Our Visitors arrive...

Today was the day that my sister Kaye, her husband Richard, daughter Elena and Elena's husband Andy,  best friends Colin and Vanessa and their daughter Rosie all arrived in Cyprus for a two week holiday staying in Kathikas.  No boys with them this time as my nephews Matthew and Michael, and Colin and Vanessa's son Alex are working.  Amazingly the Thomas and Godfrey clan have known each other for 30 years, have holidayed all over the place together and still get on!!  That is a testament to their friendship.

With seven adults arriving with all their baggage we were going in convoy to the airport so that we could fit them all in.  Dad had arranged a hire car for the 'kids' and was lending the adults their CRV - hell this must have been a right royal visit because we even persuaded them to pay the €2 parking fee rather than hover around the periphery of the airport!

Mum and I set off first as very unusually for us we were running a bit late and it looked like the flight would be coming in a bit early.  In fact when we got to the airport it had just landed (along with two others so we knew that the baggage handlers would be in a right old panic!).  Mum and Dad have been so excited about the family coming over - it seems like ages ago we were out and about trying to find a suitable villa for them all to stay in! 

So here is Mum looking cool and fresh waiting for them to appear through the doors - we were soon joined by John and Dad but it took a fair old while before anyone started to emerge.  Apparently the bags from all three incoming flights were offloaded onto the same carousel so there was a right old rugby scrum taking place!

Eventually though Kaye (in blue obviously) and Richard emerged into the arrivals area closely followed by the rest of the entourage and after a few quick 'Hello's' we dispatched people and bags to the various cars.  Typically Dad's was the only car park ticket that failed to register when he went to pay to leave!  This only confirmed to him that the hovering around the periphery followed by a quick in and out and no fee to pay was the way to go!

We all made it back to Emba in one piece where we were stopping for a bite to eat before carrying on the convey up to Kathikas for them to unpack and unwind before going out for a family meal together at Yiannis.  We all sat down to some welcome rolls with Mum's home cooked gammon and some fresh cherries courtesy of Sofoklis afterwards.

This is an aerial view of the villa taken off of the website and they were very pleased to find it looking pretty much like this when they arrived.  It was all clean and ready for them with a very good welcome pack of food in the fridge and kitchen.  There is certainly more than enough space for the seven of them as there are four bedrooms and four bathrooms!  There was just the task of allocating who got the double beds and who got twins - we suggested spoofing for them but they had no idea what we meant (for those that don't it is a game involving people holding up to three coins in their hands and then guessing the total number of coins being held by all players).  They managed to sort it out amongst themselves in a very civilised fashion (which room do you want, I don't mind - which room do you want?) and started to settle in before Mum and I took Kaye and Vanessa down to Polis to get further supplies.

There was no messing about for Rosie who must have just thrown her bags into a room and got her bikini on and went straight in for a dip.  It was a 'lovely when you get in' experience if her face was anything to go by!!  I am guessing that (based on our pool) it was hovering around 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit (21-22 degrees Celsius) still she didn't seem to mind and as the temperatures here are due to rise considerably over the next couple of days will provide them with a welcome cooling off!  We did the shop and I have to apologise to Colin as the bottle of brandy that was bought for him became a casualty as it fell out of the boot when I opened it and smashed on the floor into a million pieces.

I will finish with some pictures of us at Yianni's where we had a really lovely evening although we were all a bit jaded - and the Thomas/Godfreys concluded that they would probably be wandering down the road from the villa to that taverna on a number of occasions over the next two weeks.

Having said that, once they started putting together a list of things that they wanted to fit in, they may not have as many free nights as they had anticipated.  They kick off with a barbeque at Mum and Dad's tomorrow then they fancy a day at the spa, a boat trip, a walk up the Avakas Gorge, Steak and Prawns at Vienna...  ...so much to do - so little time!