A taste of Cyprus

Our latest trip took me to the city of Pafos on the southwest coast of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. We were only on the ground there for one & a half days so we had to make it count. First day there, we headed across the street from our beach front hotel (Venus Beach Resort) to a place that rented various autos. We chose the open cockpit Dingo.

Cyprus has been independant from Great Britian since 1960 & although the primary language is Greek, we found that everyone spoke very good English. The people were all very friendly & helpful, as tourism is one of the primary industries of the island (along with wine production).

Cyprus is a great place for outdoors lovers to visit. There are many hiking & biking trails, as well as places to fish or just sit on the beach. In the winter months the Troodo Mountains offer cross-country & downhill skiing as well as my favorite, snowboarding. The peak of Mount Olympos is near the center of the island, rising to 6,400' above sea level.

This Dingo was made for off-road travel, but was a fun ride on the road with no windows & street tires! :)

That's right, since Cyprus was a British colony at one time, so they do drive on the left side of the road. Thankfully, I only found myself on the wrong side of the road once after traversing our way part-way around a traffic circle in a clockwise direction (rather that the more familiar counter-clockwise direction). This did of course cause a mass of horn honking & my quick response on the reverse gear! :)

Anas takes a turn at driving in the mountains & I find out that without an instrument panel on the left side of the vehicle, there is NOTHING to deflect the bugs away from one's face!

Now for a little snorkeling in the Med. The water was VERY clear & a little cool (by Egyptian standards, Anas said). Not a whole lot of life to be found here, but a good place to practice for me, before our planned snorkeling (& maybe scubba) trip to the Red Sea later this summer.

In this area, there were many small valleys in the rocks, that ran right up onto the shore.

Most of the fish that I did find here weren't more than about 6" long.

My Office

Here's a few pics of our plane (2001 Cessna Citation Excel) on the ramp in Naples, Italy. Fresh out of the service center in Paris, with a wash & buff job!

Paris, France

Got to enjoy a couple days in Paris while we waited for the Cessna Citation Service Center to perform some scheduled maintenance on our bird. Weather was pretty nice here with temps in the low to mid 50’s…much better that when I was last there in mid January.


I tried to get a good picture of the Eiffel Tower on the way into the airport, but the bumpy air was working against me. If you look real close you can just make it out in the top left quadrent of this pic.

Unfortunately we didn't go up in the Eiffel Tower because of the long lines. Will have to get there earlier next time.




Welcome to The Louvre. This is one BIG museum of mostly paintings & sculptures!

Yes, this is the real / original Mona Lisa (as far as I know :)

Me & Anas relaxing by a large fountain outside The Louvre.

Waiting for the metro.

They sure do have large metro cars here...two levels on some!

Another trip to Athens

This trip to Athens finds us staying at a five star resort hotel on the Mediterranean coast about 45 minutes driving south of Athens city. What a beautiful area with sea water as clear as Lake Superior (& warmer :) I found a small mountain to climb near our hotel, for a better view of the surrounding area & to find much peace & quite that one only wishes for in Cairo :)

View from our hotel, to the north towards Athens.

Wanted to take a raft to this island, but the only raft I have it the emergency life raft for the plane...probably not a good idea :)


This monument was built for the first Greek Commandos, that were trained by US Special Forces back in 1945.
Found a few of these slow moving / quiet climbers on this mountain with me. This guy was about a foot & a half long.

Ah, peace & quiet with a VIEW!

Stuck in Genoa, Italy

Our 3 day stop in Genoa turned into 6 days, thanks to the ever changing ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull. Although we never saw a cloud in the sky over Genoa, Euro Control had the airspace over all of northern Italy shut down because of the forecasting charts (guessing charts :) showed the ash cloud touching the area.
Genoa, the boyhood home & believed birth place of Christopher Columbus, is a very old natural port. Many of the streets are VERY narrow (as seen in some of the pictures below) & buildings have been continually built on top of one another for centuries. My Co-worker (Anas) & I found the city to be quite interesting & very reasonably priced to a European location.


This antique Otis elevator was quite interesting & somewhat temperamental to operate, but was in excellently condition.

This replica pirate ship was actually a floating museum from Tunisia, Africa. They spend much of their time visiting various ports of call & giving tours.

Here you can see the typical street design of most of the old city. Behind the steal roll doors are the various markets & businesses that were closed in this picture.

Exiting the other side of this tunnel, you can see how the city is built over the top of older structures, as this tunnel actually takes you under buildings rather than earth.

Roaming around Rome

Rome is quite an incredible city to visit & quite easy to get around using the metro system & walking. The ancient history & ruins that still rest side by side with the modern city is quite the site to take in & pictures hardly do it justice.

I highly recommend a visit to Rome if you ever have the opportunity & if you do visit, you must spring for a proper guided tour as there is just too much to take in on your own. Our tour lasted around two hours & after that, we walked back through much of the grounds covered by the tour, to just take in the expansive history.

We had 2 days in Rome & spent all of day one wandering the Colosseum & Ancient City Center, while most of day 2 was spent visiting Saint Peter’s Basilica & the Vatican Museum after attending Pope Benedict’s weekly address.

At the far end of this photo, you can see the reconstructed wood floor of the arena. This would have originally been covered with sand to absorb the blood spilt during the games.

Site of the Roman Forum, where most of the government & temple buildings were located in the Ancient city. This photo was taken from The Palatine Hill, where the residence of emperors and aristocrats was once located, dating back to the founding of Rome by Romulus in the 9th century BC.

This road was once the main entry into downtown Rome & would have been the route taken by the conquering Roman Army, upon their victorious return to the city to deposit the plunders of war, in the depository behind me.

Couldn't attend the Pope's weekly address without getting a pic of him in the Pope Mobile :)



Pope Benedict XVI beginning his weekly address.

Below this baldachin is the tomb of the Apostle Peter, hence the name Saint Peter's Basilica.

Sorry, the Swiss Guards wouldn’t allow us to take any pics inside the Sistine Chapel, so there are no photos of the frescoed ceiling & walls painted by Michelangelo & other great artists of the Renaissance.