Improving all the time.

After yesterday things just had to get better and they did. St. Mark' s Square (SMS) is virtually empty at 8 o'clock in the morning except for the street cleaners and delivery men. I found it enthralling  to see how the infrastructure in Venice works without lorries and delivery vans, there are many and various custom made hand trucks to deliver stuff and take away the dirty linen etc which is all delivered to the nearest point on the canal by a slightly wider version of a British narrow boat . The refuse is even more interesting, all the rubbish is collected in  large mesh, wheeled containers and taken to the bin-barge which picks up the container with a crane, hoists it over the barge and lowers it into the hold where it automatically empties itself. I know what you are thinking "what a spotter"
Anyway after doing a recce to find the Realto bridge ( quite easy when you follow the signs ) I went down to the Maritime Museum well worth a couple of hours if you are a boatie like me. I had another  attempt to get lost and feeling like a rest I jumped on the nearest vaporetto which after a call at the Lido dropped me at Punta Sabbioni, a great place for a lunch stop and about a third of Venice prices. I have overheard tourists complain about waiting for the vaporetto they want but it is best to just jump on the first one that arrives, today I started at SMS then as above, the next vaporetto dropped me at Burano and after walking to Mazzorbo, I caught a lift to Forte Nove and onwards to the Grand Canal and meandered back to my hotel on foot a total of nine and a half hours of adventure.
Tonight I have been to watch Italian opera sung in Italian by Italians,  La Traviata performed at the Scuola Grande di San Teodoro, it was superb.
More soon.

I don't believe it

Harry, Marmalade and I had a great Thursday, we worked on the village garden to get rid of Wednesday night's alcohol then we tidied up the house, had a full fry and made our way to the airport hotel in Wilmslow. After a shower we went up the road to the Vintage Inn had their excellent gammon and chips washed down with a couple of pints of real ale then we turned in to sleep the sleep of the righteous. But while we slept the gods of misery were at work.

We arrived at the airport at 0540 to be told that the flight was delayed until 09.00 eventually taking off at 0915. The flight was fine and sorting out the vaporettos to our new booking on a luxury motor yacht went like clockwork but that was when the gods intervened once again, the boat was out of service and Booking.com had advised me of this by email to my old email address at 0300 while I was in the land of nod. I eventually contacted then and they sent me to a hotel just off St Mark's Square, by the time I had dragged my luggage there through the masses of tourists it was 1730 only to be told that they had no record of the booking. I eventually got sorted with a shoe-box of a room just a spit from St. Marks Square so you can imagine how much that is going to cost. By this time I was beginning to regret travelling to Venice so I headed of away from the tourists and found a local bar where I ordered a pint, the waiter asked if I wanted a medium or a large beer, I looked around and saw that people had either a 0.2 or a 0.4 cl beer in front of them so I asked for a large beer, when it arrived it was a 2 litre stein at17.50 euros! Ouch! However, since then things improved, I took everyone's advice and got lost, in fact I was so lost that I was still walking at 9 pm so I stopped and had a pizza and got directions back to my hotel.
I had been warned that Venice was expensive especially around St Mark' Square but water and Coke in the local mini- market are twice the price of the mini-bar in my hotel room - shocking.
Ah we'll tomorrow is another day.

All Change.

Keira left me all her surplus food when she left so I had a few days of cupboard surprise meals, I decided on Wednesday that a visit to the local kebab shop was in order, the nice chap must have thought Keira was still here so he misunderstood my order and gave me two full kebabs - it took me nearly an hour to eat them both! This piggishness probably account for the 7 lbs I have put on in 5 weeks.
I also visited Spirou the local tonsorial artist who had done such a splendid job on my first visit, he asked if I wanted it short like last time and then proceeded to take it down to the wood - I will be wearing a hat for the next few weeks.
The two days of thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday prepared me for my return and after delays and an extended 5+ hour flight home the clear blue skies on Sunday made me wish I had returned sooner.
I have thought long and hard about renting the apartment in Tersefanou it is a great idea for long sunny spells away from the British weather but it would also limit my options for adventures elsewhere, I have decided that I will not be going ahead with it. Sorry to everyone who was planning holidays when I was not there but, more adventures and more blogs to come.

If you want to rent the apartment it is only £150.00 per month, or for sale at £32500.00 fully furnished.

All alone.

Keira and Charlie flew out on Saturday night and after dropping them at the airport I raced back to the apartment to watch Scotland capitulate to a lack lustre England rugby team performance, but the Liverpool football result and the Irish rugby team effort made up for that. Sorry Billy Boy, Johnny Boy, Marc and the population of Wales.
As you can imagine it has been quiet here since I was abandoned by my family but I have been out and about in the sunshine and I managed to circumnavigate all 6+ miles of the Salt Lake on Sunday. The temperature was 18 degrees and as you can imagine I was quite warm which made it all the funnier when I saw a couple of local girls waiting for the bus wearing fur trimmed padded coats and scarves.
I have now arranged to rent the apartment in Tersefanou from the end of March providing it is not sold in the mean time, that will give me the opportunity to see if it is a good thing and if so to look around for a more permanent place. I have looked into driving down through Turkey with Edith and then catching the ferry across to Northern Cyprus but I don't fancy the trip and there may be complications crossing the inner Cyprus border so I am  now looking at a Grimaldi Lines Freighter cruise from Salerno to Limassol that way I can tour Italy on the way - sounds like a plan. When did I find time to work for a living????????????

 

No Visitors.

I arrived in Cyprus on 11th January and the weather was warm and dry just needed a fleece in the evenings then Kay visited and we had three days of rain and high winds now Charlie's dad Frank has arrived and the temperature has taken a nose dive, so no more visitors please.
Yesterday Keira and I went to have a look at a one bedroom apartment that is up for sale or rent, I have asked to rent the apartment from the end of March so will wait to hear if my offer is accepted. Notice ONE BEDROOM.
If my offer for the above was accepted I was considering bringing Edith out but the car ferry from Athens does not run anymore, so I will have to reconsider, any suggestions?
Charlie seems to have the whole archaeological visiting sewn up, every visit has to have a play park as compensation.

She has also turned out to be a superb beer guard on our daily visit to the supermarket.

I'm going to miss her when she goes back on Saturday.

And another thing

Wow where does time go? In my case spending time with an archaeologist daughter and an unstoppable grand-daughter the answer is nowhere. In the last 10 days we have visited archaeological sites in Kourion (3 sites), Paphos, Nicosia Museum, Soli, Vouni and Salamis.

Posing in the amphitheatre at Kourion

Dancing on someone's grave

Can we go now Mummy

A fairy at the Tombs of the Kings

                            Of course Charlie and I found other non-historical things just as interesting.

Millipede/Centipede at Kourion

Collecting interesting stones

Identifying the local flora

Collecting snail shells

We have also been to beaches and play-parks and eaten so much kleftico and souvlakia that I have increased my girth considerably more than expected. On my last trip I lost weight -  I would suggest that says something about the respective culinary offerings.

One of my self-imposed jobs on this trip was to locate David's grave and sort it out as Jan would want, it had not been moved as I had been told but was still in its original position framed by two palm trees in the full Cyprus sun. I went to the cemetery and cleared away four bags of dead plants and weeds and put on another two bags of stone chippings, I think Jan would have approved of my efforts. I celebrated with a Cyprus mixed sandwich on the seafront watching the world go by.

We had good weather until Kay came out, she brought the rain with her but we had a full day over the north yesterday and the girls have been on Nissi beach all day and have come back toasted, the forecast for the next few days is mixed but it is warmer than the UK so I'm not complaining.

The Next Step

I flew Easyjet to Larnaca from Liverpool on Saturday 11th, great flight but I wish Easyjet would up-rate their seat cushions, I was walking like John Wayne on my way to the baggage claim.
Keira and Charlie picked me up at the airport with a Charlie made sign 'Grandad', they are in the apartment next door which is ideal for Charlie who uses both apartments as one large play area. What a change it has been not only in climate (paddling in the sea today and looking for treasure in rock pools) but also in lifestyle it is now 7pm and we are only just thinking of going out for dinner.

Planting flowers (Charlies idea)

Pirate wave from the treasure hunters

Mummy translating the menu

The apartment is in Kiti and so far my contact with the locals has all been very, very positive even more so than usual in Cyprus, maybe it is because we are away from the tourist locations and the real Cypriot friendliness and hospitality is more in evidence, shame I am only here for five weeks.