TravelStream™ news feed for member anneowens on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/anneowens en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:13:39 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1255291140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1255291140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1255291140/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:13:39 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Paphos, Cyprus

We stayed in Polis for the morning and left after a last lunch at one of the restaurants in town. We were sorry to leave Polis, it's a lovely little place, so relaxed and quiet, we got very comfortable there!We headed off down to Paphos and looked around the Fort & the ruins of Old Paphos before watching a stunning sunset over the sea, having dinner in the harbour and heading back to the airport to fly home...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1255203600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1255203600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1255203600/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:59:26 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Polis, Cyprus

We stayed local today, but the beach at Polis isn't that great so we scooted down the road to Latsis and the beach there. Latsis (or Latchi) was once a small village by the sea but now it's enveloped in new developments of holiday villas. It's sort of stretched out along the road with a few restaurants and bars n the middle. The beach is nice if you go to the bit behind the restaurants as the main road runs quite close to it further along. Spent the day here chilling on the beach in the sun & swimming in the Med - what more do you need?!There's a lovely harbour in Latsis with a mix of fishing & pleasure boats. We walked around it in the morning and returned for sunset. There are a number of restaurants along the harbour front with lots of fresh fish options, it's a really nice place to have dinner.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223580360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223580360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223580360/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:34:31 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Polis, Cyprus

Having a car we decided to take ourselves off to spend the day at Coral Beach which, we'd heard, was one of the nicest in Cyprus. It's about half-way between Polis & Paphos and took about 45 minutes to drive to. The town wasn't particularly nice, a bit like Blackpool, and we were glad we had decided to stay in Polis (we had been looking at hotels in Coral Beach but they were quite expensive). Fortunately the town has been kept quite far back from the beach so it's not all hemmed-in with high-rise hotels. It's a nice beach & we settled down on some sun loungers for the day. We had lunch at the beach bar which was pretty awful food (burgers, pizzas - nothing Greek!) and swam in the beautiful sea. It wasn't too crowded but I imagine it gets absolutely heaving in-season, it is a very nice beach.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223402940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223402940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223402940/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:26:36 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Polis, Cyprus

We set off quite early to drive up to the Kykos Monestary, one of the more famous monestaries high up in the mountains where Archbishop Makarios retired to and is buried (he was the first and fourth president of Cyprus).We took our time driving up, the roads are good but very twisting, and there are some magnificent views that should be stopped at to take in properly. On the way up the mountains we also stopped at an enclosure accomodating some Mouflons - a sheep-goat animal that is apparently unique to Cyprus. They are very shy but we spotted some after a while.We arrived at Kykos for lunch & had a delicious good-value meal at the cafeteria. This place is set up to process coach-loads of tourists. A benefit of coming off-season, there weren't any! There were quite a few people but not a huge number & we felt happy to drift around the buildings which, although very old, have been 'restored' to within an inch of their lives. It's all pristine & beautifully maintained. Despite being a real tourist spot it is still a working monestary & you do see the monks walking around. The church is spectacular filled with icons, gold & silver and heavy with the smoke of incense. After leaving Kykos we drove on a bit to a little village called Pedolas which has an incredibly old Byzantine church. It also has a musum stuffed full of icons from various local churches. The museum and church are owned and run by people who live in the village and we met a couple of real characters!We drove back to Polis & were back in time for dinner at one of the restaurants in the town. Lovely day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223401920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223401920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223401920/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:59:40 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Polis, Cyprus

We drove about 15 mins down the road from Polis to the Akamas Penninsula, a nature reserve / national park. This is where the Baths of Aphrodite are, a pretty little grotto where the Greek Goddess of Love was supposed to come and bathe.We walked on from the Baths to the Aphrodite Trail - a walking route that goes around the whole penninsula, it's pretty long. We walked a smaller circular route that took about 3 hours, it was gorgeous. It was very hot & we were glad to have taken plenty of our own water because there are no facilities except at the entrance.We stopped for a late lunch at a beachside restaurant in a little village called Latsis on the way back to Polis.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223227980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223227980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223227980/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:50:39 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Polis, Cyprus

We explored the little town of Polis. It's a sweet place, a tourist town but it wasn't busy & full of people - maybe it was the time of year. The beach isn't great and we didn't stay there long. There are lots of restaurants of various types and budgets.Mariela Apartments suits us down to the ground - I imagine it gets very very busy in-season, but at this time of year it had a handful of 'mature' guests who go at the same time every year, year after year. The owner is very nice & welcoming & is full of info. There's a pool, a bar, we have a balcony with a view and a fridge for the gin & tonic - what more do we need?! There's a supermarket close by and it takes 5-10mins to walk into the town centre.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223140980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223140980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1223140980/tpod.html Sat, 14 Mar 2009 13:32:55 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Polis, Cyprus

We landed in Paphos at about 8pm and went straight to pick up the hire car. Discovered that in Cyprus you have to pay for a full tank of fuel in addition to the hire charge - something certainly not made clear by Europcar at time of booking! Anyway, we headed out of the airport - as Brits we found it easy to drive in Cyprus, same side of the road and all roadsigns in English. It was dark so we didn't see much as we headed directly north out of Pahos towards Polis.It took about 1hr 30mins to get to Polis, and another 20 mins to locate the Mariela Apartments! Very friendly owner, he'd stayed up late to let us in. Very basic self-catering studio with a kettle, fridge, hot-plate and microwave.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1222515540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1222515540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/4/1222515540/tpod.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:46:10 -0400 A Week in Sunny Cyprus

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

London, England, United Kingdom

A couple of hours on the internet saw us book 2 return EasyJet flights to Paphos, a room at the Mariela Aparthotel in Polis, a little car for the week AND get the assurance from weather.com that the weather will be 27C and sunny. Sorted.(and we have a whole 7 days before we fly!)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/3/1200104820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/3/1200104820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/3/1200104820/tpod.html Sat, 02 Feb 2008 03:55:36 -0500 A long weekend in Paris

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Paris, France

We were up before dawn to catch the 0655 Eurostar from London to Paris. Unfortunately the Champagne Bar at the sparkly new St Pancras station wasn't open at that hour! About 15 minutes after pulling out of the station we were pulling into Ebsfleet International (where?!) and pulling into Paris 2 hours after that. The new high-speed rail link really makes a difference!The weather in Paris was as the weather we had left in London: chilly, windy and very wet. We were able to walk from the Gard du Nord to our hotel - a cheap and cheerful Campanile right by the Louis Blanc metro station. We've been to Paris a few times already, so we didn't feel obliged to trek around the 'main' sights this time, and the expectation of bad January weather meant that spending all day pounding the streets probably wasn't going to be the most enjoyable experience!After a quick petit dejuner of coffee & croissants we dumped our luggage and headed off on the RER to the Basilica of Saint Denis to the north. This abbey church is the first building in the true Golthic style & was driven forward by Abot Suger who wanted a 'frame' of a building to show off a huge display of stained glass. It's also the final resting place of every French monarch bar 3, even Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette have ended up here.It's an interesting place, and the walk from the station to the Basilica takes you through a more 'normal' suburban shopping street with quite a busy North African community.After a cheap lunch of a couple of baguettes with saussicon we headed over to the Musee d'Orsay to escape the weather and there we stayed until they chucked us out at 5pm.Things had calmed down weather-wise so we ambled along the river to the Louvre which is always a lovely sight at night. We continued walking along, crossing thePont Neuf over to the Ile de la Cite. We were heading to the next island in the river, and it's a nice walk from one end to the other and crossing to the Ile St Louis over the Pont St Louis. The Ile St Louis is the most lovely place with beautiful, elegant buildings on narrow streets, gorgeous shops and refined atmosphere. It's one of the most desirable places to live in Paris (unsurprisingly) but it doesn't have a snotty attitude. The road that runs the length of the little island, Rue Saint-Louis-en-l'Ile, has a number of lovely French restaurants and we had been recommended one - Le Relais de l'Ile.It's a gorgeous little restaurant with an upright piano shoe-horned in the back from where you get a relaxing jazz background as you eat. The staff don't speak much English, which is fine and they are very friendly, and the food is absolutely gorgeous. We paid 90 Euros for 2 of us to have 3 courses and 1.5 bottles of the house red wine.  We would really recommend this place, it's got a very genuine French character to it and it's so relaxing you could sit there all night sipping wine and listening to the music...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/3/1200262740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/3/1200262740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/anneowens/3/1200262740/tpod.html Thu, 31 Jan 2008 15:58:24 -0500 A long weekend in Paris

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Paris, France

We didn't have a lot planned for the first half of the day so, after checking out of the hotel and leaving our bag in the luggage store, we hopped on tohe Metro and headed down to the south side of the river. Paris is very quite on Sundays, but we were able to find a cafe for breakfast. We went & took a look at the church of St Sulpice before walking on to the Palais de Luxembourg. This is a really nice, and very typically Paris, public park. Catherine de Medici (Queen of France) built the chateau for her old age, and there is a large fountain in the garden called the Fontaine de Medicis. It was a very pleasant place to stroll around and people-watch. There were lots of people practising a variety of eastern martial arts - yoga, tai-chi, movements with Chinese swords, kung-fu.... All very interesting to watch!From the Jardin de Luxembourg we wandered through some lovely narrow streets over to the Pantheon - a huge  church that was commissioned by Louis XV in thanks for recovering from illness, but he died before it was finished and it was never actually consecrated. It became a Temple to the Revolution and is now a state monument where Voltaire and Victor Hugo are buried. It's a very impressive building, but not what you would call beautiful. You have to pay to go in, we didn't and after a quick look at some of the buildings of the Sorbonne we started to make our way back to the river through the Latin Quarter. It really is a very nice part of Paris, and so quiet on a Sunday morning. We got down to the river, crossed over the Pont au Double right by Notre Dame and over to the Hotel de Ville.We took the Metro over to the Champs Elysees where we went to a large Belgian restaurant for a lunch of 'moules frites' along with hundreds of other French people. Just because it was a big, noisy, chain restaurant, didn't mean that it wasn't a good, tasty, cheap & cheerful lunch!It didn't take long for us to pick up our bag from the hotel and walk from there back to the Gard du Nord to catch the Eurostar back to London. A great long weekend in Paris, and nice to have seen some different parts of it from previous visits - we only saw the Eiffel Tower from a distance!
]]>