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  • Day 7

    Maa and closed sites...

    May 8, 2018 in Cyprus ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    After last night's terrific storm I had hoped to wake to blue skies but sadly in the morning the sky was the colour of a bruise and the thunder was still rumbling. Soon it was pouring again and the hotel terraces were awash. Unsurprisingly this meant breakfast was indoors and there was a distinct shortage of tables. After breakfast we spent some time musing on next year's trip though the April wedding replay is throwing out the planning. Much tooing and froing but eventually it looks like being the peloponnese.....
    After this we decided we could visit the archaeology museum whilst we waited for the rain to stop. Sadly or is closed for restoration... We decided to head on to Maa Paleaokastro to look at the chalcolithic period remains there. Google maps was very useful in negotiating back streets of Paphos to get to the main road towards Coral Bay. This area, even more than Paphos is a riot of cheap souvenir shops, cafes offering English breakfasts and assorted heavily tattooed clientele. Maa was tucked away from this souvenir strip in a quiet area just back from the promontory. We walked down a short lane with various brightly coloured flowers forming the hedge (no idea of the varieties apart from some honeysuckle) to the ticket office. More shameless declarations of old age (Beth and I are younger but it complicates the kitty) and we were handed our tickets and the man behind the counter shot off to open the museum! I assume we were the first visitors today.

    The first evidence is a tooth like array of stones that provided an early barrier. Beyond this were the remains of old stone walls. Margaret and I found a lot of curved clay pieces which we suspect might have been crude amphorae but who knows that far back (1200BCE). An interesting site, only occupied for 50 years and one that with modern Lidar and thermo luminescence dating might yield more information. The museum was odd a large modern underground chamber with excellent acoustics and some good info boards but the cases containing artifacts had been removed.

    After Maa we decided to head to the reconstructed huts at Lemba which we had seen the brown sign for on the way up. On arrival it also proved to closed for reconstruction...oh well nothing for it but to find lunch. Back to the hotel and then we headed to a taverna nearby. Everyone was opting for the healthy option of a village salad but I decided to try sheftali.... Skinless pork and lamb sausages served with salad and pitta.... Suddenly the whole table had changed their minds. Fortunately it turned out to be a good choice.
    Afterwards we took the cars to top up the tanks,we hand them back this evening and then to the pool.
    A quick read, a brief swim and up to the terrace for cocktails.. Strawberry Daiquiris today. Hic
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