Wuthering heights of Kykkos Monastery

[dizzyblonde]

Kykkos is situated in a very challenging to get to place in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus. Troodos itself is around the height of Ben Nevis, with Kykkos being on another peak within mountains a couple of hundred feet lower.
The roads are very very good for bikes with the odd fallen clump of rocks to avoid I reckon its a deserted place to go play, if you can deal with heights and actually find the roads that get you there safely on.....goood job I had a chauffeur who is a Cypriot Scot then innit!
Photos don't do the roads justice, nor the view from the window of a car



It takes around 2 hrs of steepness to find the place, weaving in and out of small villages scarily built into the hillsides, and beautiful views for miles over forests and the odd tip of snow.
You grow impatient as the altitude gets to you, but the effort of getting there is lost when you find yourself in the most peacful and tranquil place in the world.

And a sigh of relief when you climb out of a 1.4 Seat Cordoba saloon thats undercarriage nearly got ripped off dodging giant boulders in the road..the most ugliest naffest car for offroading(another story) but happens to be far too reliable for its own good



We had the feeling that when the hire woman picked it up after we'd killed it, that the wheels and doors would fall off when the key was put in the lock!!

[dizzyblonde]

Kykkos has to be one of the most unaccessible places in Cyprus. It is also perhaps one of the most expensively built one too. There is reputed to be some rather hefty amounts of gold adorning the inside of the church itself. Unfortunately they must have known we were coming, as the museum we so wanted to go into was closed. The monk in the shop said 'he couldn't give the real reason, but the excuse was it was the winter season and there were few people there, he couldn't say what the real reason was'.
To us it was quite busy, there was a school trip and a few tourists looking round the place, but I couldn't help having the suspicion about the UN truck outside. You have to bare in mind that Troodos is on the boarder between the Northern 'Turkish' side of the island and the Greek side.

We did get into the Northern side, which you have to go through a short 'no mans land' to get to, and up until recently Greeks had to pay to go there. Pegasus being Greek really wanted to go there.....but those pics I shall save for another thread.

For now I give you a few pics pinched off the web to give you an idea what the church itself looks like





and a link to the history of Kykkos

http://www.kypros.org/Sxetikos/Monastiria/KykkosE-1.htm

I do have loads more of the frescos, these are random, I'll post more later if anyone has interest.

[Biker Biggles]

Impressive place innit?
Ive been there many times and love that mountain road from Kykkos down to the coast near Polis.Did you go up to the tomb of Makarios above the monastery?Ski slopes busy at Troodos?

[dizzyblonde]

We drove up there via Polis and back down to Lemesos. We were staying in Pafos

Didn't go to the tomb, it had started getting a bit foggy down below so thought it best to head back!

As for Troodos, theres more snow here at the moment! I started feeling really icky so, rather than going right up to the top we found the low road and came down an 'interesting' route.

[Biker Biggles]

I went there in April one year and stood in a snowdrift on Troodos one day and went swimming in the sea at Lara on the Akamas the next,only about thirty miles between them.I always hire a little Suzuki jeep for those "interesting" routes back from the mountains.

[pegasus]

we managed the Akamas in the afore mentioned Cordoba!!!! Interesting, but i will let Dizzy post that story another time.

Nice pics Dizzy looks a real nice place to visit