Sunday 1 April 2017

Tomorrow we go home but first we have a major historical site to visit and it is within walking distance!  Jackie came here on a previous visit and was brought by coach – from the Anabel at the other end of the sea front – but did not go via the direct route!

Most of the Paphos Archaeological Park relates to excavations of Roman remains and typically dates from the first century AD when the Roman empire was at its greatest strength.

As the photos show here, as in Sicily and also in recent discoveries at Silchester, the high quality of the floor mosaics stands out.  It feels like there was a competition in progress between various rich Romans to demonstrate their individual wealth through the mosaics used in the flooring.

The photos are here.

The overall site is huge and many of the mosaics are covered at this time of year – there is obviously much more here than is on display at the time of our visit as a number of displays have explanation boards but the mosaics are covered by a layer of small stones (probably covering some protective plastic sheeting).  Some of the best mosaics are now under cover of buildings and this process will no doubt continue as money becomes available.

The Park is also close to the castle and the restaurants around the remaining port area (commercial port operations have all moved to Limassol).  Down in this area someone is playing music loudly  which is carrying up to us as we inspect the Saranta Colones castle.  We had not really noticed it but then they play “Somewhere over the Rainbow” – a piece we always associate with our daughter Stephanie and which I always feel means she is somewhere close by keeping an eye on what we are doing.

We cover only some of the site – it would take much longer to see the entirety if all of the mosaics were on display – in about two hours during the morning – and we feel a few spots of rain so assume it means it is lunchtime.  But in fact all we get are those few spots!

Lunch is taken in one of the many restaurants along the harbour seafront – and there is plenty of choice both of restaurant and then on the menus themselves.

We wander back to the hotel and try and enjoy a little sunshine; although the sun is there it is perhaps not quite warm enough as we might like.

Off home tomorrow so we pack cases this evening.  In the morning after breakfast we leave them locked away before heading into Paphos for one last meal before it is time to return to the airport.  Elephant are on the case this time to recover the car (the damage from the concrete ball seems to go unnoticed).  BTW I did not hit the concrete ball – we merely found it near the car and with evidence that someone had rolled it there – not easily as it was heavy and nor could we identify where the ball had been before it was moved as there were no missing balls!

And we arrive home early on Monday morning.  Next up is a short trip to Devon but with more posts than this.