Our first morning in Paphos was a slow one. We planned for 2 archeological sites that are close to us and, if time allows (which it definitely should), walk back up to the city’s center and explore. With that light of a program we could definitely allow ourselves to take it slow and sleep until we’re done.
After our morning ablutions, we began our day with breakfast at 📍Cera. The menu promised simple enough choice of Italian fares and pizza for breakfast (what most people would call lunch) is something we do enjoy. I strayed from my usual pizza margarita and went for a protein bruschetta, Karine stayed with the classic. The pizza was great when judging by outside of Italy standards and the focaccia with tomatoes, cheese, egg and turkey was a good pick. They did coffee at good amateur level—they know about ratios, prep the puck consistently but never explored outside of the 1:2 ratio and accept that coffee should be a little bitter.
After breakfast we started making our way towards our first site 📍The Tombs of the Kings. You might remember from yesterday’s log, a dark wizard somewhere contradicted all of our weather apps and forecasted rain. Well the damn wizard was right. We could see a band of dark clouds ahead and about halfway to our destination it started raining. The light drizzle in beginning increased steadily and turned into good downpour as we took refuge at the first coffee shop we found.
Sitting at the coffee shop we frantically started to research weather data sources. They all had a very different take on current conditions and future conditions. Some would say it’s sunny now (definitively not) others said it was raining predicting the end in minutes, hours and one even went to predicting rain for an entire day. We talked it over and decided to give up on the day, head to the Airbnb and if the weather let out a little we would go do the closest site and try to do the the tombs coming back from hiking tomorrow. We waited for the rain to get back to a drizzle and headed towards home.
Like Gandalf showing up after Saruman’s death, the sun came out as we walked. By the time we were near the entrance of📍Archaeological Site of Nea Paphos it was close to sunny and we could see a good stretch of blue sky nearby, so we rolled the dice and went straight there without going to pick our rain gear as insurance against the rain.
The Neo Paphos site was disappointment. The sea view is great, don’t get me wrong, but the site itself lacks content. It is a UNESCO site, which usually is a sign of good content with a good quantity of historical context around it. It took us around an hour to walk the site and we were glad that there was an exit turnstile at the back of the site cutting out the walk to the 📍The Tombs of the Kings in half.
Contrary to its predecessor, the Tombs of the Kings is essentially 9 burial sites dug in the rock very close to one another and is fascinating to visit. We are used to seeing the content of the tombs in museums but not so much the container they were dug out from. Having many different ones close to one another was a treat.
After our last archeological site we took the board walk (which has very few boards) that connects the back of both sites and the port along the shore and enjoyed walking mostly to the sound of the waves crashing instead of the boulevard full of cars we were treated to during our way to the sites. The 📍Coastal Boardwalk takes a long detour so what would take a little over 30 minutes takes an hour to walk but is much much nicer.
We headed to the Airbnb, took apero on the balcony and retreated inside when the rain picked up again. We were lucky, by dinner time the rain had stopped and didn’t pickup until we were back for the night.
Dinner at the 📍The Windmill was disappointing. The only good thing about it was their bread and their location. There were also cats and one was lucky enough to get some of our leg of lamb. We tried offering some of our meatballs but, even the cat could tell it was cut with too much vegetables and refused to eat it.
After a full day in Paphos we can confidently say the cats are in rough shape. Every one we meet is full of scars but well fed (so there’s some care). We didn’t see many with the ear marks that are tell tale sign of a TNR program. That confirms Limassol as the best cat city in Cyprus.
Tomorrow we’re hiking. We’re planning to spend our last two full days in Cyprus hiking, maximizing beautiful vistas and nature time before starting the journey back home.
Places
Cera Paphos · Paphos
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Archaeological Site of the Tombs of the Kings · Chlorakas
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Archaeological Site of Nea Paphos · Paphos
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The Windmill · Paphos
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