Cyprus - 28/02-07/03/2023
Our flight from Gatwick to Paphos went without a hitch and arrived more or less on schedule at 14:15 Cyprus time, which is 2 hours ahead of GMT. I had arranged car hire from the airport, meet and greet from 7777. Having accepted a substandard high mileage vehicle (with >200000km on the clock), we set off for Coral Bay. We found the motorway (A6) easily and headed towards Paphos. At Paphos the motorway ended without any clear direction of how to proceed north from there. I took the correct turn, but thought it was wrong, turned around and found another road which we proceeded along for 15 minutes or so until we found the sea on our right, when it should have been on our left, and realised we had just got back on the motorway and were travelling back the way we had come - headed for Limassol. I would have realised this was the wrong direction from the signs, except that the Cypriots call Limassol Lemessos, which I did not know at the time. We turned around again and took the correct turn again 30 minutes later. Eventually we arrived at the Coral Beach resort and checked in to our lovely room - a junior suite with balcony and sea view. Next time I will listen to Alison and accept the tour operators' offer of a transfer from airport to hotel. (There were plenty of car hire opportunities in Coral Bay).
Cyprus is in the eastern end of the Mediterranean, south of Turkey, and is the 3rd largest of the Mediterranean Islands. It was ruled by Britain from 1878 until independence in 1960. It is divided into a Greek southern area with 77% of the population and a Turkish northern area with 18% of the population. Britain retains a military base on the Akrotiri peninsula, south of Limassol.
Paphos is in the south-west of the island with Coral Bay ~10km to the north.