Saturday 12th November

Lillian wakes feeling stiff and sore after her tumble from the bike with a shiny black eye!  Poor Lillian.

A trip to the 'Dark Side' - our first.  With visitors Chris & Nick we set off up the now familiar A1 to Lefkosia (Nicosia) and after a quick stop to ask the way we managed to find the border crossing where we were in a line of about 5 cars.  First stop was to the insurance box where we needed to buy car insurance as ours does not cover in the northern part of Cyprus.  This cost 25 Euro and is valid for one month.  Perhaps time for a second trip in December?  Passports were shown and were stamped on a piece of paper rather than in our actual passport.  Don't know why that is so as  I can't think of reason why you should not have a Northern Cyprus stamp.

First impressions were like I had when passing to what was East Germany when in Berlin.  Its all OK but somehow plain, grey and unkempt.  We followed the main road to what is now called Girne, although if you look on maps in the south it is called Kireniya its original cypriot name.  Once in the town we headed to the coast and down narrow single lane streets we eventually found somewhere to park, which surprisingly had no charges.  First stop was to change some Euro into Turkish Lira at a rate of 1 Euro to 2.45 TL.  We stopped and looked into the shops where prices seemed somewhat cheaper than in the south until we spotted the sea at the end of a side street.

Once on the promenade we watched huge waves crashing and spraying over the sea wall, much to a black dog's delight!  Not knowing where we were going we came into a lovely harbour and sat there for a beer and lunch.  Seemed a good idea to be outside but just as we sat clouds covered the sun and it became chilly. It was a pretty place and the whitebait I had selected from the menu was excellent.

After a bit more strolling we decided to take the long ride back by going along the northern coastal road to Farmagusta, called Gazimagusa in turkish and consequently all road signs.  It was a good drive with the sea on the left and a high mountain range on the right.  We passed many new housing developments which were obviously targeted for Brits as prices displayed were in GB sterling! They all looked very nice and great value compared with what we have paid in the south, however they also seemed in the middle of nowhere!  We will explore more when we come back to visit Geoff and Hazel Turner, who we knew in Dubai who have actually bought one and are living there now.

Arriving back home at about 1830 it was a quick sit before the Saturday ritual of the pub and a meal.  First time in four weeks we had gone to the pub and Ipswich hadn't lost! They didn't play today.