Advertisement
We've had two very enjoyable days here in Gennardi. In our last blog we had only just arrived but we are happy with the choices that we made for accommodation and as a region to stay. We are staying in studio apartments originally built by a Greek-Australian who returned to Rhodes in the mid-1980s. Emmanuel is now getting old (he's currently sitting at the next table), his wife and son have died and his daughter is confined to a wheelchair so the apartments have been sold to a young couple. The vibe around here is almost one of an extended family. Quite a few locals come in for a beer at the bar and the local teenage lads are currently very busy playing pool. The bar stays open until about midnight but has not been disturbing our beauty sleep. This has to be one of the friendliest places that we've stayed at and now we even get to wave to people in the street that we recognise.
Yesterday we caught the local bus to Lindos and walked around there for a few hours. Lindos is an old port town with lots of old white-washed seaman's houses that tumble down the
cliffs between two bays. On the highpoint of the land between the two bays is the remains of an acropolis. Apparently the settlement was established about 2000 B.C. and the Acropolis itself has been modified by the various groups that have governed the place since. Modifications today are best described as renovation and, perhaps, even rebuilding in parts. As you can imagine, this is a bit of a tourist Mecca and the streets at the base of the Acropolis are filled with tourist souvenir shops and bars/restaurants. Away from this area are some lovely old houses with great doorways etc. After our trip to Lindos we came back to Gennardi and went for a walk to the local beach where Deb went for a swim. In Australian terms beach is a bit of an exaggeration, but the water is great. The beach is a combination pebble, soil-sand affair that stretches for kilometers. Deb also went for an early morning walk down there today and found a number of locals having an early-morning swim before the tourists arrived.
Today we hired a car and went for a trip around the southern end of Rhodes. We travelled from Gennardi to the
next village south. There we had a stroll around before being greeted by the local Greek Orthodox priest - he was standing outside his wife's restaurant touting for business. Papa Georgios was a bit of a card and happy to talk with us while we drank the OJ that he had just sold us - that was until the next potential customers turned up. After that we headed further south to Kattavia (has a lovely cemetery attached to the church) and Cape Prasonisi. Cape Prasonisi is the most southern part of Rhodes but we didn't get there as the sand spit that used to attach it to the coast is now split by the encroaching sea. The end of the road is extremely popular with wind and kite surfers. We've never seen so many in one place at one time. Deb's thinking that she wouldn't mind learning to kite surf. After we left there we headed north up the western coast of the island to Monolithos. The west coast is quite dramatic and the views from the castle at Monolithos really something. After Monolithos we headed to the village of Siana which is renowned for its honey. There was a
very attractive church here and we purchased some honey as our next destination is self-catering and we will need to organise our own breakfasts.
Tomorrow we leave Gennardi and overnight in Rhodes before catching a ferry to Symi on Wednesday morning. Symi is a small Greek island between Rhodes and Turkey. We have 3 days planned for Symi and after that we plan to head to Datca in Turkey. We've read that there is a ferry that does this route once a week (on a Saturday) and so we hope that is the case.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0302s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb