Today the weather report is not encouraging and our relatives are tired from the prior day so we spend the morning mostly on the large terrace enjoying the almost 360 views of the ocean and the city.
And then the rain comes, it is quite a heavy downpour we are a bit scared that the terrace awning might not hold the water that is accumulating. Luckily it can be retracted automatically and we do just that for the duration of the rain.
With the rain ending we watch for a while the boats on the sea, we cannot decide if they are diving or a protest that we read in the paper that was blocking the harbor. And we can also watch the airplanes coming in, quite a few of them are coming from Sudan with people that are being evacuated with the unrest expanding and Khartoum going up in flames.
And then it is time for our walk to the downtown area, we want to visit today the castle and the church – castle first as it might close later in the day. Again we walk on the promenade but today on the lower one, close to the water. We expected more sand or even a beach but nothing like that exists in this area at least.
As we arrive at the castle it is time to walk around it and find the entrance. There are still lots of people on the street but not that many at the entrance and soon we are in and ready to explore.
The courtyard is smaller than we expected but impressive with lots of cannons pointing towards the harbor side. There are also quite a few lizards and sparrows that are fun to follow and watch.
One weird exhibit is a room with a deep cavity in the floor, we do not understand what it is until we see the photo – it was the gallows during English times.
The more typical museum advertised is quite small in only two rooms from which one is completely empty.
While there are not many items here what is exhibited is interesting including old photos of the different castles in Cyprus. The objects are mostly ceramics with some naive paintings on them, quite interesting.
Back outside we explore the artillery pieces in the yard, likely from the first (or second?) world war. They are disabled and rusted but still interesting to look at.
We find one more room with many grave markers and inscriptions mostly from Turkish times. Quite interesting!
Between all the Turkish tombstones there is also a Christian one and more important over the door a Laughing Dove nest which we take great care not to disturb.
It is time to go up on the walls, everything here looks recently repaired and rebuilt. You have to pass through one of the guard towers on the way to the top which is quite fun and probably a bit inconvenient if you cannot squeeze through.
From the seaside wall we see the promenade that we walked on and that extends far into the distance. It is quite a nice view and a good place to watch for pirates.
We walk the walls for a few more great views before going to the beach that starts on the other side of the castle. This allows us a great view of the castle from an invaders point of view, impressive but a bit on the small side. And then it is time to go to the next attraction the Church of Saint Lazarus.
