Days 16-23 – Kaş to Rhodes

---

It’s ages since we wrote anything on this blog but Deb’s conference is over now and we are back to our “normal” life of following our own timetable.

At our last entry we were still in Kaş but ready to hit the road the next morning to travel to Fethiye. We left Kaş as planned and had a pleasant 2 hour bus trip to Fethiye. At the Fethiye bus station we were met by the owner of guest house that we had booked into for the next few nights. This surprised us as we hadn’t arranged it but apparently he hangs out at the bus station all day waiting for his guests to arrive and to arrange transport to the guest house for them. The guest house was a 10 minute walk from the marina, restaurant strip and centre of town. It was relatively basic but very clean and as a bonus it had a pool and a nice upstairs terrace for beers and breakfast (not together). Our enduring memory from this guest house will be the way the toilet paper became saturated when you had a shower.

On our first afternoon in Fethiye we walked back into the marina area and the town centre before returning to the guest house for a swim and shower. Our evening meal that night was at the local fish market. Our Lonely Planet had told us about the Fethiye fish market for meals and so we sussed it out on our walk earlier in the day. You purchase your fish from one of the fishmongers and then you take that fish across the lane to a restaurant which, for a small charge, cooks it for you and supplies salad, bread and herb butter. They also sell beer and wine to go with the fish. They were very busy and so it took a while for our meal to arrive but when it did arrive it was pretty good. We had calamari and sea bass.

On our second day in Fethiye we went on a boat trip to a number of spots along the coastline. These trips are mainly an excuse to go for a swim, but given that it’s so hot in that region it’s a pretty good excuse. Neither of us enjoyed that trip as much as the first but it was still good. Deb managed to get a bit burnt and now, a week later, is waiting for that to peel. The following morning we caught the hydrofoil to Rhodes.

The boarding and customs arrangements looked like chaos at the port in Fethiye but surprisingly all boarding was completed and the ferry left pretty much on time. It was supposed to be a 90 minute crossing to Rhodes but because of rough seas took about an hour longer. We started off our trip travelling at full speed but after a while they cut the speed right back so that the voyage was a bit smoother. Quite a few people were clutching plastic bags but Deb was very proud of herself in not needing one.

The entrance into the port of Rhodes is really beautiful. The port is located just outside the walls of the old town and you can see the old castle and traditional wind mills also. Unfortunately hydrofoil transport isn’t conducive to taking photos as it’s a bit like being in a plane but with sea spray covering the windows. We caught a taxi from the port, via the bank, to our accommodation for the 5 days of Deb’s conference.

This was at the Sheraton Resort and we really lucked out there. We arrived looking slightly better than many backpackers, but backpackers none the less. We were invited to upgrade from a “Mountain-view” room (apparently it was a view of a wall) to a “Sea-view” room at extra cost but declined. We were then asked if we would prefer twin beds or a king-sized bed. Stupid question. Unfortunately they didn’t have any king-sized beds available in the mountain-view rooms and so we were upgraded to a sea view room anyway. Have a look at the photos to see what we had to put up with for 5 days. We could tell we were staying 5 star – the toilet paper didn’t get soggy when you had a shower and each day it magically grew a nicely folded triangle on the starting piece.

Deb enjoyed her conference but it was amazing how little free time was available as during the free time Deb was busy completing work stuff that had to be done during that week. Each evening buses collected the conference group and took us off for dinner at a local restaurant before returning us back to the hotel. The conference finished last night with a conference dinner at the hotel (by a pool) and a show of traditional Greek dancing with us joining in. During the days of the conference we had breakfast at about 7:30 a.m. which we enjoyed sitting on a deck by one of the hotel pools. This morning (Saturday) we enjoyed the luxury of a sleep in and 12:00 check out. We couldn’t believe just how different it was with the breakfast area packed, impossible to get a seat outside and almost impossible to be served a coffee or juice.

Five days of luxury has been nice but we are pleased to be out of there now. The region in which the hotel is located is very busy and touristy (full of Brits and Germans) and could be almost any popular beach location in the world. It’s also on the west coast of Rhodes which is the windy coast. It’s so windy that the sea is not suitable for swimming. We’ve now moved to a small village (Gennardi) on the south eastern coast. I suspect that the only other tourists here are the other people staying in the remaining 4 studio apartments at this place. The beach is a 10 minute walk away but so far we haven’t checked it out. Terry hurt his foot today as we were leaving the hotel but hopefully it will improve overnight so we can do some exploring tomorrow. Over the next 2 days we hope to visit Lindos (we drove past there today on the bus), and the southern tip of Rhodes.

---

Photos

Fethiye fish market
We bought our fish from this stall

View from our room at The Sheraton
It's a tough life but someone has to do it.

Rhodes old town
An attempt at getting a photo from the marina

Beer with friends and colleagues
It wasn't all work. We had an guided tour of the city one afternoon and a few of us stopped for refreshment in this pleasant bar.