The journey to Platres, Cyprus

To flee the cold and wet Netherlands; that is the whole point of this holiday. So there we are, on Schiphol, Amsterdam, on our way to Cyprus. Neither of us have ever been there before; but there are more novelties on this journey: for the first time since 10 years we travel with the train, a special experience in Holland. But we only have a 30-minute delay, very exceptional for the Dutch railways (so we have been told). And Elisabeth has never flown before! A quick, last cigarette, just before departure has to help her calm down. She doesn't know then (neither of us), this would only be the first of 7 flights this year!

We have promised to give a call to our daughters, but we discover we had left the cellular phone at home. Panic! Although they are both grown-up, they need to be able to reach us. So we buy one at Schiphol, 'guaranteed' operational abroad. Well, not... First of all the battery has to be recharged (which we do, first thing on Cyprus) and then it becomes clear one has to apply for the possibility to make international calls in Holland. And we sure could have used a telephone on this trip when our car broke down in the middle of nowhere. But that's for later... We fly with Cyprus Airways and it takes about 4 hours to get there. Elisabeth is lucky and gets a seat by the window. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon we arrive at Larnaka and it takes a while before we can get into our rented car. So we drive away from the airport at twilight.

Teije needs some time to get used to the car, with the wheel on the 'wrong' side. And at first we are quite confused by the traffic signs on which sometimes 2, sometimes 3, names are used for one town: the greek name (in the Greek alphabet), the British names and the new Greek names in our alphabet. For example: Limassol, Lemesos and Lemesos in the Greek alphabet. And they don't use a system, every time it is different...
We have booked a hotel in Platres in the Troodos mountains and the last 15 kilometers are very tricky, especially in the dark. When we arrive at Platres, the village seems completely abandoned and we see no sign of the hotel. All houses have shutters and they are shut at twilight to keep the cold out. After half an hour and knocking on some doors, we finally find a very small sign at a very steep driveway to hotel New Helvetia. The owner welcomes us most heartily.

Platres lies in the Troodos mountains in the center of Cyprus. Our hotel is situated on the northern side of the village, which distinguishes itself by big differences in height within the village itself. We thought it would be a nice central point from where we could travel to all parts of the island. Afterwards it would have been better to take a hotel in Limassol, because every day we have to drive that last, tricky part from Limassol to Platres (often in the dark).