Today, when we woke up, we were a little confused. My ipad said 9:00, but George’s watch said 8:00. I tend to always believe my phone/pad but his watch was correct yesterday. We quickly learned that everyone switched the clocks forward last night. So we started the day a little later than expected. We had a quick breakfast, then hit the road with Ricos to visit Kolossi Castle.

Kolossi Castle is a former Crusader stronghold west of Limassol. It held great strategic importance and contained a sugar mill at one time, one of Cyprus’s main exports in the Middle Ages. The original castle was possibly built in 1210 and dwellers included the Templars and Hospitallers. It’s an impressive square building with lovely fireplaces on each floor.

Next we drove to the Lemesos salt lake. It is the largest inland body of water on the island. It lies within a British Overseas Territory. We say the gigantic antennas that are said to be part of it radio listening post network in the Middle East. We also saw the citrus plantations still run by the Cypriots. The lake is a hot spot for bird watching. We were hoping to see some flamingoes, but the water is too far away from the road, and none were spotted. There’s another salt lake near Larnaca that well go to later to see them.

Then we drove across sand flats where people were flying model planes and wind parasailing. Thank goodness Ricos was driving because we couldn’t find the road and were four wheeling it looking for a way out, but all was good. Next onto Lady’s Mile beach – a shadeless 7km stretch of hard-packed sand and pebble is the town’s closest beach. The water is typically very calm, but today it was windy and lots of white water. Wendy dipped her toe in and said it was quite cold.

We drove into downtown Lemesos to the Lemesos Castle and Medieval Museum. We parked and walked through a carob museum to get there.

The oldest part of the Castle dates back to 1228 and is likely to be an ancient Byzantine Castle. Over the years it had been demolished and rebuilt numerous times. In 1538 the Turks landed at Limassol and conquered the Castle. Bragadino, the Venetian Governor of Cyprus decided to have the Castle demolished in order to prevent any further use of it or its being conquered by the Turks to be used as a fort. It was eventually rebuilt, by the Ottomans and used as a prison by the Turks until 1950. The view of the city from the top was beautiful. And the tombs and other artifacts were quite interesting.

Then we went to Mikella and Angelo’s house for lunch with the family. There were about 15 of us there (Mikella, Angelo, Leah, Michael, Vera, Rico, Leah, Stella, George, Angelo’s parents, and us). Angelo’s is a urologist, and their house is a modern masterpiece, and the most phenomenal home Wendy has ever seen. Absolutely beautiful. They had a $2000 Spanish Gaudi front door handle, but it was quite cool. We ate and ate and ate again. This time, there were 30 different things to eat. I thoroughly enjoyed the sound of the family members talking and debating each other in Greek. I felt like family. Leah (7 years old) and I had fun playing a few games on the ipad. I had my first taste of Zivania. Little too strong for me. It is 45% alcohol content. Other than drinking, it is used for other purposes – treat wounds, for massaging sore body parts, as a remedy for colds and toothaches or as a warming-up drink during the cold months. Angelo keeps his in an oak barrel so it’s an amber color (it’s usually clear). George said it helped his digestion.

The family is sure Wendy is part of the family and could be Yia Yia’s other daughter. We all find this quite humorous.

Needless to say we didn’t eat dinner.

But we decided to take a walk by the sea, and meander through Saint Andrews street before heading home.