There's a TV ad for a sleeping aid in which a lady raises a flag in the morning that reads, "I SLEPT!" That's how I felt this morning at 8:15AM. We had hoped to be up by 7:00AM, but after literally next-to-no sleep in three days, a solid night's sleep justified the late start. By 10:15AM, we were getting our rental car. By 11:15AM, we had finally figured out how to get out of Nicosia and onto the Motorway A-1 to Limassol. The mix of one-way streets, street names in Greek, and driving on the left made for a frustrating city exit.
The 90km drive to Cyrpus' southern coast showed us the mix of mountain, field and forest that comprises the interior. Somehow we thought it would be arid, but it was very lush and green.
Limassol is a typical beach resort town with a few historical treasures thrown in. Mile after mile of hotels and resorts comprise the coastline northeast of the city. Our Crowne Plaza resort is the closest to the city centre. 
A well developed sea-front promenade extends from the centre to the resort area
which we explored this afternoon and which served as a good jogging route for me tonight.
We had lunch at the hotel, then drove into the centre to do some exploring on foot. The 14th century Medieval castle,
the 15th century Grand Mosque,
and a more recent Greek church,
all serve as highlights of the Old Town.
From there we set out to explore the Akrotiri Peninsula west of Limassol. Passing orange orchards along the way, our first stop was the town of Kolossi, which sports a castle from the 15th century. 
Then it was on to the town of Akrotiri in search of flamingos that call a huge salt lake home. We saw lots of them, but from quite a distance. Not to worry: what we missed in flamingos, we made up for in cats -- the Malcolm Cat Sanctuary had tons of them! 
And speaking of cats, the next stop was the Monastery of Saint Nicholas of the Cats. Waaay back, when then monastery was being built amidst a snake-ridden drought, cats were brought in from Egypt to deal with the snakes so the workers could focus on building the place. Hence the name. The six nuns who run it these days, selling jams and honey, were saying afternoon Mass when we were there. So all we got to see were some cats (of course) and a mosaic of Saint Nicholas.
And here are two odd-ends that I can't weave into my story of the day. The first is just a building that caught my eye in the Old Town, showing the traditional blue/white Greek influence on Cyprus.
And the second shows what often gets lost in translation, no matter what the country!
The day wrapped up with a Greek dinner next to the castle in the centre of town. Tomorrow we return our rental car to Nicosia and go over to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to conclude our visit to this historic island.
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