The increasing necessity for ID verification documents...

When we lived in the UK - nearly three decades ago! - we had a joint sterling bank account which we used for all our income and outgoings. We did have a 'savings' account too, but it rarely had anything much in it. And a credit card, which was useful when there was a cash flow problem.

When we moved to Cyprus towards the end of 1997, we opened a joint account at a local bank here. It was originally in Cyprus pounds, but then, seamlessly, moved to euros at the start of 2008. Each month we had an automatic transfer set up from our UK account to our Cyprus account via one of the reputable online transfer places. And the amount we transferred, which was the majority of our regular income, just about covered bills, utilities, insurances etc in Cyprus. Extra generous gifts and donations allowed us to travel to the UK once a year, and a few other luxuries. 

When we arrived here, colleagues told us that we shouldn't have mail sent to our street address, as the postal system was notoriously unreliable. They all used a PO Box address instead. For a while we used that one too, and then we started to lease our own. And we made sure that our bank statements and utility bills went to the PO Box. 

Early in 2004, my last grandparent died. She was 96. Some months later we received a generous legacy from her. That, and other circumstances during that year, and 2005, made us decide that we would sell our house in the UK which had been used by one of the local churches. The lady living there at the time wanted to buy it, so the timing was perfect. And we had my grandmother's gift to use as a deposit on a house here. 

In 2006, we sold our house in the UK, after some months of uncertainty, and bought the house in Cyprus where we are still living. And since it was Richard who met the vendor to transfer our utility bills, it was Richard's name that was associated with them. It was still quite a patriarchal society, and he was much more comfortable dealing with utility board officials than I was. 

Fast forward to 2020. A year that stands out in most people's memories, when there were lockdowns, and uncertainties, and nobody knew what was going to happen. Our UK debit cards expired, and they wouldn't send new ones to Cyprus. We had used various family members' addresses in the UK for mailing, and collected them when we visited. But in 2020, no travelling was allowed. International post was either non-existent or delayed. We could access our bank account online, and make transfers, but we didn't have a card to make online payments in sterling. And sometimes we needed to do that. 

Richard had already opened a multi-currency online account for times when he travelled for his ministry, and he suggested I open one too, at least as a temporary measure. The process was easy, and while I didn't use it much at first, I gradually realised that it was quite convenient to have a separate account where I could move money between currencies at an excellent rate, and which allowed text 'notes' added to each transaction, to help me keep track. 

A couple of years ago Richard started receiving his UK state pension. We were able to stop relying on gifts from churches and friends. We found, for the first time in our lives, that we had what is sometimes called 'disposable income'. We give some away, of course, but we also transfer an amount every month to each of our multi-currency accounts. 

Then...

On Saturday morning a week ago, the multi-currency account sent me an email, and also notified me in the account when I logged in, that they needed to verify my street address. They didn't say why.  They wanted me to upload a recent utility bill or bank statement, with my full name and street address. They told me I had until June 28th to do this. 

But I didn't have any of the documents they wanted. As explained above, our utility bills were all in Richard's name, as is our equivalent to council tax. Our Cyprus bank account still had the PO Box address on statements, even though everything now comes via email rather than in the post. 

So I uploaded the annual sewage bill, which, for some reason, is in my name. 

But that was rejected because it was dated November 2024. 

So then I uploaded a recent Cyprus bank statement.

That was rejected because it didn't have our street address. 

Then I uploaded an electricity bill which has our street address, and that was rejected because it wasn't in my name. 

So I emailed customer support, uploading all three of these documents again, plus my 'yellow slip' which has my full name and street address. I explained what the problem was, and asked if a human could put together the information on these four documents, and verify manually rather than relying on the automated requirements.

The customer support person was very friendly, and seemed to understand the issue. They said that what I needed to do was take a photo of the electricity bill next to my husband's ID, and send them that. And they would forward it on to the verification department. 

It didn't quite make sense - I didn't see how that could verify who I am! -  but I did what they asked. They thanked me, and said that if there was still any problem, they would get in touch again, and make some more suggestions.

 
We realised that this issue was likely to come up again, so we decided to change one of our water bills into my name, to preempt future problems of this nature. Since our house is in two parts, we have two sets of both water and electricity bills. So on Monday morning we went into the Water Board. 

It's greatly updated since the last time we were there, which was probably nearly twenty years ago. Instead of queueing, we were given a ticket with a number, and sat down in the air conditioned waiting area. Eventually - after about half an hour - our turn came up. After checking the IDs we took in, and our house deeds,  the helpful lady on the desk changed the account over from Richard's name to mine. 

Not that it was any use for the current issue, as we paid the last water bill and the next one isn't due until August. But she printed out a sort of non-invoice, saying we owed them nothing, but giving my name and the street address.

On Tuesday morning at 8.00am I had an email saying that the latest upload - the one showing Richard's ID next to our electricity bill - was also rejected, though they didn't say why. As before, it gave a link to upload something else. So I tried to do so... 

And saw a rather terse notification that my account was closed. It said that they thought I had been using it in inappropriate ways, whatever that means.

So much for having until 28th June! They did say they would refund all the money, but it has been so very convenient having this multi-currency account. I was not happy. I was, in fact, extremely stressed. I hated the idea that I had done something wrong and didn't even know what it was. 

Feeling frustrated, I opened the 'YouBible' app on my phone, and saw the verse of the day:

'Cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you' (I Peter 5:7). 

The verses of the day often seem quite random, but this one felt as if it was specifically for me. Not that it was easy to cast my anxieties, but I did feel slightly more peaceful, and tried to trust that, whatever happened, God was in charge.

 
I emailed customer support again. I sent them the non-invoice from the Water Board. 

I could see that I had the option to appeal my account closure. But when I clicked the link to appeal, the first thing I had to upload was... a document that I didn't have. As I had already explained. 

Given that banks have worldwide reporting, I was also a bit concerned that this might put our other accounts at risk. Although I was doing my best not to be too anxious. 

I didn't hear back from customer support until some hours later, and they said they were sorry to hear that this had happened, they didn't know what had triggered it, and they recommended that I appeal and upload whatever documents I thought might help, including the non-invoice from the Water Board.

I didn't want to rush into it. And Richard thought it would be a good idea to get our bank statements showing our street address. I also remembered that our house insurance bill is due around now, and that has both our names on it. 

So on Thursday morning, we walked to the bank. A helpful, friendly man on the desk examined our documents, understood our problem, and - after filling in a lot of different fields on his computer - told us that future statements would show our street address rather than the PO Box. But nothing will change on statements until the next one is generated... at the end of June.  However, he did print out some of the relevant documentation that showed our names and address. He and Richard were chatting like old friends by this stage, and would probably have continued doing so if I hadn't pointed out that a queue was starting to form behind us. 

When we got home, Richard phoned the insurance brokers. They said that, yes, they could generate a new invoice, but for some reason they couldn't email it to him. But if we were willing to go there, we could sign and collect it. So off we went in the car, and eventually found the right office. For the first twenty years or so that we lived in Cyprus, the broker came to our house, and we signed the papers here, and wrote him a cheque. For the past few years, it's all happened via email and online payments. So this was the first time we had actually been to the office.

Once again it was quite slow, punctuated by general chat, and without the benefit of air conditioning. But eventually we left, with an invoice that showed both our names, our street address, AND a recent date. Insurance wasn't mentioned as one of the possible documents that the appeal accepted, but I wanted to upload as many possibilities as I could manage. 

The insurance brokers' office is very close to where the Electricity Board used to be. And Richard thought we might as well get my name changed on one of those bills, too. So we found where the new offices are, and they had a similar process to the water board. Our ticket said we should expect to wait 17 minutes. In the event it was over 40 minutes, but eventually we were seen. Again it seemed to take a long time to do something which seemed quite straightforward to us. But at last it was done. And

they gave me a stamped verification that one of the electricity bills is now in my name. 

That afternoon, I scanned the new documents, and clicked the 'appeal' button. It allowed me to upload up to ten documents, which is good, as I had eight of them to send. There was a brief hiatus where everything appeared to upload, and then crashed. But Richard pointed out that some of the scanned documents were quite large, and the total upload was over 30 megabytes. So I scanned the larger ones again, and this time they were taken. None of the documents was exactly what was asked for, and I didn't hold out a whole lot of hope. It said that they would take up to 15 days to process them. 

Half an hour later, I received an apology email saying my account was reinstated. 

Alleluia!

But... there was still a red notification in my account telling me I needed to upload a recent utility bill in my name, and that I must do so by the end of June. Which, of course, I could not do. 

So I got in touch with customer services again. And I also made sure to download all the statements from the account, and details of exactly how much I had in each currency, and other information which I thought I might have lost. 

To my tremendous relief, about twelve hours later I had another message from customer support saying my documents were accepted, and the red notification should have gone. Which, indeed, it had. 

I was very thankful. 

As Shakespeare put it, all's well that ends well....

Except that, just after my bank account was reinstated, I had an email from GESY, the Cyprus equivalent of the NHS. It said they need to recheck that I'm still eligible, and that they do this routinely every few years. 

The email said I had to print out a form, and fill it in, and scan it, and send it back, along with my ID, Richard's ID, our marriage certificate....and a year's worth of utility bills that show my name.

Sigh. 

Replumbing the mains water

 I check our electricity usage most days. I've done so ever since we discovered that the old meter for our guest flat was faulty. But I rarely check the water. The cost of water in Cyprus seems remarkably low, given how scarce water is, and we just paid the bills, with a quick glance at the usage each time. It was typically between about 20 and 35 metric tonnes each quarter, and never more than about 70 euros, often rather less. 

But then early in February, we received a bill where the cost was a lot higher than usual. And a quick glance at the consumption bar graph showed this:

What, we wondered, could have triggered such a high water usage in the previous three months? We hadn't been watering the garden much, because it was the winter. We had previously had problems with water tanks that led to somewhat higher bills, but never this high. And we hadn't had any problems with our tanks for some time. Occasionally one of the toilets would keep flushing water through, but we usually noticed and it never lasted for long. 

We wondered if the meter was faulty. But thought we had better check first to see if we could work out what was going on. Neither the washing machine nor dishwasher was running, and none of the taps were dripping. The toilets had filled up - there should not have been any water usage. But the little dial on the meter was, albeit slowly, going around. So Richard turned the water off, and it stopped. Apparently not a faulty meter, then. 

What seemed likely was that there was a leak in the pipes running between the meter and the boiler room. Unfortunately, those pipes were underneath the driveway, impossible to access without digging it up. Not something we could do, and we didn't like to think what it might cost, let alone the potential disruption, if we could even find a plumber who might be willing to try. 

But Richard had a better idea. He had been planning to re-plumb the house either later this year, or next year anyway. For the mains water, he wanted to replace the old black plastic piping with a new type that's less flexible as it has an aluminium centre. Apparently the old style pipes are easier to join, but no longer meet European standards, as older pipes can contaminate the water with chemicals. 

So he checked Mr Bricolage, our local DIY shop, and found that it was easy to find lengths of the correct kind of pipe:

However, he had a busy few weeks ahead of him, so knew that it wasn't something he could tackle immediately. Since we didn't want to continue wasting such a volume of water, we got into a routine of switching the mains off for most of the day. It turns out to be a great blessing in this kind of situation that we still have cold water tanks as well as hot water tanks, which supply the water for the shower, sinks, toilets and appliances. The kitchen sink has a special knob to turn to get mains water for drinking.

So, every morning for about three months, after my walk or shopping, I would turn the mains water on for half an hour or so. I would then fill up water jugs with mains water for drinking, while the water tank on the roof filled up again. I also kept careful note of how much water we used each day.  

The water bill states (in Greek) that each person in a household, on average, typically uses about 11 cubic metres of water per quarter. So that would be 22 cubic metres (or metric tonnes) per quarter for two of us, and dividing that by 90 days, works out at around 244 litres, total, per day. I was pleased to find that we used between 190 and 250 litres per day, with the higher ones being days when we ran the washing machine, the dishwasher (sometimes twice, if we were entertaining), and also watered the plants.

However, on one day when I somehow forgot to turn the mains water off again until late afternoon, we used over 500 extra litres. The leak underground, if that's what it was, was getting worse. 

When our next bill arrived, a couple of weeks ago, I was pleased to see that it was around 50 euros, with a quarterly consumption of 21 cubic metres. Just under the expected 'average', despite the wastage at the start of the period, and on the day when I forgot to turn it off. I had become quite accustomed to my daily filling of jugs, but Richard decided that the time had come to replace the pipes. So he measured carefully, bought the pipes and fittings, and one of our local teenage friends came to help.

It was more complex than they had expected - as tends to happen with this kind of project - but this is just after the meter was disconnected from the old underground pipes and connected to the new ones:

I'm no good with that kind of thing, and our young friend is strong, and flexible. She is also very interested in this kind of thing, and, being considerably younger than we are, has no problem getting up and down, attaching the new pipes neatly to the wall. 

They worked for about three hours on Tuesday afternoon, and another three or four hours on Wednesday morning. There were a few glitches when one of the fittings in the boiler room wasn't quite right, but eventually all was done. It seems very strange not turning the water off each morning, and I am still checking the daily usage... but it seems to be as it should be. Richard was evidently correct in his surmise that the underground pipes were leaking.  

In the next week or two, they are going to replace the guest flat piping in the same way.

Family visiting us in Cyprus

 The family departed on Thursday evening. As always, we were very sad to see them go, but I think it's been an enjoyable visit, albeit shorter than the one two years ago. Just twelve days in all, but we managed to fill them pretty well. 

Before they came, we had made a list of all the places we might go to, and things we might do, including 'ice cream every day', although we didn't quite manage that. We were extremely thankful that some friends who are out of Cyprus at present were willing to lend us their seven-seater vehicle. That meant we could plan outings that needed a car easily without having to leave one of the adults behind, or borrowing an extra car and then having extensive discussions about who goes in each one...

We had also decided to have a basic, simple menu for evening meals rather than anything that would require a lot of time and effort. Last summer my granddaughter (seven and a half at the time) wrote this, as her ideal main meal menu for a couple of weeks:

I didn't follow that - I rarely cook any kind of pasta, for instance, and I don't think I have ever bought chicken nuggets. A casserole seemed an over-complicated thing to do, too, when out of six people there's one vegetarian, one dairy-free person, and two who don't like any cooked vegetables, or hot spices. 

But still, we bought some dairy-free milks rather than me making them; we bought some jarred sauces, and ready-made burgers. We even had a bag of oven chips (fries) which someone had left behind in our guest flat. Then we planned to have at least two take-aways (one of them pizza), and a meal out. 

I love being able to watch a flight path online when we're expecting visitors: 

They arrived on a Saturday evening, quite late, and were tired Sunday morning. We played some games and the children found plenty of books to read. I had put on food in the slow cooker for lunch - my slow-cooker has three separate compartments, so I could make one chicken dish with chopped onions and a little hot spice, one chicken dish without onions and with less spice, and one chickpea version (with onions and hot spice). This would account, I hoped, for all preferences. With roast potatoes.  I made sure I had cut up plenty of carrots, cucumbers and red peppers for each meal, as well as cooking other veg for the adults. 

After lunch we took them for a short walk to the newly-built local 'Salina Park':

Later in the afternoon our close friends came over - our grandchildren call them their 'Cyprus cousins' - for games and a film followed by a shared meal. They also brought their turtle, Jabba, since our  granddaughter is passionate about turtles, and wanted the opportunity to look after one. Since our friends were going away a week later, this worked out perfectly. 

We didn't go out for ice cream on the Sunday, but I had made some pineapple/coconut (dairy-free) ice cream, which was part of our dessert in the evening. 

On Monday, as described in more detail in a longer post, we went to the Camel Park in Mazatos, followed by a picnic near the Angeloktisti Church.  Then we came home to play a board game, followed by ice creams at our local (excellent) Italian gelateria. We all decided to be a little adventurous, and I selected a scoop of the forest fruits yogurt ice cream. It's one of the best I had ever tasted.

On Tuesday morning, the 'Cyprus cousins' came over, as they do every Tuesday, for a games morning. In the afternoon, we went into the town as the children wanted hats and sunglasses.  We also took them to have a look at the ice-age exhibition that was on display in Zouhouri Square:

Then we walked along the sea front, and bought some ice creams from one of the little booths. It was okay, but nowhere near as good as the ice creams at the Italian shop. 

On Wednesday we had our longest trip, to the Paradox museum in Limassol, as written about in detail in another post.  We then had our picnic in the Limassol municipal park, which was huge. 

We were all quite tired when we got home, and didn't manage to get out for ice creams. But after our evening meal, we got out our sorbet-maker, a gadget we haven't used in several years. We had bought some bags of ready-frozen fruit, and it made an excellent dessert.

On Thursday, we were invited to a cooked lunch at the 'Cyprus cousins', which was very enjoyable. And we were quite full afterwards. But after a little break, we did manage more ice creams at 'Milk and Honey' by Mackenzie sea front. 

On Friday, we had our third (and last) full morning trip out, this time to Cyherbia, as described in this post, followed by a picnic in Rizoelia park.  I don't think we went out for ice creams that day, but in the evening we finished up the ones in the freezer. 

Saturday was more of a lazing around day; we find it important not to rush around too much, and we were all quite tired after an enjoyable but quite busy week. In the afternoon we went for a walk in the Salt Lake trail, including climbing up to the bird-watching place.

We didn't see any flamingoes, but it was a pleasant walk, and we came back through the park area. Near the main park entrance where we came out is a small corner shop that sells speciality nuts and dried fruit.  Friends had told us that they also did ice creams, so we went in there, only to be told that they no longer sold ice creams. So much for eating at a different place each day - over the road is the Italian place we like so much, so it didn't take much persuasion for us to go there again. 

Sunday was another relaxing day, the one where we had planned to go out to lunch. So after some board games in the morning - nobody felt awake enough to go to one of the church services - we drove to town, and had an excellent lunch at Alexander's. It's family-friendly, the menu is extensive, and it's pretty good value. It also offers something 'on the house' after eating, and three people opted for ice cream. 

Since the family would be leaving before Easter, we decided to give them the Easter eggs we had bought a week early. So there was plenty of chocolate for the afternoon, and I had made some more ice cream at home for our evening dessert. So we didn't go out for any more ices that day. 

On Monday, we thought we might look at the 'Alice in Wonderland' themed Easter fair which had been advertised for Salina Park.

No times were given anywhere, but we had seen the decorations with streamers and cards and 'Alice' figures. We assumed it would be open by ten o'clock, so around 10.30 we got there. There were some deflated bouncy castles in a corner, and several closed booths that were evidently intended to sell things. But nothing open. 

So we walked a little further to the Municipal Park, which our grandchildren had very much enjoyed in previous visits.  And we knew that there was a little cafe there selling ice creams, (and other things) which we had never been to. So we bought ice creams there, and liked them very much. They were less expensive than other places we had been to, too. 

The children particularly like the zip-line, and since there were almost no other children there, they had it mostly to themselves.

We wondered if the Salina Park fair might be opened when we returned home for lunch, but there was still no sign of any activity.

In the afternoon we stayed in for more board games, and our granddaughter took Jabba the visiting turtle outside for a swim in the lid of our sand box.

In the evening, around 7.30pm, Richard and I walked back to the park, wondering if the fair was open in evenings only. Evidently something had been happening, as there were a couple of booths closing down, and a few children on a bouncy castle. We saw a caravan with an office, so he went in to ask when it was open. We were told 4pm-8pm on Tuesday, and 10am-8pm Wednesday. 

The family had been here for nearly ten days and we hadn't yet been to the beach. So we determined to rectify that omission on Tuesday. Our daughter and son-in-law went out on a lunchtime date in town, while we looked after the children, then we met on one of the local beaches in the afternoon. It was perfect weather, and although I mostly sat on my own in a shady spot, everyone else had a lot of fun.

Afterwards, we walked to another of the Makenzie beach ice cream places, Dolce. Most of them, slightly to our surprise, were closed. We all liked the Dolce ices very much, and the ambience of the cafe too. 

On Wednesday, three of our party went sailing. Our granddaughter adamantly didn't want to, and wanted her mum to stay with her. So the three of us remaining at home thought we might wander along to Salina Park; after all, we had been assured that it would be open from 10am.  Knowing that things often don't start on time, we waited until nearly 11am. 

And nothing was happening. The bouncy castles were still deflated, and the booths were still empty. Still, the playground was, for the first time, open for use:

So we spent some time there - there were almost no other children about, even though the Cyprus school Easter holidays had now started. There isn't a lot of equipment there, but enough to keep an eight-year-old occupied for fifteen minutes or so. 

Then we walked around the park again, looking at the empty booths.... 

By this stage, the bouncy castle was being inflated again, and we saw one table where someone was putting out board books in Greek.... and there was a popcorn stand open. But nothing else. And no signs of anyone else doing anything, even though it was now nearly two hours after the fair was supposedly open. 

In the afternoon, when the guys got back after a good sail, the popular vote went to the Italian place on Fanoroumeni, for the third time, for the day's ice creams. And yes, it was very good as well as conveniently close. 

Thursday dawned all too quickly, the last day of the holiday. Our son and daughter-in-law were treating us all to a meal out, at one of our favourite restaurants in town, Al Sultan (Lebanese). The four adults shared an excellent 'grand mezze' intended for two people, and the children had halloumi in pitas with chips. 

And we were all so full by the end that we decided against ice creams. There was still pre-Easter chocolate to be finished anyway before they had to be at the airport for their flight back to the UK.

It was a really good break for us all; I felt relaxed afterwards too, after time with people I love, outings to different places, minimal cooking... and lots of ice cream. 

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.