Cyprus (Part 2)

Mac and Jos had recommended that we visit Omodos on the southern outskirts of the Tróödos mountains and also walk up to the Caledonian Falls. On the drive up there we passed Kolossi Castle.

Kolossi Castle

Kolossi Castle stands on land given to the Knights Hospitaller by the Lusignans in 1210. The original castle became the Knights’ headquarters (their commanderie) after the Crusaders finally lost the Holy Land and, even after the order moved to Rhodes, the castle remained their local headquarters.

Kolossi Castle. Centre: the sugar factory. Bottom right: Áyios Efstáthios, the Knights’ place of worship    

The original castle was destroyed in the early 15^th century and was then rebuilt on a smaller scale. The Venetians appropriated the castle in 1488, it deteriorated under Ottoman rule and the keep was restored by the British in 1933 (the ruins of the rest of the castle surround the keep). Interestingly, the local dessert wine, made in the hills around Limassol is called Commandaria, after the castle.

Ómodhos

It took us a further half hour or so to reach Ómodhos, in the southern foothills of the Tróödos mountains.  The village is, unusually, laid out around the monastery of the Holy Cross; in Greece monasteries are normally located on the outskirts of settlements.

Ómodhos Lace

The town is primarily given over to tourism, with lacework shops making up the majority of the commercial premises, closely followed by tavernas with prominent menus in English, German and Russian. Jos had warned us to ‘beware the Lace Grannies’ who pounce on you from their lacework shops and try to sell their wares.

The monastery is of Byzantine origin but the current buildings date from the early and mid-19^th century. In its cloisters is a museum showing pictures of a number of EOKA fighters, detailing how and when they died – all rather one-sided.

Medieval ‘linos’ wine press

Stumbling around the, admittedly rather attractive, back streets of Ómodhos (to avoid the hard sell of the ‘Lace Grannies’), we came across 5 bottles of wine in the street. We knew this was significant and in an adjacent building we found an amazing medieval wine press (linos). In use until relatively recently (possibly the 1970s), the weight of the huge stone was wound off the ground which pressed the grapes between boards at the other end of the beam. The grape juice was tapped off into large terracotta kioupía (urns) to be fermented.

From Ómodhos we continued up into the mountains towards the ‘hill-station’ of Platres, enjoying the fantastic scenery as we went.

Aubergine purée dip

Just north of Platres we stopped at a trout farm and enjoyed a much larger lunch than we had anticipated. We were served a starter of some lovely humus and an excellent aubergine purée for which we must find a recipe.

To walk off lunch we took a stroll a kilometre or so uphill to the Kaledonian Falls. It was a pleasant walk alongside and criss-crossing a stream and we met a number of other people along the way, perhaps all walking off a large lunch too. The Rough Guide describes the falls as an ‘impressive 11m cascade’. Nicky, more accurately I feel, called them the ‘Kaledonian leaky tap’.

The ‘impressive 11m cascade’ of the Kaledonia Falls

During Venetian rule, many Orthodox priests retreated to the Tróödos mountains and here built and decorated tiny churches out of sight of the influence of the church of Rome. The frescoes (more properly murals) with which the churches were decorated showed the saints and scenes from the Bible, some in almost comic strip form, and are thought to be the way in which the illiterate peasants were taught important biblical stories. A number of the churches still survive today and are designated UNESCO heritage sites. On our return towards Limassol we stopped at one of the lesser known churches (I think it was called Timos Stefanos) to the south-east of Tróödos.

We parked the hire car (which was not taking well to the steep roads in Tróödos) a little short of the church and had just got out when we were greeted by a relatively old gentlemen who, in broken English (much better than our Greek) asked if we wanted to visit the church. When we said we did he directed us across the street to Alexandros, a very elderly gentleman who ushered us up the path, clutching an enormously large key. He opened the church, switched on the dim lighting and proudly showed us all the paintings, pointing out saints and particular stories. Given that the frescoes were made at least 700 years ago, the colours on many were quite amazing and the stories quite clearly ‘narrated’ in the pictures. We had a lovely 20mins or so exploring the tiny church but have no pictures of the frescoes as photography is prohibited inside.

After our visit to Tróödos we only had couple more days on the island. Elliot was able to leave work early on Wednesday 24 September and he, Trig and Holly took us back to BV, along with a full complement of provisons, more fitting for a month at sea than the day or two we expected. Holly had not seen BV before so we had some fun showing her around and letting her ‘steer’ whilst firmly attached to the quay! And, we proffed a rare picture of the two of us as well.

A rare photo of the two of us

It had been a lovely break staying with Mac and Jos and seeing so much of Elliot and Trig and we were very sad to wave them goodbye. However, we knew that we needed to be making tracks back towards Marmaris, the question was: would the wind be kind to us?

Limassol, Cyprus