Tidbits, Odds & Ends and Reflections

 A friend of ours, Kevin recently praised Cyprus for its beauty and long history. 

Another beautiful day in Cyprus

However, he cautioned, "It won't be easy to find a good glass of wine." To his point, I have to agree, we have not had good luck with that for either white or red. However I have hope. Today we are having a sommelier bringing wines to our apartment for a tasting of wines of Cyprus. Surely this is where we will find a truly delicious wine. If not, I found an amazing looking wine shop that I will find my way back to and I'm sure to find just what I'm looking for--something dry, not cloying, not sweet, but fresh and smooth. 

On another note, we have been enjoying both the beer and the brandy that is produced here. Did I mention they make a wonderful Aperol Spritz?  

And so our Sommelier, Gery showed up with several wines ranging from white to reds and some tasty treats as well. 

We started with this white which I quite liked. All of the wines we tasted were from the Paphos area so we have something to look forward to when we are there. We had a lively discussion ranging from politics in the USA to why we can't get these wines in Larnaca. Dennis, the man of a thousand questions threw her off her normal presentation. But in-between the questions we did learn quite a bit about the wine and the vineyards in the Paphos region. We are thinking we will book her to come again once we are in Paphos.

We tasted two whites, a rose and two reds. I particularly liked the Kolios Wines, 2016 vintage Shiraz-Merlot blend. It was very yummy, not too jammy and not too dry. As Goldilocks would say, it was just right! 

Gery left us all of the wines and told us how long they would last and she left us the remainder of the treats though there wasn't much left once we got started on them. Everything was locally produced and very delicious. We even liked the cottage cheese which isn't usually a favorite. We're looking forward to Paphos! You can get more information on Facebook winedeliveryonline or book her directly at winedeliveryonline@gmail.com.

My turn--

I really enjoyed listening and talking with Gery. She's from Bulgaria and has lived in Cyprus for about 10 years. She lives in the Paphos area and drove approximately 100 miles to make this presentation at our apartment. (Wow!) She said now is the slow season in Cyprus (winter) so

she travels whenever and wherever opportunities appear. She did a fantastic job, provided a wealth of info on Cyprus wines but to be honest, I most enjoyed her stories. Stories of life in Bulgaria, why she moved to Cyprus along with ______ (you know there's a man in this story). "What the hell is going on in America? Trump??--for which I had no explanation...as for wine?

 

I'll be totally honest. My "palate" is about as sophisticated as the rest of me and my life (you as my friends, have certainly figured that out by now, right?) Wine that is "dry but not cloying?" Wine that is "yummy but not too jammy?" What does that mean?? Give me the bottle and a straw and I'll tell you if I like it. 😋  Den E. Baby

Discover the Island

Many of the people we've spoken to tell us that three weeks is too long to spend in Larnaca. They probably have no idea of our pace in exploring. If we do one thing per day, we're likely to say, "Whoopee, what a busy day!" A couple of days ago, we did two! yep, two activities in one day. First we found St. Lazarus Cathedral and a lovely gift shop featuring the work of three artists and then we attended a private Cocktail Workshop. 

We arrived at Sun Moon Creative Center for our workshop with Pan. It is a lovely space and also has an art gallery featuring the work of his wife and daughter. We were able to meet them near the end of our time learning about cocktails on Cyprus.

The bar where we learned about cocktails and Cyprus

Pan, our instructor and the owner of Sun Moon Creative Center taught us not just about mixing cocktails but about Cyprus as well. The ingredients used in almost all of our libations were grown or produced on the island--brandy, sparkling lemon, walnuts for garnishes, dried lemons and limes, zivania, commandaria. A martini is your favorite drink? Then you have to have one made by Pan. It will be nothing like the typical vodka or gin martini but it will be both delicious and refreshing. 

We made and drank three cocktails. The first for us was a brandy sour made with Cypriot brandy. Then we each had two individual cocktails based on cocktails we might order at a bar. For me this was an Aperol spritzer and a martini but neither of Pan's version were like anything I had ever had. They were delicious! 

The question is to shake or stir?

The answer is delicious--

What a delightful way to learn about Cyprus!

And now a word from "cheeky" Dennis...

My drill instructor just informed me that I have until 08:00 hours tomorrow morning (1/20/2025) to write something for the blog.  Failure to do so will "result in loss of privileges until I decide to return them." she said...so here I sit writing (I get terrible headaches when I lose privileges. 

(CM's rebuttal--if I were a drill sergeant, this guy would have huge deltoids, triceps and pecks from all the push-ups he'd be doing. Geez!)

Yesterday, we left Larnaca at 8:30 AM for a 9 hour bus tour of part of Cyprus. Cyprus is an island in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Turkey. It's roughly 150 miles long and 50 miles wide with a population of about 1,250,000 people. Enough geography? Temperature here is around 70 ℉ during the day with mid 50's at night. This is winter in Cyprus so tourists are minimal and that's why we're here. At these temps, it's still much warmer than B'ton, and again, that's why we're here. 

We visited the walled city of Nicosia (capital of Cyprus). The wall was built by the Venetians, the history here is long and complicated. 

Then we headed up into the mountains where we saw a bit of snow at around 3500 feet. We visited the Asinou Church with its mosaics from the 12th Century. The Troodos Mountains are dotted with small UNESCO world heritage designated churches of simple exterior design that can't quite prepare you for the elaborate Byzantine paintings that fill the interior from ceiling to floor.

Asinou Church

Sorry, photography is not allowed inside the churches. From here we went to Troodos Square and then back down to the port city of Limassol where we wandered through the "old market." Back on the bus and 1 ½ hours later, we were back home in Larnaca for dinner and a drink. 

Stay tuned--Den E. Baby 😏

A few missteps...

Mediterranean Morning in Cyprus 

We made it from Chicago to London and on to Cyprus without incident, well unless you think losing my boarding pass is an incident and waiting at the wrong gate. Luckily it dawned on us that our gate wasn't filling up and that it was almost time to board. Look at the boarding pass again. We're supposed to be at 13, not 15. It's close, yay! Now, where's my boarding pass? Cannot find it anywhere. "Dennis, go ahead and get in line. I'll go see what the gate agent tells me."

He says, "Are you crazy? I'll see what they say, I'm sure they'll take care of it."

And they did, didn't even miss a beat. And with that we were on the AA plane. The seats were great and the wine was welcome and actually the dinner was pretty decent. Once in London and on a bus, we had 4 hours to get on the British Airways flight to Cyprus and yes, I had my boarding pass. They don't give out the gate until less than an hour before which made me nervous as Heathrow is huge! We spoke with a BA customer service agent and she gave us the gate and directions for how to get there. 

This flight was mediocre, think Frontier or Allegiant with seats that don't recline, toasted corn kernels and water for food, everything else was for sale. But in five hours we were landing in Cyprus. We left Customs and looked for our driver. No driver, waited an hour, got a taxi with an amazing and friendly driver to our apartment.  Now to get in the apartment using a code for the lock box. But which lock box? 3 Allons, 3, or 3.5? Again luck smiled on us in the form of a man coming up the steps to the building. He knew how to use the code because he lives in the building and showed us that one of the boxes we were trying to get into was his. 😳  Our hero got us our key and we are now settled in.

We went exploring this morning to the Tourist office, the Promenade, the marina. 

If there's a bird or fish or any type of animal, I go crazy photographing them. Alas, the fish were bountiful.

It was a beautiful day. And we found a few options for things to do in the area. A picture speaks a thousand words...

The evening found us enjoying a local restaurant and sharing a platter for two, though we could have easily invited someone else to join us as long as they were carnivores-- kebabs of various meats, mushrooms, pita bread, sauces, potato salad, chips (French Fries), yogurt with dark cherry sauce, a feast!

Bajtou Piyavn Restaurant

Dennis even left with a doggie/goodie box for his breakfast. And so ends the day but the new day will soon be here and we'll have another gorgeous sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea.

Wishing you an amazing day!!

According to Dennis--

Today is Friday, 1/17/2025 and it's 7:00 AM in Larnaca, Cyprus. I just got out of bed, made a cup of coffee, and my "buddy" (the administrative director of the adventure, or so she thinks) has just given me my assignment to be completed ANON!! She somehow has an idea that I work for her...?? For those of you reading this that have in fact worked with/for her, you know what I mean. It's a battle I fight every day to maintain my superiority, oh woe is me! OK now that I've cleared that up and you can understand my dilemma, I'll write about a few lines about yesterday. Note from CM: this is such baloney. Didn't I tell you before we even left home, that I asked the prince if he wanted to do the blog?? He says I should be laughing. 😶

We walked around our neighborhood to get a feel for the community we'll call home for the next three weeks. Weather is beautiful with a temp around 70℉. It's winter here (off season) so not many tourists. We're right downtown with lots of bars, (yay!) restaurants, shops, and the Mediterranean is a short 3 blocks away. We're scheduled for a 2 hour sunset cruise on Sunday. This afternoon we'll be attending a class on preparing wonderful alcoholic beverages with numerous samplings. I'll let you know more about this with the next post. For those of you so inclined, please pray for me as I face my daily challenges with my "Director." 😉  Later!! Den E. Baby 

 

2025 Travel, Almost ready to go…

Our trip to Florida in December was lots of fun, seeing grandchildren who are now in three states—Florida, Nevada, and California. On December 30th they all headed down to Disney to celebrate the end of 2024 and ring in 2025. The generals, Deanne and Scot had a whole itinerary planned, ending with fireworks and a sad good-bye to Dan and Kelcey as they headed back to Las Vegas early on the 1st and later to Alexa. Looking back to that good-bye must seem even worse, as she is now in Los Angeles along with the fires.

On December 30th, we headed for the Sanford/Orlando airport for our flight that was scheduled to leave at 9:17 PM. then 10:37, then midnight, and then we left the plane for a stay in the terminal. We were then instructed to reclaim our bags on carousel 2. Luckily we knew the code to the house and so once again in an uber we left the airport.  Three o’clock found us back in the bed we had left in the morning and 8:00 AM we were up, soon to be showered and once again, booking an Uber.

At the airport we checked in, got our original seats back and headed for TSA. There we were instructed to go back to check-in and get a printed boarding pass. Yep! The digital app was no good. Back we went, jumped the line and got some help. A young gate agent took the initiative to start a line just for the backed up Indianapolis flight and soon our fellow passengers were lined up behind us. Back through security and finally made our way to COFFEE! Now we are sitting comfortably with our crew from last night, waiting for take-off.

So this is the way we say Adios, Ciao, Auf Wiedersehen, farewell to 2024. We sit with crossed fingers that this is not a harbinger for what’s to come in 2025.

We’re now in Chicago and in a day or so, we’ll be at O’Hare getting ready to take off for London and then Larnaca, Cyprus. We have a VRBO apartment there which looks lovely. Crossing our fingers that the place is as lovely as the photos. Packing was a bit of a challenge but I read and reread all the articles on packing, rolling, folding, packing cubes, and checking bags versus carry-on only. We decided to go the way that has been successful for us—checking our 21 inch suitcases and packing 3 days worth of clothes in the carry-on along with travel documents and art supplies. 

Before we left Bloomington, we had a major snow storm, 12 inches was dumped on our town. It started out so peacefully.  I am very shaggy at the moment. My haircut was cancelled due to the snow so now in Chicago I’ll take my chances and as always, remember it will grow. Pretty silly problem and easy to solve and of course Dennis has already volunteered to do the job.

I asked him earlier if we should still do a blog and he said a very definite yes! I’ve also had friends/family ask if he was going to write. Notice it was, is HE going to write? Again, he said yes. So now I’m waiting for the words of wisdom to be written. 

And here they are...

Well, today is 1/10/2025 and Cindy is already "bugging me" about writing for the blog. That's 3 days before we even leave on our trip!! And now it begins...

On 1/5 we had about 12 inches of snow in B'ton. Two days later, we left for Chicago to meet our new grandson Dominic, born on 1/2/25 and help out as needed. Apparently we brought the snow with us. Got 2 inches of snow here today, much less than we left in B'ton. 

It was wonderful greeting, meeting and holding him. What a way to start a trip. 🧡

It's 25 degrees in Chicago today. I just checked Larnaca, Cyprus where we'll be headed in 3 days, out of Chciago and it 70℉ and sunny there. 25℉ here? 70℉ and sunny there? Bring it on!! Stay tuned. I''l keep you posted on our Mediterrean adventure. 😉Den

Babylonstoren

         When we were at Mosaic Lodge and we told the “Brits” that we were staying at Babylonstoren, they were so impressed. “How did you manage to get reservations?” That answer was all due to our Elsewhere travel agent, Natalee. Remember, we found her through Lonely Planet? This place is quite unlike any other place we have stayed. when we mentioned it to anyone, they were positive we would love it. It is a wine farm (not called vineyards here), a water buffalo farm, that also has huge vegetable gardens, orchards, Peking ducks, guinea fowl, chickens, and of course roosters which we heard this AM at 5:30. Everything is farm to table. And everything is free range and as organic as possible.

The lounge with a serve yourself bar

Dennis working hard on the blog

Dennis in front of our room at the farm house

The living room of the farm house  

        Our first reservation was at the Bakery. The walk there was short but gave us a chance to see a bit of what the farm has to offer.

        The food at the Bakery was from a set menu and we couldn’t handle it. Just the salads to start us off were too much. There was a caprese salad and a vegetable and fruit salad that was enough for at least six people. This was followed by a mushroom ravioli bowl and then as many slices of pizza as you could eat, topped off with chocolate chip gelato with figs. Do you need to take a walk, just from reading this?

        This morning we went on a tour of the water buffalo farm. It is quite an operation. Very well-run, beautifully maintained with every thought given to the comfort of the animals. We got to put a female name for a new baby into a lottery. 

        All of this was followed by an amazing breakfast and then a short walk to see some of the many shops that are here. 

Dennis is out for a bike ride. I am waiting to hear about the resolution of a travel glitch, and even if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be bike riding that is not a good option. The old saying, once you know how to ride, you never forget? That is so not true. 

He was joined on his ride by this big guy.

        Now for the travel glitch—Lufthansa cancelled our flight. So after a frantic call to our travel agent in Indiana we are confirmed on the next flight back which is Thursday rather than Wednesday. We are crossing our fingers that this will go through. And we are relying on our South African travel agent, Natalee to find us a room for Wednesday night as Babylonstoren is all booked up. 

        

        To drown our potential sorrows we went to the wine tasting room…

A snack for one, that we couldn’t finish.

Seven wines per tasting, we could finish that!

        After the tasting we headed for the meeting point of the Mountain drive again with Morne. An absolutely stunning drive, culminating with a picnic at the top of the mountain.

 

        What a lovely way to end the afternoon. And our travel plans seem to be moving ahead. Natalee found us a place to stay in CapeTown and Debbie got us confirmed on flights. We’re good to go. With one last  word from Mr. Dennis—

        Today for me, was the highlight of our African trip. Yes, the lodge we stayed in was wonderful but the mountain drive with our guide Morne (More-nay) was exceptional. Babylonstoren (the lodge) encompasses approximately 3000 acres of land in the Drakenstein Valley. Accommodations? Outstanding! Great rooms and staff. Activities? Even better but the drive up the side of the mountain was mind boggling (that’s the word I was looking for). To look over this valley from 3000 feet above sea level? Our pics don’t do it justice. 

        Seeing acres and acres of vineyards that are irrigated by miles and miles of 1/2 inch irrigation lines and thousands of posts supporting the vines, I asked Morne, “Where does this water come from?” He said, “The river we have access to.” I noticed land that was fallow and asked, “Why isn’t it being used?” His response, “Land is not the issue, water is!” We have all the land we can use but without water?”  Where have I heard that before? The Colorado River through the USA? Water? Climate Change? It finally struck home with me…and home we’ll be headed for shortly.