Drouseians February Day Out Part 2

Wee and Tea (coffee) stop completed we left the Builder's Bum Arms and its chip fat aroma behind us and posed for yet another of John's selfies with the salt flats behind us before consulting my hastily scribbled down tour guide instructions courtesy of David Carbine.  They had been fresh in my mind and understandably two weeks' ago when we were due to make this trip, today mmmmm not quite so!

We followed the road which passed along the salt flats mindful of the signs which warned that if we ventured off road, got stuck and required a tow it would cost us 400 euros!!  We headed for the next stop which was the Holy Monastery of St Nicholas of the Cats.  My internet information told me that this monastery was founded in AD 327 and that a delightful small chapel here, dating from the 13th Century, has noteworthy icons painted by the two original nuns in residence.  The actual monastery has received a bland modern refurbishment and now is occupied by only a handful of nuns.  Apparently the cats were imported from Egype and Palestine at a time when Cyprus was overrun by poisonous snakes - what the information did not tell me was that the Monastery closes at 1.00pm (it said 2.00pm).

When we arrived the place looked deserted save for a couple of cats which ran to greet us.  Not realising that we had arrived at the beginning of what would be siesta time I was somewhat surprised to see a shadowy figure at the doorway shouting and banging on the door at us.  This sister was clearly in a less than charitable mood but when I caught sight of her shuffling away bent double I guess she was probably more than ready for a snooze.

We didn't really get to see very much as most of the areas seem to be cordoned off with more no entry signs than the green line which is a shame as the cloister gardens looked interesting.  We obviously didn't get inside the old building and everywhere else was shut up.  We gave the few cats we encountered a bit of a cuddle and regretted not having any treats with us as they all looked a bit sad really.

We continued with our tour instructions but were a bit uncertain about the 'rough' road beyond the Monastery so we when directly ahead for a while - a road which might just about have been passably in Kenny but not in The Pug and we had a 400 euro tow fee ringing in our ears so we went as far as where the man was tending his bee hives and turned round retracing our steps.  We found the track that David had mentioned which followed the RAF fencing and would have taken us to Ladies Mile Beach but the recent rain made the surface very soft and there were some rather large and menacing puddles verging on lakes in our way.  We erred on the side of caution and turned round.

On the way back to the Environmental Centre we spotted a track which led down to the waters edge and we could see pink shimmers of flamingo in the distance so we decided to park up and see how far we could walk.  It was soft and sludgy in places but we managed to get almost right to the edge before John found a very sludgy bit and ended up with a bootful and shortly afterwards Diana did the same!!!!

The weather conditions and the fact that the birds were farther away than we had anticipated meant it was quite hard to get a decent picture - in fact the end results looked more like watercolours than photos but we did manage to get a few and there is no mistaking that these are definitely flamingo.

Our plan was then to travel to the old town of Limassol and visit our friend Louise (who catered for our Silver Wedding anniversary afternoon tea) in her tea rooms at the Old Metropole Hotel.  When I made the arrangements I didn't realise it was Smelly Thursday Tsiknopempti which is the Thursday during Carnival and is the Greek equivalent to Mardi Gras and it marks the beginning of the last weekend that observant Greek Orthodox Church members are permitted to eat meat before fasting for Lent.  Limassol was chaos - absolute chaos and despite driving round and round and round we couldn't find anywhere to park remotely close to the tea rooms, in fact nowhere to park in Limassol full stop.  I was so disappointed and looking at the clock it was 3.30pm so a really hard time to find somewhere that would be open to eat - we decided to make our way back and try Pissouri.

Pissouri in the winter is almost as quiet as Droushia.  All the main eateries were shut seemingly for the season although Platea looked like it would be opening later on.  We wandered down the square and could see some people in the kitchens of the Corner Grill House.  We are not entirely convinced that they were open, we think they were preparing souvla for the family on account of the fact that it was this special day.  Anyway we were invited in and sat down to a freshly cooked meze which was pretty good and very very welcome as we were all getting a bit hungry!

It was a shame really that the day hadn't gone exactly to plan but that's the beauty of our discovery days - we can do the bits we missed another time!!!