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 Paradox Museum in Limassol

 The second 'longer' trip we decided to do with our visiting family was to the Paradox Museum in Limassol. It was a bit further away than we wanted to go, ideally; our ten-year-old grandson is prone to car-sickness. But we had seen recommendations from various friends who had visited, so thought it worth trying. 

We wanted to check opening hours. The website is not the clearest, but we were glad we looked as it recommended booking tickets in advance, rather than just turning up, as there were apparently limited spaces. We didn't expect it to be full; this was still in the Cyprus school term-time. But after seeing coach-loads of school classes visiting the Camel Park on Monday, we thought we had better make a booking rather than risk being turned away. There were seven of us going; this time our 16-year-old friend H was joining us. 

We were able to take advantage of the four-person family ticket, and an over-65, but it was still somewhat pricey. However, we hoped it would be worthwhile. It would certainly be something different.

It took us rather more than an hour to get there, since car-sickness struck, but I will gloss over that quickly. We had booked for 11.30am, and arrived in the area by about 11.25. The museum doesn't have its own parking, but the Limassol marina is nearby and has plenty of parking space. It was 11.35 by the time we reached the doors of the museum, but it evidently wasn't at all crowded. 

We were greeted by friendly staff in black and white uniforms, and given a few basic guidelines. They said there was a direction to follow, rather like the arrows in Ikea, but we could spend as much time as we wanted at each attraction. No food or drink was allowed, but cameras welcome - indeed, strongly encouraged. 

The first few exhibits were fairly basic optical illusions, things to look at but without much to do. There was a tilting mirror, for instance:

There were patterns which seemed to swirl in different ways: 

There were chequered and similar illusions, tricking us into thinking that the lines or patterns were bulging, or in some way not what they appeared:

We didn't spend very long with these; they were interesting, but I did hope there would be rather more, or we would be finished in fifteen minutes...

I was not disappointed. This mirror room created some excellent illusions, and we all played with it extensively:

This one was rather disturbing, creating a serving dish with - apparently - someone's head inside:

The camouflage area was interesting, although we never worked out how to hide entirely. One had to don a voluminous robe with similar paint-style splatters and attempt to blend in with the background:

I never quite worked out how this room functioned, enabling us to appear to be different heights. We spent a lot of time there; this is just one of the results:

One of my favourite things was something that looked like a long, wide tube - it wasn't obvious that it was anything special. But everyone else was playing in one of the rooms, so I peeped in one end. The instructions said to ask someone else to look in the other end... and then the effect was stunning! 

It reminded me of those cardboard tube kaleidoscopes that we had as children. 

This one, looking down into apparently endless pentagons, was a bit scary for those of us not keen on heights:

And there was much more too. Apparently there are fifty exhibits in all. We spent quite a bit of time in a sideways room where one set a pose and then rotated the camera, but none of the photos look all that spectacular.  There was also a room of mirrors where one could see thousands of images of oneself...  for a moment I wasn't sure how to get out!  

The final exhibit was this one: the result is a rotated image but I think it's quite effective:

The website had told us to allow around 60-90 minutes to get around, and it took us a little over an hour. We could perhaps have taken it more slowly, but we followed the lead of our grandchildren. They found the different rooms more interesting than the exhibits on the walls, and very much liked trying out different poses, asking us all to take photos. 

At the end - by the entrance area - there's a little shop. There were all kinds of items: books about paradoxes, little toy puzzles, tee-shirts and more. There were a few puzzles on display that could be tried out, and some of us had fun doing that. We weren't really tempted to buy anything; the prices were a little high, and we didn't think we needed any more novelties. The museum staff didn't try to persuade us - they were all extremely helpful and willing to answer questions, but put no pressure on at all. 

It wasn't a cheap expedition, but it was definitely worth doing once. Our grandchildren - aged ten and eight - were just the right age to enjoy it. Older children and teens would probably find different possibilities, and understand better how everything worked, but I doubt if it would be of much interest to children under the age of about six or seven.

The Paradox Museum hasn't been around all that long; it's situated in a warehouse that previously housed part of the Limassol boat show, apparently. I don't know how long it will stay, as the structures looked somewhat temporary.  

Definitely recommended. 

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's almost four weeks since the family arrived in Cyprus after a few stressful weeks packing up the house and travelling, via relatives in the UK, to stay here. They were all exhausted when they got here, and it took a few days for the children to get into somewhat regular sleep patterns.

David, at three, no longer takes naps in the daytime, and Esther, at six months, just takes catnaps, and still usually wakes at least once in the night. She's teething, has just started solids, and has reached the stage of frustrating backwards crawling. She was very clingy with Becky when she arrived, too, and David quite stressed and anxious about all the changes.

I had already planned, before they arrived, to find as much time as possible to be with the children. I'm hardly doing any writing, or participating in forums, or doing anything with my websites while they're here. Emails are written in odd moments, and I've been uploading photos to Facebook every few days, but it's taken me over a week to find the time and energy to write this blog post.

With the increasing heat, we're all quite tired - other than David, who seems to have vast reserves of energy - and inevitably have to spend at least the hottest part of the days indoors. I'm delighted to discover that David has an almost endless capacity for books, so we're all reading aloud to him, everything from simple picture books through to early chapter books with line drawings, such as Mrs Pepperpot and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Still, we seem to have done a fair amount of other things - a few highlights below.

On one of the first days, Richard and I took David out to the local park where he enjoyed climbing and digging in the dirt as well as the standard slides and roundabouts.

He's been to some Little Muse presentations and drama sessions (the last one before the summer break is today, giving me an hour to myself) and enjoyed doing some painting there:

Great excitement ensued when he went sailing with his Daddy and Grandpa:

Richard has been very busy with work in the past few weeks, so there haven't been any more opportunities for sailing, but they hope to do that again soon.

We've been to the beach a couple of times, although it's so hot that we can't really go before about 4.30pm at the earliest:

David's third birthday was a very important occasion, and Becky created a wonderful 'digger' cake:

One of his birthday gifts was a paddling pool, which has provided a great deal of entertainment:

We found a second-hand bike at the thrift store, and a helmet, and he's ridden that in an area Richard cleared in our side yard, although, again, it's really too hot to ride much:

Another gift (bought with birthday money) was a sandpit, which he likes very much indeed:

The shop where the sandpit was bought didn't have any play sand in stock, so after some research we discovered the Larnaka Early Learning Centre shop, which not only had sand, but let us know that on Tuesday afternoons they have play sessions for toddlers and young children, with plenty of toys and other activities available. So David's been to a couple of those:

We haven't managed many board games; they're not possible in the daytime, for obvious reasons, and by the evenings we're often too tired to do anything. But we've had a few, sitting outside the guest flat, as it hasn't - yet - been too humid:

Daniel and Becky's closest friends came out to stay for a week, too, which was very enjoyable for them all, and they managed to play games most evenings.

David's enthusiasm and exuberance are quite tiring for those of us who are more introverted, but they also mean that almost anything can be fun for him. Even a trip to the supermarket became a great adventure when he was able to drive the trolley for us:

Esther, meanwhile, is quieter, and more placid. She's very taken with a set of plastic balls which we bought a few years ago, before David visited for the first time. She can sit by herself but topples over if she turns suddenly, so we made a mini ball pool for her, in a plastic box, and she was contented for quite some time:

David is interested in building, mechanics and pipework, so Daniel bought some plumbing bits, and we've made various constructions for David to experiment with. One of his favourite activities is pouring water down a funnel, and seeing where it comes out:

He can concentrate for a long time, adjusting the pieces and trying again when connections break, or when water comes out in unexpected places. I tried to explain that it would pour out of the lowest available gap in whatever system we built, and he seemed to understand. He exemplifies the concept of learning through play!

A local friend told us about a park that's much nicer than the two local ones; it took us a while to locate it, behind St George's Church, but finally we found an afternoon to take David there. Unfortunately it's not open all the time, and has almost no shade until the late afternoon... but still, it's a wonderful park and we hope to go there again:

The family are here for another two months, and the weather is going to be hotter and much more humid, so we're going to look at the two recommended indoor play places that aren't too far away, and make the effort to go to the beach a bit more often.

We didn't move to Cyprus until our sons were nine and eleven, so we never had to find places to entertain very young children in the summer. By the time we moved, they were old enough to play outside safely by themselves (we had a huge garden in our rental house) and were also happy to sit inside during the hottest part of the day, reading books, or at the computer, or otherwise occupied with Lego or music or some other activity.

I am loving being an active grandma of a three-year-old, although I'm getting a lot more tired than I did when I was 27 years younger and had a three-year-old of my own.  

Three weeks out of Cyprus

On August 20th, I flew to the UK for a three-week visit to family and friends. This was partly prompted by the need to get out of Cyprus for a few weeks in the hottest part of the year, partly by a wish to see the family again, and partly so that I could deposit a cheque in our UK bank account which, if successful, would actually pay for the flights! (see note at the end for explanation)*

The flight took me to Gatwick arriving around 10.30pm so I had checked into a Travelodge nearby, which I reached via the useful shuttle bus. I slept well, had a good breakfast, and then returned, also by shuttle bus, to the airport. That's because the next part of my journey was by train. While I am very comfortable with buses, and reasonably so with aeroplanes, I didn't grow up using trains, and find them a little nerve-wracking, at least until I'm safely seated and have had ample confirmation that I'm on the right one.

The train was on time, and I even thought to take a photo of a station that we passed through; living in Cyprus for so long, even railways stations strike me as interesting:

Tim met me in Surrey, where he's now living and working, and I checked in at a very nice 'airb&b' place about a mile and a half from where he is now staying. We had lunch out, and during the course of the day did rather a lot of walking - seven miles in all, he calculated - which unfortunately left my knees very painful for a while. Perhaps middle age is finally hitting me; arthritis is on both sides of the family.

So when it was time for me to return to my b&b, he introduced me to 'Uber taxis', which he booked and even paid for via his phone. Inexpensive, efficient, and quick. Technology is sometimes a good thing.

On Monday we caught a local train into Epsom, so I could bank my cheque. And while I'm not a great fan of shopping in general, I do like the variety of big UK stores, so I popped into several, becoming gradually aware that Tim was hustling me on.  I then discovered that he had a terrific surprise awaiting me:

Yes!  A Lakeland shop waiting to be browsed!  I was so pleased.  Not that I bought anything, since I recently had a delivery to Cyprus from their website, but I do like looking around.  Other than bookshops, Lakeland is probably my favourite of all UK shops.

By using trains and another Uber taxi, my knees were fine by the end of the day. But we were both tired, so we decided to spend Tuesday in a large park about mid-way between where we were both staying. The weather was warm, the benches inviting, and we both had our Kindles.  There's a small library in the park so Tim joined it and took out his first book.

We had lunch at a nice little cafe set around the back of the library, and in the afternoon I was able to meet up with a university friend who lives just a few miles away, and whom I had not seen for 34 years. It was very good to catch up.

On Wednesday we caught more trains to go and visit my mother-in-law who lives about an hour's journey away, and on Thursday we decided to hang out in the park again and have another quiet day. We watched the birds on the lake:

... and I had a sudden craving for ice cream. Joy of joys, the little cafe sold Magnums:

Tim, being dairy-free, had to have a Calippo, and we were a little startled to notice that one of the three languages on the side was Greek:

We had dinner out, in the evening, with my aunt and uncle who are also about an hour's journey away, and then on the Friday I got on another train to travel to the Midlands. Actually it was four trains in all: three normal ones, and one London Underground. I was particularly nervous about the Underground as I'm not at all familiar with it, but was reassured to learn that it was a fifteen-minute journey, and I had an hour between my two trains.

I was met at Stratford by my father and his wife, in good spirits and, happily, good health, and after we arrived at their house my sister and niece arrived for the day.

We had a delicious lunch, which included this wonderful looking (and even better tasting) cheesecake:

On Saturday we spent most of the day with some step-relatives, on Sunday we went to the local church and had a peaceful afternoon. On Monday, which was a public holiday in the UK, my two brothers and their wives came for lunch and the afternoon, and when we went for a walk we took some carrier bags so that we could collect some local blackberries:

The following day we drove into Stratford so my father could buy a reconditioned laptop, and it was a beautiful day:

Among other things we popped into the Stratford Lakeland - not a surprise this time, as I knew it was there, but still interesting to see:

And here's the obligatory photo of Shakespeare's birthplace:

The rest of the week passed peacefully with local walks:

I was very interested to see this telephone box. It's not exactly a tardis but nonetheless a great deal bigger on the inside than it appears, since it functions as a local free library/book exchange:

The week passed happily, doing a bit of gardening, and on Friday I caught another train, this time to Birmingham. I was met by one of my closest and longest-standing friends who treated me to lunch in the Art Gallery, and we then looked at some of the painted benches that have been part of a schools 'book' project. I particularly liked this one portraying Alice in Wonderland:

Outside, Birmingham seems to have endless construction work; it's different every time I visit (which, admittedly, isn't all that often!)

I stayed for the weekend, spending lots of time catching up on our lives and families, and also meeting my friend's new grandson - the son of my goddaughter - who is delightful.

And then, at last, another train, up to Carlisle to see Daniel, Becky, and my wonderful grandson David who has just turned two-and-a-quarter:

The weather wasn't nearly so good as it had been further south; but then September had started.

David is very lively so we went on lots of walks:

He's interested in everything, but most of all anything technical or mechanical. Here he is, pausing to look at some diggers...

The time went all too quickly, and on Saturday I caught yet another train to Manchester Airport, and flew back to Cyprus. I wasn't prepared for the humidity, but at least it's a few degrees cooler than it was when I departed three weeks earlier.


*I mentioned back in April that my flight to the UK then was delayed by 24 hours. We put in a claim, and within a few weeks of my return I was sent a cheque for 400 euros. I was surprised at how easy it seemed to be, from a budget airline that isn't renowned for paying out compensation claims quickly.

The first problem arose when I tried to deposit it in our Cyprus bank account. At the bottom was a note saying that the cheque could only be deposited in the UK. Bizarre, I thought, since it was a euro cheque, but Tim was flying to the UK in May, so I signed the back and made sure he had our UK bank account details, and passed it to him. When he tried to deposit it, he was told that I would have to authorise the commission charges and exchange rate, so it could only be deposited by me.

Since the cheque was going to expire within six months of issue, it was the final push I needed to check details and arrange to visit various family members for three weeks in August.