Our hostess was waiting for us and let us into the very neat duplex. The ad on the booking site had completely undersold the property and it was so so so much better than we had expected or could have hoped for. Tastefully decorated, neat as a pin, every accessory and extra you could imagine… and a front and back patio where long chats and new memories were willing themselves to be made!

Short tour behind us, our gracious host asked if there was anything else she could do for us. Of course we asked for restaurant recommendations. She said she would follow up via WhatsApp and before we’d even settled our bags in our en suite room, a generous list of options was in my inbox.

Released of the task of preparatory researching, we waltzed out and arbitrarily turned left down the beach road to see what our new ‘hood had to offer. A proper beach town, there was a mix of shopping, eating, drinking and open spaces to relax.

Looping back along the promenade revealed a posher picture than we’d expected, with shiny new holiday apartment blocks giving way to green lawns, wide walkways and the glinting sea.

With a little more time before we needed to leave for the airport, we overshot our house and walked almost the full length of the promenade to the harbour and Paphos Castle at the end. The waterfront was a buzz with holidaymakers – a good atmosphere, but more commercial than we were hoping to share on our first night.

Back at our holiday home in time to grab the car keys and whizz to the airport (only 15km away), we were at the gate and waiting in the Arrivals hall when Alex and Luke emerged.

It was only on the drive home, where we were catching them up on our adventures, that we realised how much we had already seen and done in Cyprus!

They too were super impressed with our digs, and quite content to sit on the back patio with a couple of cold beers that we had stocked upfront, and catch up.

Using one of our hostess’s recommendations, we headed out on foot for dinner at Hondros in the Paphos Old Town. We left at around 18h00 so that the newbies could appreciate the walk along the promenade and take in the harbour and its sights.

As the oldest traditional taverna in town, the  restaurant was a phenomenal recommendation. We feasted on a shared meze dipping combo starter and then our own respective favourite main courses that ranged from crispy souvlaki (Luke), to tender calamari (Alex), to beef stifado and lamb kleftiko (Chris and I to share).

Full to bursting, we made our way slowly back through the old town, with a couple of hours (and a few bottles of bubbly) to spend in our happy home before bedtime.

THURSDAY

Always a pro traveller, Alex had booked us a walking tour for Thursday morning at 09h30.

Observing our respective morning rituals, we were all ready at the door at 09h10ish, as planned, to drive down to the meeting point in Paphos Old Town.

As an added bonus, there was a couple from Colchester – Chusa and Lee – meeting up with us at the tour so we became a Party of 6.

Our tour guide, Mary, gave us a brief history of Cyprus and Paphos, adding some colour to the spotty knowledge we’d picked up along the way. She told us that Paphos was made capital of Cyprus by the Ptolemy of Egypt because it was only 360km from Alexandria. Until then Cyprus was mostly inhabited in the East in Nicosia and Famagusta.

Fast forward many moons and in the 1920s the many tombs were discovered, then in 1960 the mosaics from the Roman civilisation were unearthed. Then came the airport and all the tourists.

Mary concluded the tour outside the chapel of John the Baptist, from where we made our way back to the Laona restaurant to revel in oven-baked pork meatball and tender pork chops.

With a bellyful onboard, a visit to the Tomb of the Kings was exactly what we needed to move our meal.

These rich people would have been buried with their treasures, which are sadly long-gone from being looted over the ages. The cemetery was excavated by the Department of Antiquities and used during the Hellenistic and Ptolemaic periods.

We were able to enter the tombs and explore the chambers and the capsules where the dead would have been placed. Some of the tombs were impressively large with drommos (staircase passages) leading down 5 or more metres below ground level into these family vestibules.

There were QR codes outside the chambers, which Luke would click and either play the audio track or read the narrative to us so we had an indication of what we were looking at.

All cultured out for the time being, we retreated from the sun for a bit to enjoy ice-cold refreshments in Karlina’s, across the road from the tombs site. From there we plotted next steps, which included a fun ferrying of our new friends to the Castle in our rental car. They had not yet seen this primary landmark and all it took was me climbing into the boot so they could pile in like a clown-car for us to make their dreams come true, which was a very small ask in the scheme of things.

We returned to our house for a couple of hours of relaxing in advance of dinner, which was at another of our hostess’s recommendations; Pinguino, a casual terrace-style cafe that served phenomenal pork and seafood dishes.

It was essential to conclude the evening with an obligatory nightcap on our front patio as we were fast running out of time to take advantage of all the options in our happy home.

FRIDAY

We were up bright and early to catch the bus for our Blue Lagoon tour. We were welcomed onto the coach by our hostess, Anna, and her driver, George. She outlined the plan for the day, which had us driving up the coast, through the mountains, up to Aphrodite’s Bath in the north and then transferring in Latchi on the return journey to a boat for a trip to the Blue Lagoon. There would be village stops in between for coffees, lunch and snacks.

Anna started her tourguide narrative telling us that Paphos is both a city and a region that stretches all the way up the West coast to the Blue Lagoon. The region is home to 38000 people, which can swell to double that in summer.

Moving through the wine region, Anna told us that Cyprus wine history goes back 5000 years – an accolade recognised in the Guinness Book of Records for the local Commanderia. They grow white Sinisteri grapes and black Mavro grapes. Traditional local wines don’t add sugars or alcohol, which makes them quite low in sulphites.

She moved from fact to fable, sharing that Aphrodite was a notoriously beautiful but unhappy goddess who – legend has it – had many affairs. She was the adoptive mother of Adonis, with whom she then fell in love. He was killed by a wild boar while hunting and she never got over it.

The Baths of Aphrodite was in a botanical gardens and washing in her waters was supposed to give eternal youth and beauty. The bus stopped to allow us a visit.

We followed the path to the grotto and had some laughs as we dipped our hands into the water and splashed our faces, taking ‘before and after’ photos to track the results.

There was still time to visit the viewing points to take some scenery pics. The sea was as clear as Anna promised and even from our raised vantage point, we could see straight through the sea water to the golden sand on the sea-bed.

We met up with a second tour bus to share the boat trip. There was a group of Alex and Luke’s friends from Colchester Bootcamp on that bus – also out for the Race but staying in a villa up the coast hence we’d not yet met.

They were a fun bunch, with cocktails flowing and selfies snapping. They welcomed us as friends-of-friends and we all soaked up the Mediterranean sun as the boat cruised to the Blue Lagoon.

Docking in the crystal clear bay, the boat-master inflated the water slide as everyone shed layers down to swim gear. Our English mates were more enthusiastic than we were; them coming from a long wet winter versus us coming from a long dry summer where the 16 degree ocean was a bracing prospect!

Nonetheless, we had a go at the slide and plunged into the water. It was a few seconds of sobering salty sea-ness before we acclimated and started enjoying the buoyancy. Luke threw us in a couple of U-shaped foam Pool Noodles which made it even easier since the water was easily 2.5m deep or more and treading it was quite tiring.

After a wonderful hour of slides and sun and socials, it was time for the boat to do the return journey. Well-oiled and warmer, it went by so much quicker.

Dropped at Latchi, we did a quick circuit of the little town before returning to the restaurant at the port, Moustakallis, for lunch. Delicious fresh calamari, seabream and moussaka was the order of the day. We passed the meal easily between friends, sharing stories of travels, life and everything in between.

The last stop on the tour was a banana farm alongside a shipwreck. Both were eclipsed by the fabulous ice-cream stand, where we queued to get a couple of scoops of the cold goodness to sample as we ogled the ship that it had seen its end in this cove, and was still jutting out from the shoreline at its awkward angle.

Back home, we had a couple of hours to would away before dinner time. Perfect opportunity to provide some coaching to Alex and Luke, who had recently taken up backgammon and had loads of questions about nuanced rules and strategy. They had come to the right place!

There was much hilarity as the dice chose their favourites and nail biting moments when the game looked like it could turn the tables. Lots of fun.

As our last meal in Paphos we chose… an Indian restaurant. Our friends Lee and Chusa joined us at the oh-so-creatively named Curry House and we had a long and leisurely meal washed down with a lovely medium-dry red wine.