History

18 Dec 1929

18 December 1929: Alfred Westholm experienced the Cyprus winter which could be very hard at times, as he described in a letter to his parents.

18 December 1929: Alfred Westholm experienced the Cyprus winter which could be very hard at times, as he described in a letter to his parents.

“Last week almost set a record in terms of heavy rain. We cowered, frightened, in our house and listened to the drumming outside. No work whatsoever was done. One night the church bells began to sound down in Skala. A couple of houses had caved in. Kition’s ancient harbour, that now is a stretch of fields like many others, became once again a big lake with the houses standing up in it like frightened little islands. And it was worse in western Cyprus. Most of the bridges collapsed and Erikos was isolated for several days at Ayia Irini. Einar came here on Saturday and brought me to Nicosia. He had a lot to tell about his adventures on the roads. The Volvo is a brave and good car that manages in rain or sunshine.”

The ‘History Today’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus).