This was an unusual summer; no flying, New arrangements soon.  Due to a lot of uncertainty, plans didn’t really come together until quite late.

Mumtaz travelled to Edmonton and Vancouver in July. We decided to vacation in Cyprus for a week followed by a road trip to Washington to check in on my aunt and cousin.

Air travel in Europe has changed quite a lot, the less said the better.

We were lucky to be able to book the excellent Cyprus Hilton hotel in downtown Nicosia, in this series of photos you will also see a neat shot from the trip from Toronto to Frankfurt and a shot of Larnaca Airport, mostly for those that remember Larnaca from 18 years ago.  Please click on the photo below for the gallery:

There is no particular chronology to the photo galleries; remember to click on the photo for more from the same series.

Click on the photo below for a couple of shots of an ancient stadium, not particularly well preserved but you will get a sense for the size of the structure.

Here are couple of photos driving along the shoreline in downtown Limassol. The sketchy looking park was once the Limassol zoo; the marina did not exist while we were living in Limassol, clearly a major improvement.

Here are some photos of Kolossi Castle near Limassol. The current castle dates to the 14th century and housed the crusading knights that controlled this district of Cyprus. It is also the centre of production of Commanderia Wine which is unique to Cyprus.

One of the more spectacular ancient sites in Cyprus is the Curium amphitheatre. There is a natural acoustic created by the parabolic shape. We attended the annual Shakespeare play and 2 concerts during the 7 1/2 years we lived in Cyprus. You will see some excellent mosaics and an excellent view of the Mediterranean. Perhaps you could have seen the naval battle between Marc Antony and Octavius Ceasar which took place south of this spot in the Mediterranean.

And here is a tour of the Temple of Apollo. Apollo was the secondary god for Cyprus, the primary goddess was Aphrodite.

This is Petra Tou Romiou, the Rock of Aphrodite. Said to be birthplace of Aphrodite, she was apparently born of the foam of the sea. The Rock is geologically interesting, it is actually a piece of the African Continent left behind when the continents drifted apart. Sam and I used to climb to the top of the rock usually leaving Mumtaz quaking in fear for us as she watched.

In the Paphos District, look for the Tombs of the Kings. No Kings are actually buried there but clearly you would have had to be wealthy to warrant a tomb like this.

We always enjoyed a trip to the Akamas Peninsula where you can look North over the Mediterranean. The highlight is the Baths of Aphrodite. Legend has it that wading in the grotto will preserve your appearance for your entire life; Aphrodite was said to relax with her lovers in the waters.

Zygi is a village with a port and a fishing fleet, the fish restaurants are excellent.

One of my favourite spots in Cyprus is Stavrovouni monastery. There are excellent views of 3 Cyprus districts. You will also see the tidy All Saints Church including the interiors. Check with me some time about the adventures of my friend Richard who toured the interior of the monastery, which is, of course, off limits to women.

There are more photos from Cyprus but they are more related to friends other subjects that are more nostalgia than general interest. Click here for these additional albums.

When we returned from Cyprus we prepared to drive to Washington but our venerable furnace/airco finally gave out for good. We had to scramble to organize the replacement so we had to abbreviate our travel. We have always wanted to tour the Finger Lakes area so we centered our tour in Ithaca, New York.

This is Long Point Park mid way up Cayuga Lake.

Cass Park off Downtown Ithaca.

We tour the campus of Cornell University including their fantastic gardens.

This is the Mulholland Wildflower Sanctuary.

And this is Butterfield Falls, an example of an attraction that I suspect is overlooked; bring your hiking boots, you will love it.

I then discovered that the photo system had crashed but had to go back to the drawing board, yet again. I’m pretty confident that this method will stand the test of time; it is very similar to the Picasa method which worked for nearly 10 years prior to being made obsolete by Google.

During the Labour Day long weekend, Trevor’s mom Kim, treated us to a performance of the Rocky Horror Show in Stratford. You can rely on Stratford to mount a completely professional and excellent production and we were certainly not disappointed this time; but, it was the brilliance of the cast that really made this an extraordinary experience. If you don’t believe me, take note that the production has been extended by a month into November, it was already into its third month when we saw it and the Avon theatre was completely sold out.

I expect the blog to be quite active in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.