to be a problem. Whereas, two years ago, our grandchildren were eager to try all the playground equipment, this time they wanted to head straight for the animals. So we bought some bags of carob pods, and made our leisurely way around.

While some of the cages were, perhaps, rather smaller than we thought appropriate, they seemed to be quite happy. They were clearly used to visitors, and came forward asking for the carob treats.

Each cage or enclosure had information about the animals, including a couple where we were told specifically NOT to give them any carob. The children were interested in knowing more about the animals they saw, and tried to eke out the carob pods as much as possible.

Some of them looked very cute.

And we loved seeing the separate enclosures for newborn and baby animals: 

One of the highlights two years ago for our grandchildren had been the camel ride, so we booked another one for them and our friend E. Only two could go on one camel, so our grandson opted to be on his own. They mounted at a platform, as happened before:

We couldn't go alongside them all the way, but knew they would be quite safe, led by one of the camel park staff. I suppose the whole thing lasted no more than about ten minutes, but they all said they enjoyed the ride.

As they were heading back, they suddenly all pointed towards one of the bird cages, as they had spotted that one of the peacocks was displaying his feathers. So we rushed over to see. There are swings and other 'toys' in the peacock/peahen enclosure, meaning it was impossible to take a clear photo. But this one shows some of its splendour: 

There were other attractions too: we didn't spend much time at the aquarium, but our granddaughter was very interested in the pool with quite a few turtles. Some were basking in the sun, some were swimming. 

Our grandchildren weren't interested in most of the playground equipment - just two years on, and it's less appealing than it was. They didn't want to go on the bouncy castle, either. They might have liked the dodgems, but there was nobody there, and they didn't seem to be open. However we probably spent a couple of hours wandering around. Towards the end they did go on some of the more robust equipment, and particularly enjoyed a roundabout that required pedalling for a while: 

But eventually they had seen everything they wanted to see, and were getting hungry. So we got back in the car, and drove - not all that far - to the Angeloktisti park. 

We sat on a wall having our lunch, then the three youngsters spent some time playing hide-and-seek in the nearby playground. There was almost nobody else around, and it was good to sit and relax. 

Our teenage friend had to be home for another commitment by around 3pm so we left in plenty of time to take her back.  Then we played a board game, followed by ice creams at a very nice Italian gelato place just a few blocks away from where we live. 

Family visiting Cyprus

 It feels like a LONG time since I last wrote. It's only four weeks, but our generally relaxed empty-nest routines were thrown out for a while. The house looked more lived-in than usual, with the coffee table piled high with books. The usual weekly cleaning didn't happen. The Roomba only ran sporadically, and I barely managed half an hour at my computer most days. We didn't watch a single film or even an episode of a DVD series. I usually read at least two books per week; in the past month I've only finished three full-length books, although I read a large number of shorter ones....

It was awesome. 

Our family - son, daughter-in-law and their two children - came to stay over the Easter holidays, with a few extra days each end (authorised by the children's school) so they could find affordable flights.  For just over three weeks they were with us, in Cyprus for the first time since the summer of 2017. 

Life is very different with children in the house.  At eight (nearly nine) and six (and a quarter) our grandchildren are a delight. At times they are noisy, and they rarely sit still, but they're loving, curious, and interested in everything. They love playing games, too - so we played a lot of board games. 

The Lego proved popular... though it only came out a couple of times.

They love books - they can both read fluently, but they like listening to books too, as my own sons did, well into their teens. My grandson discovered Garfield for the first time. We have quite a collection of the books, and I loved hearing his chuckles as he devoured them, one after another. 

In the first week Richard took them out sailing, and we had an afternoon on the beach. I thought we might have had more beach afternoons, but somehow they didn't happen... sometimes it was too windy, or even wet; more often there were simply too many other things to do. 

Cooking was an interesting challenge: my son is vegetarian, which is fine; I have leanings that way myself. But others like to eat meat at least a few times each week. My husband is dairy-free, but eats meat: so normally our house is dairy-free, but we bought cheese and yogurt for the family. Then the grandchildren won't eat any cooked vegetables, though they love raw ones. They also don't like strong flavours such as hot curries, and are reluctant to experiment too much with new foods although they're pretty good about trying things they're not sure about. 

Unusually for us, we ordered takeaways via Foody about once a week, since both of us had discount vouchers. Besides, I needed a break from cooking sometimes, to be able to enjoy an afternoon out.  Sometimes I cheated, too, with ready-made burgers (meat or vegetarian) or breaded fish (or chicken or vegetables). 

But I prefer to eat 'real' food (enchiladas, perhaps, or spanokopita, or chicken pie, or a jalfrezi curry and rice...)  and on the whole it wasn't too difficult to suit everyone's tastes, it just took some planning - and a lot of oven space - if I was making two or even three different main courses, some added form of carbohydrate if needed, and two or three cooked vegetables. 

Before the family came, I made a mental list of places that we could visit. There are local playgrounds and parks, of course, but our first bigger outing was to Cyherbia. We weren't entirely sure what to expect, but the children were thrilled to hear about the famous maze, apparently the only one in Cyprus.

We took a twelve-year-old friend with us, which is a good thing as the children raced around the maze, and our young friend was the only one who could keep up with them. 

Cyherbia also has a walk in the shape of the island of Cyprus, where we could see different landmarks, and there's a beautiful fairy village which we all admired: 

We spent a couple of hours walking around (or running, in the case of the children) and would have stayed out longer, but it started to rain. So we went to find our complementary hot herbal tea in the tea room, and the children spotted that there were ice creams. Ice cream was quite a feature of their visit; we lost track of how many they ate when out at various places.

Over the Western Easter weekend, our son and his wife drove part way into the mountains for a couple of days by themselves, and the children moved upstairs to what used to be our younger son's bedroom. It's become an electronics room for Richard, so although he tidied it up prior to their arrival, it's not ideal... however the children liked being with us upstairs so much that they slept there at nighttime for the rest of their holiday. 

While we had the children on our own, we had our second further-away outing, this time to the Camel Park.  It's somewhere else we'd never been, although we'd heard good things about it. We were very impressed with the wide range of activities: a playground for younger children, exercise equipment for slightly older ones, plenty to see including a terrapin pool: 

We bought fairly inexpensive bags of animal feed (carob pods) which were doled out to the many different animals in the park. Perhaps the enclosures were a bit small, but the animals seemed contented and very eager to reach out for their food. 

The highlight was a camel ride, which both the children enjoyed thoroughly: 

They even went in the swimming pool, although we thought it rather chilly. I felt a bit anxious the whole time, since neither of us are good swimmers and we had no intention of going in. I would, of course, have jumped in fully clothed had either of the children got into difficulties, but thankfully they stayed in the shallow end, splashing about and enjoying themselves until they finally admitted that it really was too cold. 

We'd been at the Camel Park for two hours and it was past noon, so we thought we would go to the restaurant for an early lunch. We had checked the menu in advance: they offered sandwiches of various kinds, and a children's section as well as quite a wide variety of Cypriot foods.

Then we had a disappointment: there was a big party at the Camel Park, so the restaurant wasn't serving meals. They did say that we could have something from the buffet (although it wasn't available for another half hour) but they couldn't tell us what it would consist of - and the cost was quite high for something that we probably wouldn't want, and the children most likely wouldn't eat. We asked if they would at least make sandwiches, and they said no - they weren't providing any other food until 4pm! 

So we bought bags of crisps at the kiosk nearby, as we were all surprisingly hungry; then we left to have our cold lunch back home. We would have stayed another hour or more if we'd been able to eat there. Picnics are not allowed in the Camel Park, so we couldn't have taken our own food. 

As often happens on holiday, the second half of the visit seemed to race past. The children went to local parks several times, and visited the fort in the town. On Greek Good Friday (a week after the Western one) my daughter-in-law organised a hunt for small chocolate eggs for the children around the house and side yard; they took some finding as the hiding places were quite creative. 

I made hot cross buns (I never can get the flour paste on the top to look right, but they tasted good). In the afternoon, the children went to our friends' house to experiment with dyeing and decorating hard-boiled eggs. It's  something my grandson had read about but they had never previously tried.

For the next four days, the family was even more enlarged as our younger son and his wife made a short visit, staying in a local AirBnB, and bringing the warmest weather we'd had all year. Just as well, since my new daughter-in-law is very allergic to cats, so they couldn't come into the house. 

On the Saturday, they all visited an interactive science fair not far from Nicosia, which we'd seen advertised.  I decided to have a day to myself, so I didn't go. The children enjoyed it, but overall the adults felt that it was a bit disappointing. 

The advertising said that visitors would need at least two hours to interact with all the different displays. In the event, about 25% of them were not working - or not working properly - but there were no staff available to assist.  Not that it was crowded - despite being Greek Easter Saturday, there was almost nobody else there.  So they spent as long as they wanted to at all the working exhibits, and still finished in under an hour. 

On the Sunday, we barbecued lunch outside after going to church services to celebrate the Resurrection. Our local friends came over in the afternoon for games followed by a cold evening meal, with 14 of us in all sitting around tables in our side yard. I think it's the most people we've had sitting down to eat out there at one time, and probably the maximum we could accommodate from the point of view of comfort.

On Monday they had a morning of sailing. On Tuesday morning, our friends came over for games, then one of my sons treated us to lunch out in the town. In the afternoon we took a walk by the Salt Lake... and in the evening our younger son and his wife departed to return to the UK overnight. On Wednesday afternoon we took the children to St George's Park, followed by ice creams, and our other son treated us all to food in the Metropolis Mall. And so, time gradually speeded up in our perception as their imminent departure was measured not in days but hours... 

When they left I was sad, but not as devastated as I felt five-and-a-half years ago when they departed after staying all summer.  That's mainly because, in 2017, they were going to join a ship the other side of the world, and we had no idea when we might see them again. Now we see them more often, and video chat fairly regularly so it's not such a wrench. 

I wish we lived closer and could see them more frequently; I certainly hope they come again before another five or six years have passed. But for holidays to be special, they need to have their own everyday lives with their own routines.  And I was quite tired; much as I miss them, it's good to have my own space, with time to relax on my own to recharge my psychological batteries. 

Some Cyprus beaches

The last post I wrote, at the start of March, was about the very wet winter we've had in Cyprus. The rain continued, off and on, through the month, and most of April too. The weather only startied to warm up towards the end of the month.

Time has passed by rapidly, and I haven't written anything on this blog for too long....

We had quite a few visitors in our guest flat during March and April. They included long-standing friends, a former colleague with his family, and some folk we know less well, with some of their relatives. It's good to have the separate apartment: we can spend a good amount of time with close friends or family members. But for those who want space for themselves, or whom we don't know well, can do their own thing entirely separately. 

At the end of April Richard was able to take a bit of time off to spend with some friends we've known for a long time who came to stay for a week. They mostly wanted to walk in Larnaka, or play board games with us, or just hang out and chat. But one day we went for a drive and explored a couple of beaches.

Because we live here, we're not very adventurous about where we go. I have been to very few beaches other than those locally.  Richard suggested we drive to Fig Tree Bay, somewhere I had heard of, and which is a popular tourist resort a little beyond Ayia Napa. It took about an hour to get there in the car; it did indeed look quite touristy when we arrived.

Apparently it's usually very crowded in the summer, but although the day was sunny it wasn't particularly warm. Well... not to those of us acclimatised to Cyprus weather. Our friends were wearing tee-shirts and shorts, and there were hardy folk sunbathing in swimsuits or bikinis. But we were still in our not-quite-winter clothes:

We strolled a kilometre or so along the beach, and found a little cafe for lunch.  By then the sun was quite strong, so after eating I waited in the shade while Richard and our friends walked a bit further, and then when they came back we had our first frappés of the season.

Other visiting friends had spoken enthusiastically about Agia Thekla beach, so we decided to visit that on our way back to Larnaka. It's another one I had never been to, and was quite a contrast to Fig Tree Bay.  The part which Richard was familiar with was mostly unspoilt, and entirely empty:

There were no sun-beds or umbrellas, no cafes, no toilet blocks. We did see a taverna nearby but it was closed.

In the distance we saw a huge hotel, under construction, no doubt intended to attract tourists. But hopefully they'll leave part of this beach alone, for those who prefer a more natural environment. 

Visiting villages in Cyprus

Time seems to move much more slowly in times of stress and sadness. But now we're back in Cyprus, picking up the threads, more-or-less back to normal. 

So let me be a little indulgent, and look back - only a little over three weeks ago - to a day we had out with the whole family, visiting some villages around the island. Richard was looking for somewhere appropriate for some filming he needs to do, and it seemed like a pleasant day out for all five of us. 

It was a gorgeous day - clear and sunny, but not too hot. We started by visiting lower Lefakra:

We took a walk along some backstreets, where it was really very quiet:

We enjoyed the flowers, still blooming, although the heat of summer will put a stop to a lot of them:

I even managed an informal family group photo, although Tim had forgotten his tripod so we didn't manage one of all five of us together. Not that we found anywhere particularly suitable as background anyway:

I do love seeing trees like this.  We were amused by the little pillar that has evidently been built to support it: 

We drove quite a way into the mountains: 

We went in and out of several small villages, some more accessible than others. I didn't take photos of them all, although others did. Sometimes we didn't even visit them, we just looked from a distance:

This looked rather a nice location, but we weren't tempted... we would rather live in a residential neighbourhood near friends and shops:

We hadn't taken any sandwiches, so around 12.30 we started looking out for somewhere suitable to stop and eat. It was surprisingly difficult - many of the small villages did not appear to have any cafes or tavernas.  

Then we found ourselves in a much wealthier looking village than any others we had found. It's in the Limassol district, and called Asgata. There were smart looking buildings, and organised signs pointing to various locations locally:

There was even a library!

There was also a small taverna, which looked very inviting.  The waiter spoke some English, and the prices seemed reasonable.

While most of us opted for water, Richard asked for a fizzy lemonade drink - either Sprite or 7-Up.  Most places offer one or the other but not both.  We were amused that he was brought a can of the latter, together with a glass advertising the former!

A salad came fairly quickly, and some very welcome toasted baguette sandwiches not long after. Then we had complementary fruit and coffee. It was a good break:

We thought we might drive into Troodos but somehow went in the wrong direction, so eventually found ourselves back near Limassol. 

So we stopped for ice creams: