Mt. Olympos, Pedoulas and Kykko Monastery

More snow

Thursday morning dawned bright and sunny.  Thank goodness we would be able to enjoy at least one sunny day during our little mountain trip.  We drove back north through Troodos Resort and up Olympos Mountain.  

Troodos Mountains

The highest elevation is 1950 meters (6,340 ft).  Passed a ski lift but it was not operating.  I think the skiing season is over, even through plenty of snow remains on the ground.  It is probably packed too hard for skiing.  But I don't ski, so what the heck do I know.

Mount Olympos

Mount Olympos

Large wind farm off in distance at lower elevation

Near the top we could see far to the southwest.  Way down there was a large wind farm of enormous wind powered generators.  These things are huge and the blades move very slowly.  There is absolutely no noise generated whatsoever.  I truly cannot understand why certain areas in the USA that are perfect for these because of wind patterns have fought so hard to prevent installation of wind farms (Cape Cod in particular).


The trees on this northern side of the mountains were very different than what we saw on the southern side.  

View near Pedoulas

At lower elevations on the southern side there were millions of grape vines.  At mid-to-lower elevations on the northern side there were hundreds of thousands of pear trees.  There appeared to be a half-dozen different species of pear trees in various stages of bloom.  The white flowers on the bare branches were breathtaking.  The pears seem to cover whole sections of the mountainsides.  I couldn't get photos because we were driving too fast and there were no places to pull over because the road was so very narrow. 

Pedoulas

 As we progressed lower redbuds began to appear.  The purple blossoms popped brightly in contrast to all the white pear trees.  Combined with what looked like bridal wreath except it was bright, bright yellow.  The yellow covered large sections of the mountainsides.  Really beautiful.  April is a perfect month to visit this area.


As we progressed down from Olympos Mountain soon the village of Pedoulas came into view.  Pedoulas is built almost straight up and down on a very steep mountainside.  There is only 1 road and it is very narrow.  Construction was everywhere on that single road.  

 Pedoulas

It appeared they are putting in a new water line for the entire village -- right down the center of their only road.  We were the only tourist vehicle on the road; so traffic congestion was not a problem.  Of all the villages we saw on this trip, Pedoulas is the most picturesque.  Felt like we were in the mountains of Bavaria.

Easter Eggs in each village

All through the south side of Cyprus we have seen large Easter eggs in each village or town.  The Orthodox religion will observe Easter Sunday on 15 April this year, which will be this upcoming weekend.  I have no idea if the government or church is responsible for placing these eggs all over the island.  This would not be an insignificant cost because there are hundreds of these large eggs that had to be delivered to these distant tiny villages and then later picked up. We have seen several trucks with these eggs being delivered to destinations all over the place.

Kalopanagiotis

At Kalopanagiotis we turned westward and eventually arrived at the Panagia tou Kykkou Monastery and Kykkos Museum.  

Kykkos Monastery entrance

Heathen that I am, I had never heard of the Virgin of Kykkos.  But I don't feel too bad because my Catholic husband had never heard of this gal either.  A plaque stated something about Kykkos protecting sailors so maybe we should learn more about her.  

Exterior wall painting

Photography was forbidden inside the museum, but here is a link that shows what we saw. Museum of Virgin of Kykkos The one item that completely fascinated me was a rectangle of cloth that had images of men that was done in such a way that their heads 'popped' up from the base cloth.  They appeared 3-dimensional and the heads were formed by gray silk threads.  This was produced by hand in the 1600s.  The threads were perfectly aligned.  I cannot imagine the skill required to produce something like this by hand. 

No blank spaces on this building.  Frescoes everywhere inside the courtyard

Entryway to monastery

We walked around the monastery awhile and snapped a few photos of a courtyard.  There were thousands of tiny shiny gold tiles in the mosaics around the paintings beneath the overhanging roof inside the courtyard.  I imagine cameras were banned from this area too, but no one came to tell me that photos were forbidden here so I continued to click away. 

New bell tower

Old bell tower

A new bell tower had been built up the mountainside higher than the monastery.  


Bill liked the old bell tower down inside the monastery better than the fancy new one built up on the higher level.

More of the entryway

Entry into one of the monastery buildings inside courtyard

Down to a hallway

Grinder for grain

What was this used for?

On the grassy area in front of the monastery lay a large old stone grinder for grain.  Next to it lay some other kind of old stone thing.  We had no idea what this might have been used for.  And, of course, there were no signs. 

Exterior wall painting with tiles

We backtracked to the village of Kalopanagiotis and turned northeast towards Nicosia (Lefkosia).  We did not have a good map and had no idea where we were when arriving in Lefkosia.  But we just drove until things began to 'feel' familiar.  Eventually we found our landmark of the Coca-Cola bottling plant and could figure out which way to go.  A quick trip to Carrefour for major supplies of streaky bacon; then a side trip to Lidl for their really good quality pork chops and German ham; and then we headed back to the marina.  This likely will be our last trip to the south side before we depart for Turkey, so I wanted to stock our freezer jamb-full of pork products that we will not find in Turkey.  Now Bill can have his daily ham sandwich for lunch for months to come.


Bill has a dental appointment on 23 April.  We hope to depart shortly thereafter, assuming the weather is good.  Nasty weather is predicted to blow through on 18-20 April.  We are hoping that will be the final cold-weather nastiness and that sailing season can begin once that system dies down.  On the other hand, a Chilean friend here in the marina is of Christian Palestinian heritage.  If it is possible to put together a last-minute trip to visit her family, we would love to accompany her to visit her relatives.  We would not pass up the opportunity to see the situation there through the eyes of the Palestinians.  They are doing a haul-out with extra work being performed, so the possibility of this trip is highly unlikely.  I seriously doubt that their haul-out will be complete soon enough to arrange a trip to Palestine before it is time for us to leave.


As always, click on any photo to view a larger image.