Cyprus - The Mediterranean, Ancient Grapes, Harrison Ford & The Tombs of The Kings

Almyra Resort

Room View Almyra Resort - Pafos

          It has been quite some time since my last entry on a travel destination...tracing all the way back to November.  This is largely due to Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi finally opening its doors to the
world, which I will cover in my next entry about life in Abu Dhabi.
          Cyprus...how did we end up in Cyprus.  When I told friends I was going there, I think it was the first place that most people had to look up on a map.  Before this trip I supposed we had covered the "basics" on many people's bucket lists.  To be perfectly honest, before moving to Abu Dhabi I would have never thought of Cyprus as a vacation spot, not because it is not a great place to visit (it is) but because if you grew up in the United States...Cyprus?
          We decided to visit Cyprus because we had a short amount of time to detox our brains from the title wave of work that has hit both of us over the last six months.  So when we spun the wheel on the cheap Etihad flights out of Abu Dhabi we found Cyprus to be a good catch.  It was also only a four hour flight which takes the travel wear and tear down to a
minimum.

TOK

Tombs of the Kings (TOK) 

           We knew very little going into our visit to Cyprus other than driving on the "wrong" side of the road and of course I had to check if there were either great movie sites (none) or ancient ruins in the region (many!).  We also knew that Cyprus was divided into two territories so to speak, there is a Turkish side and a Greek side.  I do not think we had enough time to tell the difference, but we landed on the Greek side in Larnaca airport and drove to the resort we had booked on the Greek side in the city of Pafos.
            As the summer heat of Abu Dhabi has already begun to cake our poor human bodies with sweat and fatigue, the cool Mediterranean summer breeze was more than just a delight as we made our left sided drive to Pafos with the windows down.  Thanks to my wife breaking me out of my fear of renting cars in foreign countries, our vacations have an added flavor of adventure not being tied to public transportation.  But I have to give the trophy to Sarah on this trip as she drove almost one hundred percent of the time.  Although I get the runner up for being one heck of a navigator.

TOK

TOK

           It was an hour and a half drive from the airport to the Almyra resort we booked on the Greek side, but it was a quick drive.  The buildings in the Pafos area look slightly aged, but I cannot undercut the beauty of the place, it is still very scenic and my stress from work quickly left my mind as we pulled into the resort.  Our room overlooked the Mediterranean as well as the lovely boardwalk in front of the resort.  We went to bed rather quickly on our first night planing to start fresh the next day.  We walked the boardwalk and stopped at a sea side Greek restaurant and had a nice spread before going to bed.  
           We only planned to visit the Tombs of the Kings and a brew pub (that I googled) on our first day.  Our helpful concierge told us that he Tombs would take us about two hours to explore.  We woke up rather early thanks to our habitual work schedules and headed out to the Tombs around ten.  I will admit it, from an archaeological standpoint, I had no clue about this island and the majority of

TOK

TOK

its history apart from it being briefly mentioned in the bible and Cyprus being the birth of Aphrodite.  The site of the Tombs of the Kings was amazing.   For being unknown to me it was a rather impressive ancient site.  The tomb site lies right along the coast of Cyprus and is scattered across roughly a two thousand foot radius.  There are clusters of these narrow recesses that open up into larger chambers containing burial plots cut into the stone.  Some tombs carved into the deeper rock unexpectedly expand into larger rooms.  The journey and exploration through these Tombs is very exciting as there is really no security around the site after you enter, you are free to explore each area
unrestricted.

            After a through look through the Tombs we got back in the car and made our drive into the center of the Island to find the Brew pub.  I cannot express enough how great it felt to drive with the Aphrodite's rock and drove down this steep road to get there.  The brewery was actually just opening so we were one of the few customers stopping by.  Overall it was pretty standard, apart from a very tasty Oktoberfest that I tried.  It was so good that I took six bottles back with me.  The owner came by and spoke to us for a while, he was originally from the U.K. and also had spent some time in Abu Dhabi before moving to Cyprus to start a Brewery.

Vasilikon Winery

The Vineyard Taverna - Pafos

windows down and feel the cool breeze on my face.  After riding through a few villages down some narrow one way roads we saw the sign for the brewery called
            After the brewery we drove through another village to find a local winery and on the way we happened to drive by a nice little wine bar called The Vineyard Taverna where we had lunch.  The food was very good and the small village environment was top notch.  It was at this restaurant where we first learned one of the pleasant standard hospitality's of the Island of Cyprus.  Sarah and I typically do not opt for desert so it was no exception when we declined after our meal.  However after we declined the hostess gave us some Limoncello on ice as a parting gift.  It was so fresh and tasty that we bought two bottles to take home with us.  After this experience we starting picking up on a pattern that every time we declined to buy something that was offered to us, we would receive some type of gift anyways.  After lunch we drove down the road to the father & son Tsangarides.  They are one of the few wineries on the island that make

Son owner in front of Tsangarides

owned winery by the name of organic wines.  The son gave us a nice tour of the winery as was even to kind as to take dollars for his wine as they usually do not.
            The next day after breakfast we decided to take another trip through the mountains towards the middle of the island to enjoy the quiet country life and find more wineries to visit.  Our first stop was the Vasilikon winery which involved a windy drive through the hills and valleys of Cyprus down narrow roads that only fit one car.  After Vasilikon we drove to a neighboring town called Stroumpi to visit the Kamanterena winery where I learned about a new grape called Maratheftiko which makes a great red wine.  Maratheftiko is an ancient grape variety indigenous to Cyprus.  We spent a long time at this winery and tried a wide variety of white, red and dessert wines.  I think this winery may have had the largest selection of wines I have ever encountered.  After visiting this winery we had lunch at a local restaurant in another small village before making our way to the last winery of the day called the Vouni Panayia Duomo (which we ate at twice) which served great  pizza and risotto.  There was even a rumor that

Voinu Panayia Winery

Harrison Ford has dropped in to have a bite at this place before we did.    
winery.  When we arrived we were greeted with fresh cherries and Cyprus coffee (Turkish coffee) before wine tasting.  I was particularly impressed with the wine that was forgotten for years and years by the wine maker and then re-discovered.  By the time it was discovered the alcohol content was about fifty one percent and had a bit of a scotch wine taste to it.  After spending some time in the nice breezy weather we drove back to Pafos to relax at our resort and walk along the boardwalk for a while.  In the evening we stopped by this great Italian restaurant called

Duomo Restaurant

            Our winery tour marked the last day of our short weekend trip, when we woke up we walked along the Mediterranean one last time and made the hour and a half drive back to the Larnaca airport.  Cyprus was a beautiful place and I was very shocked to find the richness in history, landscape and diversity in food and wine available.  The locals are very kind and treat you well as you visit their country, the obligated gifting tradition was very pleasant as well.  Cyprus is a great stop on any Mediterranean vacation for a few days, for what we were interested in I think four or five days was the perfect amount of time to go relax and explore the country side.