Day 8 (Paphos, Cyprus)

As we arrived at Paphos and anchored in the bay, bubbly was served round the pool. We were actually having an early lunch - grilled fish. Then we all went by tender to the wee port. Luckily we were one of the first group to go ashore. We were taken by bus to three important archaeological sites - The Archealogical Park, famous for its mosaic floors dating from the 2nd to the 5th century AD. They were accidentally found by a farmer 1965. Thankfully, these all had covered roofs, so we didn't keel over standing in the heat listening to the stories. We also saw the Tomb of Kings, 4th Century BC underground tombs of high ranking officials, carved out of solid rock. 

We then stopped at the Pillar of St Paul, which he was supposedly tied to and whipped 39 times on one of his visits to spread Christianity. We were all taking photos of a splendid tall pillar (to- right) but that wasn't the correct one - it was just a wee stump of a pillar nearby. (Extra)

It's just SO historically important here, the birthplace of Aphrodite, but again - we had an overload of information, which, combined with the heat and sore legs/feet/back made for not many actual facts being retained. 

Having been the one of the first groups to leave the ship, we were then one of the first groups back on board. Boy! We were pleased to get back, and rushed straight to a wee corner we hadn't discover last time we sailed on this ship - an ice cream parlour!! So that went down very well. We then decided to make the most of the empty pool, got the togs on and came back along. The pool was so warm. We also sat in the spa pool, which was even warmer. Bliss.

We had intended to meet up for dinner with a couple of chaps called Stewart, but I rang them to say we were too tired. We had a pizza (puttanesca for me - you rarely see that in the UK). Another (large) dish of ice cream, a dander round the still quiet ship with the sky a dark blue. Lovely. 

Tomorrow we have a 'Tastes and Traditions of Cyprus', which sounds pretty good.