Rhodes 2

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Monday 27th June, 2011

We woke our usual time and went down to breakfast.

Our plan for today was to visit Lindos. The buses ran from the other end of town and were quite often, so we had no particular bus in mind. We left the hotel at 1025 and strolled to the bus station. We paid for our bus tickets, €5 each single to Lindos, and after a short wait caught the 11 o'clock bus. The journey was pleasant for us as we haven't been out of the town area since our arrival so we had a chance to view the Rhodes countryside.

Lindos is about half way down the island on the eastern coast. The bus was full and people were standing in the aisle by the time we arrived at Lindos. We saw Faliraki from afar which, to be honest, was about as close as we wanted to get. It took just under an hour.

The bus arrived and we wandered in to the town and headed straight up to the Acropolis. This was another place that later became a castle of the Knights of St. John and the acropolis is set within it.

The paths and steps up are made of a type of stone that is very slippery, even on a dry day like today. So climbing up wasn't fun, especially as it is a narrow path and people are stopping all over the place to take pictures. There are no handrails or barriers either.

The site was €6 each for entry and we wandered up and around. There is no museum, just signs explaining about various things. The temple is under it's second major restoration. From this location you do you get a very good view of the surrounding area as you are so high up.

Anyway, we came down and wanted a drink so were keeping our eyes peeled. There were a few places dotted about, but we came across a bar that Pat liked the look of and we weren't hungry but definitely needed hydration, so headed in.

The place was called "The Sunburnt Arms" and was run by Brits, so was actually more what we would call a pub. They sold Walkers crisps (you can't buy crisps under that name in Greece), pork pies, scampi bites and all the usual things that you would expect in a UK pub.

The only problem was for a half pint draught Heineken lager, a small glass of Coke light poured from a 50cl bottle and two 50cl bottles of water we were charged €10.00. We didn't have a second round.

By this time we had actually had enough of Lindos and we were very underwhelmed. So decided to head back up the road for the bus. We purchased our return tickets at €5 each and went straight to a queue for the 1430 bus back and we were allowed on after a little while.

The bus journey back was through more villages which was fine for us as we got to do more sightseeing. We eventually arrived back at 1550, so 1 hour 20 minutes. We quickly had a look at the tour boats to see if there was anything we wanted to do, but nothing caught our eye.

Pat had enjoyed our last meal at Sarris and we weren't far away at this point so headed for it. We had a Greek salad, pork chop and spaghetti carbonara, usual drinks €34.40. Good food, good service good location.

Our return walk was through the old town to be nosey and eventually we arrived back in the room at 6 o'clock. We didn't venture out again.

Tuesday 28th June, 2011

Breakfast as usual, then our plan for today was to find the town's Acropolis, due west of the hotel, then up to the town and back round via the coast.

We set off just before 11 o'clock and followed the main roads trying to follow the brown signs. A couple of times we weren't sure if we were still heading in the right direction, but we did finally get to the Archaeological park as it's referred to. There is a large stadium and a temple. The stadium is quite something and I have never seen one as complete. Not sure how much the Italians renovated it early in the last century but probably quite a bit. The temple has some standing columns and again has had major renovations.

Just to acquaint you with the geography, Rhodes Town is situated on the northern tip of the island. The Old Town is just below the top on the eastern side. The new town is farther north and west. Our hotel is a little south of the old town on the eastern side.

So after heading west for the acropolis we headed north along the western coast (I hope that makes sense) and found what our travel guide book refers to as Windy Beach. Guess what, they were right, it's very windy.

There is a beach with lots of sunbeds and the tourists were out in numbers soaking up the sun. Brits seem to be in a minority and the touts didn't get much joy because we didn't understand them.

We stopped for refreshment and watched the world go by for a little while at one o'clock. Most of the better hotels seem to be here.

Then headed round the top and past the harbours. We stopped for something to eat at a restaurant, very much in the tourist area called Hellas. We had a chicken fillet and gyros plate, with 2 large cokes, 2 small waters, cost €27.40.

Then after passing more cruise ships we went back to the hotel for about 4 o'clock. Some of these cruise ships are following us around, by the way, as we have now seen some of them several times.

There is a general strike in Greece for 48 hours from today and some things are closed on Rhodes. We are not sure yet what effect, if any, this may have on our ferry tomorrow, but we are keeping on eye on things.

Some buses are running and we have seen aircraft landing. None of the local private businesses are closed, but we wouldn't expect those to be. It's mainly the government organisations.

On a completely different subject and for your information the Greek car number plates are 3 letters followed by 4 numbers. The letters are derived from the registration location. In the Greek language Rhodes is Podos. Their P is our R. Therefore the local number plates begin PO, after that we get various letters, so you get POT, POM, POX and to add to the fun the occasional POO. Oh well that's the infantile humour over.

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Photos

Lindos
Temple of Athena Lindia

Rhodes Town
The Stadium

Rhodes Town
Temple of Apollo

Rhodes Town
Windy beach

Rhodes Town
West coast