Cyprus

On returning from our wee jaunt to Scotland, Callie and I discovered we only had two weeks and a day before we were off on our hols again, yippee! (Daddy's comment about us being on a "permanent holiday" suddenly had a ring of truth to it, oops!) Anyway, after much research and deliberation back at the start of the summer we decided that Cyprus was our best option for a chilled out family vacation as it involved only one, fairly short flight, no time difference and tempertures at least 10 - 15 degrees cooler than Bahrain! Neither Jamie and I were hugely excited about the location having been to Cyprus before and experiencing a week of miserable weather, but we were certainly looking forward to a quieter pace for a week and not the usual mad dash round Scotland most of our holidays have become these days! However, on seeing the weather forecast for heavy rain during the first part of our week, I was all set to stay home! I certainly didn't want to be cooped up in some grotty villa with a cranky one year old sans toys watching the rain bounce off the patio windows! Fortunately, the weather forecasters in Cyprus are obviously about as good as those in Scotland and never get anything right as the rain came to very little, just a couple of short showers which coincided with Callie's afternoon siestas, whew! The villa also turned out to be a revelation! What a find! The place was spacious, well equipped, spotlessly clean and, as advertised, close to a beach. It also had a lovely patio area and our own pool, which we jumped into and quickly scrambled out of - freezing is not the word! Luckily our local beach was fantastic - quiet, sheltered, clean - absolutely perfect for Callie who had a whale of a time toddling in and out of the water, filling up her bucket with stones and emptying them out, making and destroying (hmm, mostly destroying sandcastles - hers and other children's!) and checking out the boats in the harbour and all the cats hanging around waiting for the fishermen to come in with their catch. Callie also thoroughly enjoyed the attentions of Granny and Granda Mac who came over for the week too meaning that Jamie and I had a bit of sun lounger time! I managed to get through two and a half books so I must have had some time off! We all agreed that, although Cyprus isn't the most attractive of places, for a no hassle, chilled out week in the sun, the villa and location were great. We might even go back next year and for two weeks instead of one!