Kykkos Monastery

Today we drove into the mountains, and explored the Kykkos Monastery.

We started our day with breakfast at our lodging, and then hit the road for a long two hour drive into the mountains. The driving was quite windy, and the roads were narrow, so it was slow going. Eventually we made it to the monastery, and enjoyed checking out the mosaics and painted ceilings. This monastery is the wealthiest in Cyprus, and was extremely ornate throughout. One section where we weren’t allowed to photograph was filled with gold treasures from the 4th century which was pretty neat to check out!

Once we’d had our fill in the monastery, we drove a bit further up the mountain to the Throni Hill Shrine, which was an ornate shrine sitting atop the mountain reached by an ornate bridge covered in mosaics. We enjoyed panoramic views of Cyprus from here, and then headed back for our long drive home. On our drive home we’d planned to stop in Lefkara which is a quaint authentic village with ancient homes, but we were met with a closed road and had to detour substantially. We opted instead to head home early, and walked through the town of Larnaca where we were staying to find an authentic Greek meal for dinner.Read more