Roman Silchester

A sunny hike through English countryside west of London, with a stop at 2000-year-old Roman ruins.

Another sunny day called for another excursion outside London, for a walk through the beautiful English countryside. I hopped off the train in tiny Mortimer, which is little more than a train depo, a church, a pub selling Indian cuisine, and a few houses. Soon I was traversing fields of wheat, crossing pastures with grazing cows, and following a lazy stream across the flat terrain. I tried to imagine what this landscape looked like two thousand years ago, when the Romans arrived and built an amphitheater. I was about to find out.

Surprising blue fields outside Mortimer, England.
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Cyprus – trip to Limassol

An eight-hour tour across three-thousand years of history.

For our final day in Cyprus we signed up for a bus tour to the east, along the coastline, to the city of Limassol. Along the way we were able to visit the legendary birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite, the ancient Greek acropolis of Kourion, the medieval Kolossi Castle, and the medieval Limassol Castle. We enjoyed our lunch in a breezy café beside the old harbor of Limassol city. Read on, and check out the gallery of photos.

The legendary birthplace of Aphrodite: center rock of three in the midground.
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