Thursday 5th April 2012

 Much to our continued amazement and delight work continues on the road with trucks going up and down along with a water sprayer and a 'steam roller'  I wonder why I still refer to them by that name after all its a long time since they were driven by steam.  Perhaps its from childhood memories of the excitement a real stem engine caused when one came to flatten a hole in the road?  Anyway it did its job and the white stones and dusty mix have now been compacted hard and give a flat 'white road'.  Will the boys from the black stuff arrive tomorrow?

After a relatively slow start to the day it was off to Lefkosia for an explore to find Ercan airport that we fly from to Turkey on Monday night for a weeks’ golf.  First stop was dropping Rosemary and Hugh to explore in the old part of Lefkosia whilst we headed to the border for passage through passport control into the northern part of Cyprus (the dark side) as its referred to by locals.  First mistake of the day was to say to R & H that we would meet them by the statue at the entrance to the traditional shops.  They spent all their time looking for a statue that had been removed a month before with the renovation of the park!

At the border €75 buys car insurance for a year - better than €25 for one month.  The airport was a lot further to the east of Northern Lefkosia than we had been led to believe and it took about 35 minutes to reach it.  Very small although the terminal looked modern.  The important thing we confirm that we can leave the car there for the week for a cost of 45TL.  A bargain when yopu consider what it might cost to park a car for a week at London Heathrow.

Mistake number two on the way back - we missed the turning back to the border control.  Not surprising as they are not signed and looked different from the reverse direction.  This causes a 40Km ride along a new dual carriageway until we can turn round and get back.  Racing through the border, back to the south, by the time we had parked and walked we are 20 minutes late for our ‘pick up meet’ for R & H, who are eventually found wandering around looking for the statue!  A beer needed so we sit in a lovely square (with some fries to nibble) and watch the world go by.  No photos as I had forgotten the camera, however we will return.

Bak home its time to sit in the garden for yet more beer and wine.  The temperature is lovely and in Lefkosia earlier the car thermometer was registering 30C.