I got here late last night, after the most dreadful trip from Paris - I had three suitcases, which the man from the car company took so long to bring downstairs that I thought he had had a heart attack half-way (he did not look fit, this one). Then I got to the airport, had to go to Cyprus airways to get my ticket issued, as they cannot deal with fronting up to the counter and saying that you have an electronic ticket and it was upgraded. The woman took twenty minutes to do this, after I had waited for twenty minutes for her to do the same thing for the person before me. The check-in supervisor is a nice guy who saw me as soon as I arrived and was going to send me straight to check-in, and he kept coming back to see what the hold-up was, as well. Then I get to the desk - he opened a few ropes for me to go in a straight line - and the woman there wants to know if I have a visa. No, I don't need one because I have a work permit! So we sort that one out and she decides my luggage is 10 kilos over, so who does she call? My friend, of course... so it's OK.

Finally get up to departures, and there is the hugest queue ever in security, so huge that there is no space, and it snakes around on itself fifty times, with French people screaming about who was first etc. Pretend not to understand French and stand there for an hour holding my handbag and my computer. Of course, by the time I get to the head of the queue, my leg has gone to sleep. By then, it is past the departure time for the flight, so the French are screaming even more. And they decide I have to take my shoes off, why I do not know, as I am wearing relatively dainty beige sandals. The really good bit is when I get them back, try to put them on and fall over in the middle of everyone, because I cannot put my shoes on standing up when my leg has gone to sleep. At that point they find a chair.......

I limp through the gate only to find that we have to go down stairs and board a bus (which is unusual, I don't know if it is CDG being odd or Cyprus airways trying to save money). I get a seat, because everyone is frightened I will fall over again. Clamber up the steps and collapse into my seat, only to find that we have all boarded at the front door, so everyone is walking past me saying, that is the lady that fell over. Request water swiftly.

At least at the other end, it was not too bad, my luggage did come out very quickly, and my taxi was waiting. I got to this hotel too late for dinner, but they did put fruit and wine in my room, thank goodness.

After all of that, I sure needed a spa treatment this morning. I got up at 6:30 am and went down to breakfast, then practically straight to the pool, which here opens at 8 am:
then into the spa at 10 am, where I had steam room, shower, hydrotherapy, shower, back massage and little facial with head massage. Much better after that, and that took until lunch-time. I've taken full board here, so I had buffet with fish and salad, and then dessert. If you don't have lunch in the hotel here, the options can be limited, if you don't know where to go. There are all these tourist "tavernas", but I am sick of them, unless you know a good one, they are pretty much all the same. After lunch I took a bus into Limassol and got lost, but managed to find my way back, thank goodness.

Dinner was in the Japanese restaurant, which is new in this hotel, very good. They have a set menu, with a starter of fishy things, sushi, sashimi etc, then a main course of tuna teppanyaki, vegetables and rice, and a most un-Japanese tiramisu for dessert. Lovely chef, telling us all his life story (interesting, Philippines, Japan, Abu Dhabi, UK and he is a Cypriot citizen now, and thinks he may like to work in Moscow for a while!).

This is a nice hotel, I think it is fairly recently renovated, and the Japanese and Italian restaurants are new. I have a large balcony with sea view, and the hotel backs on to the beach, no cars to get past:

And of course, hotel kitties here are fairly happy and well-fed too:


There's a lot of teenage ones, the latest lot of kittens growing up, and they seem to live in the hedges between the hotel and the beach. And there seems to be a distinct grey fur strain here, it's different from my hotel in Nicosia where there are quite a few torties and white ones with ginger and grey splotches. Interesting to recognise kitty relatives in a particular area...