Day 4 (Cyprus) – Troodos Mountain Drive and Omodos Accessibility
Today we finally exited the city of Limassol and took a trip around the Troodos Mountains and the village of Omodus. As I mentioned previously, we were struggling to find a semi accessible way out of the city at a relatively low cost hence we decided to hire a car for the day from Enterprise. At least we were upgraded from a Nissan Note to a Kia Sportage which served it’s purpose well…
Last night, we tried out the Bolt app (equivalent to Uber) to order a taxi as we found a bar a little way out of the centre with good reviews (really not that great in reality!) which worked perfectly. However when we attempted to order a taxi to the Enterprise place which is a few miles from the hotel, every driver declined our request…wouldn’t get that in Yerevan would you?
After the hotel successfully booked a taxi, we picked up the keys and headed to the cooler climates of the Troodos Mountains. Our first stop was the village of Omodos which is one of these touristy places that people visit when in the Mountains…
On first glance, it seems like a quaint Cypriot village, that is until you drive down to the FREE car park (with disabled spaces and toilets) and see the hoards of coaches and tourists. One decided to pick the day when a cruise ship (comprising of mostly British) docked in Limassol, you could have almost imagined that you were visiting an English village bar the weather!
Accessibility wise, it’s relatively smooth until you reach the centre (where the shops and restaurants are) within which harsh cobbles have been laid, one thought that Riga was bad! Nonetheless we ploughed on and soon discovered a number of stray cats roaming the place hence one was able to dine outside (with said cats).
We then set ourselves a challenge to see how far we could drive up Mount Olympus (not the mythological one…that is in Greece) which we managed to do quite successfully until we reached barbed wire which we later discovered is due to the British owning the summit..
There are various lookout points along the very winding roads where you can pull up and admire the picturesque views…
Tomorrow we head back to Bristol via Lanarca airport for the final time for 2023. You can safely say that one has explored a VERY large proportion of Europe within the past two years…think it’s time to go further afield?