Russian Warships in Limassol

Russian Warships in Limassol, a set on Flickr.

Someone in Paphos wanted assistance from Limassol today…

My task should I choose to accept was to do a reccy of the Russian warships that are currently docked at Limassol New Port.

So, as I’m only ten minutes up the road from the port – here they are!

RFS SMETLIVY 810 – a Russian naval destroyer and the RFS MOSKBA 121 (a scary looking lady indeed) and so she should be, she’s a Russian guided missile cruiser!

News of major Russian military naval drills in the Mediterranean sea around the Middle East and Syria

Boxing Day / Feast of St. Stephen – how was it for you?

Well, while most folks in UK were probably out at the sales trying to grab the bargains, this was our day in Cyprus:

A 10 minute drive down to Limassol New Port to check out the NCL cruise ship: Norwegian Jade before she heads off next to Haifa in Israel.

Below:
The view from our table in the sun outside McDonald’s located by the big Orphanides supermarket just off the highway in Limassol. For those who have been to Cyprus you may be surprised to hear that Orphanides supermarkets are bankrupt to the tune of around €200m and 11 supermarkets closed last week with the rest to follow soon.

I wonder what will replace this store? Such a sad demise for what used to be for us an “institution” of coming to Cyprus for holidays. We always used to go shopping at Orphies in our hire car when we were staying in holiday apartments on a self-catering basis.

Woo Hoo! 2 cheeseburgers and chips each sitting in the sunshine….
That’s 4 cheeseburgers and 2 medium fries for €8

Clem decided it was too hot so he took his fleece off! Think we had similar temperatures to yesterday of around 19C or just over 66 Farenheit

Some updated news on Orphanides supermarkets today (28 December 2012) from the Cyprus-Mail online newspaper.

A FINALISED ‘take it or leave it’ rescue plan for Orphanides Supermarkets is to be put to suppliers sometime in the next few days, and its rejection could spell the demise of the debt-ridden company.

Norwegian Jade cruise ship at Limassol today

Norwegian Jade cruise ship, a set on Flickr.

The NCL cruise ship: the Norwegian Jade arrived early this morning into the port of Limassol, Cyprus for a one day stop.

Her current itinerary is taking her around the Eastern Mediterranean on 10 and 11 day cruises and calling at various ports including: Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy, Alanya, Turkey, Limassol, Cyprus, Haifa, Israel, Ashdod, Israel, Iraklion, Greece, Naples, Italy, Port Said, Egypt and Alexandria.

The “Norwegian Jade” NCL cruise ship.
Year Built: April 2006
Flag: Bahamas
Call Sign: C6WK7
IMO: 9304057, MMSI: 308416000

Formerly named: Pride of Hawaii

Arrived from: Civitavecchia, Rome/Italy
Current port: Limassol, Cyprus
Next destination: Haifa, Israel

It was an odd sort of day….

Sunday 2nd December 2012 started out okay with a drive around towards the Aphrodite Club and bowling green to catch up with our friends to see if they managed to kick their laptop into gear, but when we got there – they were out!

We hung around a while chatting with their son about the usual stuff: work, the latest gadgets and gizmos but no sign of mum and dad returning – so we popped off to Episkopi village to stake out the Twin Arches as we heard it had opened as a new restaurant after previously being run as a fish restaurant.

Thwarted again – it was closed! But we did manage a peep at the menu…
However €22 for a steak with a sauce seems quite expensive when you recall this is in a Cypriot village some 12km away from the centre of Limassol or the tourist area….
We pay that price for one of the top restaurants  (Neon Phaliron) where we like to go for “special” occasions.

So, the Twin Arches will have to be tried and tested before we even think about using it for Christmas Day which was on our list of intentions.

Twin Arches menu

While we were perusing the menu and prices, we got a call to say our friends were now back home so we said we would come back. We decided to go around the old road and back through Erimi village where we bumped into Andreas from the Ουζερακι taverna. Window down in the double cab truck to ask if they would be open on Christmas Day. “I will know tomorrow, we will talk” was the answer – so that sounds promising as it’s another favourite of ours….

Ouzeraki Taverna, Erimi village, Limassol

Back again to Helen & Dave’s house for a natter and a brew but the laptop is still dead. The latest Microsoft update (all 17 of them) seems to have made it roll over and die. It will no longer boot up…. With the news of a lead on another place for Christmas Day, we said we would look Andreas up again later in the week so with that we decided we were off to Limassol Port to check out the Cunard cruise ship – the Queen Victoria.

As we got to our truck, we saw we had collected a friend….

Cat on our double cab

We shooed him off, only to find he had a twin sitting underneath, keeping warm from the engine. Bless

Eventually, we got to Limassol Port and managed to grab a few shots of the Queen Victoria from the perimeter fence. A couple of photos are here below and the rest can be found on my flickr account: CyprusPictures - Queen Victoria, Cunard cruise ship

Queen Victoria cruise ship in Limassol port

Queen Victoria cruise ship

Queen Victoria cruise ship

Queen Victoria cruise ship

Leaving the port, we took an extra sneaky turn around the roundabout so we could take some photos of the display there….

Limassol Port roundabout

Hmmmmm, what next?
How about a trip to My Mall, the biggest shopping centre in Cyprus?

Designer branded shops, a food outlet with such names as: Ocean Basket, TGI Friday’s, Bamboo and Taco Bell to name just a few. It also has a small ice-rink and a mini ten pin bowling alley to keep the kids occupied while you have a quiet coffee or snack.

There were certainly lots of cars on the huge car park (all wanting to park in the doorway of the Mall of course – but after all remember “this is Cyprus” where nobody walks more than 5 yards if they can help it. Pavements were put down for parking on!

My Mall ice-rink

My Mall – from the food court location

After all that wandering around we felt decidedly hungry but couldn’t make a decision between Macdonald’s of a KFC Bucket (how expensive has that “bargain bucket” gone these days) so we decided “stuff it” and drove to Sigma Bakery ψησταρια instead and got a hot roasted chicken to takeaway.

Sigma Bakery – food point

Back home, we had a well earned mug of tea followed by a hot chicken sandwich and a relax!

Since then, that chicken gave us our evening dinner with cabbage and roast potatoes then made a chicken curry on Monday evening….. All good stuff!