National trusting

Today Izie and I went to millets for fancy lunch, plant shopping and to see the goats.

After spending a fortune, we went to enjoy the gardens at Buscot house.

Bank holiday Monday- paddle boarding

A proper paddle adventure today! We went to Abingdon and paddled from Abbey Meadow to Culham lock.
It was properly beautiful, lots of woodland and birds. We saw a heron and Swift's and rabbits. Very peaceful.

We definitely need to repeat this one earlier in the day- that way we could have late lunch at the Barley Mow and then paddle back again.

This time we had wood fired pizza at the crown and thorn. Highly recommended.

Bank holiday Sunday- Poole Beach & Monkey world

We had the windiest picnic ever on Sunday! It was brilliant and bracing and a fun experience, but we didn't manage to stay very long.
Eventually we threw in the towel and went to monkey world- which was amazing! The perfect alternative adventure!

Bank holiday Saturday- Swindon adventure

I met with my mum on Saturday as she had a hair appointment in town.
We went to Baila for coffee and cake (I was naughty and went there on Thursday too when I was running errands in old town- I'd forgotten how good that please is!)

We went to the museum to see the prehistoric crocodile and posted our selfies on Instagram.

Then to queen's park for walk around and a welshcake from their little cafe.

We also went to the zero waste supermarket, but it was disappointing. No plastic, but everything was imported from different countries! So many air miles!

BBQ

Tracey had a pre- pub quiz BBQ on Wednesday.
We aced the BBQ but sucked at the quiz!

Bristol botanical garden

I had free passes through work for the botanical garden.
We almost didn't bother going because the weather forecast was a bit rubbish. In the end the weather was perfect, we just had to carry our waterproofs about with us.

Definitely worth a visit for £6, especially the greenhouses.

Cyprus day 5

We drove to Lyra beach via duckpond market

. It's on a nature reserve, down a road that cannot be described as "suitable for all vehicles". And sea turtles hatch there.
It was beautiful and so quiet.

The tourist beaches are awful in Cyprus. They're full and people sell you that and you have to hire a sun bed. It just looks as far from relaxed as you can get.

We took the pizza slice and swam in the sea for a few hours.
Then we came back and swam in the pool.

We went to the football in the evening. Initially, we got there with loads of time to spare. Then we found out that you need a special ID. So we had to race back to the apartment for our passports and get ID cards made in a big rush in order to buy tickets with 5 minutes until kick off.
Such. Bad. Photos.

Cyprus day 4

We went to see the cats again! It was busier on a Saturday so we did not stay for as long as before.
They cats recognised us!
We had full laps.

After the cats we went to the monestary, which was very quiet and peaceful.
We saw a few remaining monestary cats (the sanctuary take them) and had fancy cake in their coffee shop.

We headed to lighthouse beach to see the other wreck and maybe have a swim. We were in 2 minds about swimming when we saw all the seaweed- our minds were made up when we realised we'd forgotten our towels.
We had a few drinks at a beachfront bar and then had a look around the shopping mall.

We realised that Pafos FC had a match the following evening so we drove out to find the stadium and buy traff a football shirt. The club shop was very odd. We got served by the football scout!

And Syrian Meze for tea!

Cyprus day 3

Peyia sea caves and rock pools!
We set out in search of a beach. We found one in coral bay full of embarrassing red Brits on holiday.

So we went in search of another one.

We ended up driving to the headland and the cliffs. Totally on the off chance we stopped to look at the view.
And we saw people swimming in the rock pools.
We decided if the could scramble down then we could too.

We had a dip in a rock pool, and then scrambled over the bottom of the cliff to end up with our own beach 😁.

Cyprus day 2

We had a full on second day- we went to the Tala cat feeding sanctuary and made lots of new furry friends!
After that we headed to Larnica to see if we could see any flamingos. There weren't any there, but on the way we stopped at Aphrodite's sanctuary which was really interesting.

We went to Nicosia too, to see the border and have a look about.

We ended up watching dinner back in pathos.
We went to the Syrian restaurant and had meze. There was so much food.

We were so full! Traffs stomach woke me up at 4am trying to do some digestion.

Cyprus day 1

We had a 7am flight. So we got up at 4am. Had a confused breakfast in Frankie and bennies at thevairthe  (the waitress was confused too .. she only charged us for half of our order and iced my espresso).

Cyprus is 2 hours ahead of the UK. So we landed about 1pm. Hired a car. Had a drive about and then checked into our apartment.
After establishing that the kitchen had a fridge and an oven we did an epic lidls shop.
Once we came back we prioritised eating the halloumi.

We went for a walk in the evening. Found some cats. Saw the views from the cliffs. It was very chilled.