We didn't dock until after lunch so the morning was filled with breakfast, and you will never guess, yep we played Trash. The boys certainly loved it and you know how much I love playing games also!! Then off to lunch while the boat docked. The boys decided they didn't want to go on the excursion today, so they stayed at the kids club for the afternoon. So David and I went to get ready for our excursion.
Here we are waiting for our bus number to be called. It was a bilingual bus since there weren't a lot of English speaking people on the cruise.
Our first stop was a quaint little town. We stopped at a restaurant for a wine tasting and I didn't like any of it, but it was still fun and relaxing. We met another family on board and they were on the same excursion so we sat with them for awhile. Then our tour guide took us down to the Church of the Holy Cross. It is a Greek Orthodox Church. In 326 AD a part of the holy cross and the holy robe that Jesus wore was brought to the church. It is only brought out on September 14th. The other interesting thing in this church (we couldn't take any pictures inside) was that they kept the skull of Saint Philip the apostle and some pieces of the holy tomb Jesus was buried in.
This was the back of the church and a little shopping area. We found Angry Birds Uno and once the boys saw that, it became a favorite game on the boat. :-)
This was the cemetery in the town. It seems all the cemeteries we see in Europe are raised with really nice head stones.
This is the view from the hill down into the little town.
Then we headed to the Kurien - an archaeological site. It held many different sites including the Roman Nymphaeum - the sanctuary of the Nymphs who were the daughters of Poseidon, The Agora - a series of public buildings and hydraulic installations, House of the Gladiators - luxurious private residence who took its name from those depicted on the mosaic floors; the house of Achilles - used as a reception area for formal visitors. We weren't able to see all of these but we were able to see two big ones.
This was the mosaic in the main room of this house. It was called the "earthquake house" because it was destroyed by the earthquake of 365 AD. What I find amazing is there are these type of mosaics all over the house.
This is one of the first signs of Jesus. The 3rd line is the name of Christ in Greek. The Greek word for fish (ψάρια) is an acronym for Jesus Christ the Father. This floor is over 1500 years old. You can see the fish above the words in the middle.
What I thought was cool is that this room had floor heating. Way back then they had heated floors!
This is the theatre that was first built in 2nd century BC. It was also destroyed by the earthquake, but rebuilt. Between 214-217 AD they took out the first three rows of seats and the theatre was transformed into an arena for animal fights. In the second half of the 3rd century it was restored to its original use, for plays and concerts.
The view from in front of the theatre. We were very blessed with wonderful weather!!!
Our third stop was the Sanctuary of Apollo. On one of the information boards they said the history of the "cult" and the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates. I thought it was interesting that they used the word "cult". It is recorded in history as one of the most important sanctuaries on the island.
On the left of the picture were the guest rooms for those who came to pay homage to Apollo
This is the monumental temple in the Sanctuary of Apollo. It used to have four pillars, but only two survived. It was said that those who touched the sacred alter of Apollo were flung into the sea. Thank goodness they don't do that anymore or the boys wouldn't have parents right now. ;-)
I thought these were interesting, they are "The Baths" This is the only one that had four rooms instead of three. They had cold, slightly warm, distinctly warm and very warm. You can see the columns that held up the floors in the above picture.
This is a floor that survived more or less. I could see the columns through the hole that is in the picture above.
David having a wonderful time on our tour! We headed back to the boat at this time.
The British have a base on Cyprus - like the US in Germany. They have their own hospitals, grocery stores, etc. I guess they also have their version of the Blue Angels that practice down here and put on a good show.
We went to pick up the boys and Michael looked like this!! It was Zombie night at the kids club. AJ didn't want his face painted, he was a little upset with some of the kids in kids club.
But that didn't last long. We went to the show and the boys had a great time.
That night they had a little game. You had to go around to five different stations and do different challenges. You received points and then added them up at the end for a prize. The boys really wanted to do it. You had to catch as many boats as you could in 30 seconds at this station. The boys had a lot of fun, one was a memory game, and one was guessing what type of tea.
In the end both boys received a prize. They were a little wary of this guy though since he didn't talk at all. It was a late night for us and me not realizing that tomorrow our excursion in Israel started at 6:30 am. We didn't get to bed until almost 11 pm because of the show, but it was so much fun and I love watching the boys' faces light up!!
No comments:
Post a Comment