The flight over was uneventful although the fairly long three hour stopover in Bahrain was a bit frustrating - not the most entertaining airport to spend time in. After landing in Larnaca, we had what is now the big task of filling in four immigration forms while attempting to maintain possession of the kids who seem to like making continual attempts at escape (particularly Susannah). We then had our first impression of the ongoing tensions between Southern and Northern Cyprus when we told the Republic of Cyprus (the South) immigration officer that we were staying in the north. He looked particularly unimpressed and when we told him that we were staying near Girne (the Turkish name for the northern town of Kyrenia), he said that meant China in greek. Fortunately he let us in anyway!
After picking up the rental car, we headed for Nicosia and the border crossing. We had borrowed a Lonely Planet book from a friend which was around 3 years old so it was a bit out of date (can you even believe lonely planets these days when the authors don't seem to visit the countries they write about?) We missed the one small sign showing the way and ended up lost in Nicosia. The kids were tired and tensions in the car were rising. We eventually found our way to what looked like a border crossing with UN signs and a man dressed smartly in his military uniform with blue UN beret. He raised the boom gate and waved us through. A few metres up the road we thought "this doesn't look right" so reversed back to ask the soldier if we were at the border crossing - he laughed and told us we had just entered the military base (a great guard he turned out to be). He gave us directions to the border crossing. We followed those directions and drove up to a checkpoint that looked very small for a car to drive through, we told the Cypriot immigration official that we wanted to go to the north and we got another laugh as he told us we were at the pedestrian check point. Surprisingly (as mostly in the South they try to pretend the North does not exist) he had a pre-printed map to give to us to direct us to the correct border crossing which we then found relatively easily.
After the formalities at the border, we were driving across the UN buffer zone (with signs saying do not stop your vehicle) when Johnathan yelled out "I need to do a pee!" (he takes after his dad in this regard, always picking inconvenient moments for pit stops). So, we hopped out of the car and Johnathan relieved himself in no-mans land between Southern and Northern Cyprus.
We had the good fortune to stay at David's uncle's villa in a town called Ozankoy which is just outside Kyrenia in the hills. It was a beautiful spot with views to the sea and the mountains and a nice swimming pool (which was a bit too cold to use unfortunately).
We spent time relaxing around Kyrenia and checking out the playgrounds (a common feature of all our holidays now).
We were in Cyprus for Easter and we just coincidentally came across a very small Catholic church (not common in muslim Turkish Cyprus) just as Easter mass was commencing. Monica was very pleased although we had to make a hasty exit when Susannah started playing up and Johnathan accidentally broke a stone plaque on a war monument at the back of the church.
We went to the castle at Mt Hillarion where David and Johnathan climbed to the very top (some
American tourists were amazed to see David clambering over the rocks clinging on to Johnathan and a German couple were also quite taken by his stamina in getting to the top!) The views, as you can see, are spectacular.
We took a day trip to the Karpas peninsula in the north east of Cyprus. This is truly a spectacular place of mostly untouched natural beauty with rolling hills and deserted fantastic beaches. The kids had a ball.
We also decided to spend a night in the south staying at Pafos in the south west of Cyprus. We travelled there over the Troodos mountains which are also spectacular. On the way down from the mountains we unintentionally ended up on a dirt road which we decided to stick with as on the map it did not look like it was very long and it seemed to be the most direct route down. 17km later, we hit bitumen after the road progressively got worse and worse and not another car in site. Just as well we were in a rental but David was pretty tired by the time we arrived.
The next day we headed back to the north (well prepared for the border crossing this time) for the last two nights in Cyprus where we just relaxed and took it easy. It was then time to head home after a fantastic week - we definitely recommend Cyprus as a holiday destination...
