Today, we ate breakfast and headed to the mountains…Kakopetria. It’s about a 1 hour drive north from Lemesos. The day was beautiful again, sunny and in the 60s. Our first stop was in Platres, a little town on a windy road. There wasn’t much to see in the town except for some interesting graffiti. We stopped at the Lambouri Winery, and bought some Commandaria. It’s an amber colored sweet dessert wine.

Our next town was Troodos, and Mount Olympus. The drive there was very curvey, thin roads. Wendy was in the front seat with George and we all made it safely. The elevation was around 6000 feet, and it was quite chilly. During the summer it’s a booming town, but there were only a few tourists today. We could tell they’re tourists by the red license plates. All rental cars have them to warn the locals. There were a few shops so we picked up some dried fruit, and nuts (dried melon that tastes like orange peel but looks like a dried pepper, mixed fruit, orange peel, and pistachio brittle).

When we arrived in Kakopetria, we went straight to Rico’s and Vera’s house. It’s a lovely three bedroom two floor home. They’ve owned it for about 20 years. George learned how to work the heat, and lets say we’ve had a lot of problems this vacation with heat and plumbing. Because of the sewer systems, we are not allowed to throw toilet paper in the toilet. Yes you read that right. We have to throw it in the trash can.

We then drove into town to have lunch at one of Rico’s favorite restaurants. We had smoked trout, bread, olives and salad as an appetizer. Then this fabulous trout with garlic and butter…OMG it was incredible. It was served with boiled potatoes, stewed peas, spinach and egg mixture, cabbage, and fried potatoes. And for dessert coffee, tea and fruit. The juiciest and sweetest orange I’ve ever tasted. We’ve seen so many lemon and orange trees just filled with fruit.

We parked the car, and walked down the most picturesque village street. Our first stop was was a Resurrection church. An older woman dressed in black spoke to Carol in Greek explaining the art. The women in Cyprus wear black all the time if their husbands have died. There was a picture of the resurrection, and about 12 saints including mother Mary. Today is the Roman Good Friday, but the Greek Orthodox’s don’t celebrate Good Friday and Easter for another month. We each lit a candle in the church for Iris, and I lit mine for her and My father. It was small, quaint, and very charming.

We then walked down a set of stone stairs to a bridge at the bottom of the Old Mill Hotel. The water was pretty strong in the stream. The hotel looks like it would have been spectacular in its day. The rest of the walk was filled with stopping to take photos of adorable old buildings and streets. We did spot some UN troops in town. We’re not far from the Turkish border, the green line, so we weren’t surprised.

We were surprised by so many of the shops being closed, but meandered around without buying anything. We decided that the large town church looks much better from far away, after walking up to it and seeing all the paint coming off. We found a few restaurants for dinner…and ended up in an Argentina/Cyprus restaurant rated well in Tripadvisor. We ordered small plates to share of salad, halloumi, chicken kabobs, taziki, meatballs, bread, stuffed mushrooms and wine. Good, but once again too much food.

We still can’t find the sheets.