Wow--was Cyprus important?? also--beaches

I never realised--Cyprus has been of enormous strategic importance in Middle East history. It was the first complete country to become Christian, following St Paul's very first missionary journey here, which is well documented. It was of strategic  importance to Richard the Lion Heart who married his fiancee here--a King of Denmark died here a 1000 years ago and Cyprus was 'traded' between colonial powers for centuries. Following the return to self-rule of Cyprus by Britain, in the '60's--with an inadequate constitution, both the Greek military Junta and the Turkish government, managed to stuff everything up,  so that  now Cyprus is 37% occupied illegaly by Turkey--who feared an invasion by the Greeks. This situation impedes Cyprus' ability to join UN meetings and is another reason why Turkey cannot join the EU (if it even wanted to, these days!!).

Lecture over-----------pics of historical buildings and events.

We spent most of the day on Coral Beach --very popular with Russians and Germans, we found--warm sea and hot sand.

The public bus system here seems very good indeed--cost one Euro for any trip or three euros for an all day ticket anywhere. Buses themselves are very good, modern, air-conditioned, disabled access etc etc-and the driver won't let you on if you haven't taken the sand off your feet--OH&S rules!