Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Time to say goodbye to Athens and our amazing apartment. We got everything packed and used the elevator to get the luggage down–man that thing is a godsend. Got in our taxi to the airport and got situated on our flight to Rhodes. The flight was uneventful, and the driver for the next apartment was waiting for us so that was nice. We went by a lot of hotels and resorts big and small until we got to Rhodes City where the driver got to use his special permit to drive us right into the historical castle complex past bunches of bunches of tourists who I think were convinced we were some serious

VIPs. Imagine their surprise when a bunch of bedraggled American tourists emerged from the car. Now this place was amazing. When we were making reservations and I showed the girls the AirBnB choices they were being so conservative. And I was like “but the castle though? Only $150 per night more? Rooftop hot tub?” I think they thought it wasn’t an option. So anyway we booked it and no regrets. Way too big for our needs, I think is sleeps 13 and we had two unused bedrooms, one of which was more like a suite. But it was so well done and rooftop hot tub…

We got some basics from a nearby store and then walked around near the harbor, where the Colossus of Rhodes once was. I would have been 108 feet tall, but it only lasted 56 years until an earthquake caused it to fall. Rhodes is a very cute town with lots of photo opportunities.  I can’t possibly post them all! After we’d walked around a bit we returned to our castle for some hot tub time, after which we went to dinner in the newer part of town at a good Italian restaurant. And then to bed!

 

 

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Charlotte and I got up earlier than everyone else as usual and after waiting a while for the crew to emerge decided to go to the Palace of the Grand Master and museum on our own. The palace was built in the late 7th century and then used by the Knights Hospitalier in the 14th Century as their base for crusades. In 1522 the Ottoman empire captured the fortress and in 1852 some gunpowder left by them exploded ruining a church and most of the Palace. In the 1930s, it was unfortunately “restored” by Fascist Italians so it’s not as historically intact as it could have been. The Hospitallers were also a bit of a misnomer as while ostensibly they were in charge of setting up hospitals to take care of religious pilgrims what they really were doing was battling the Turks. But it’s still fun to see it. Then we walked around the tourist area of town making plans for what souvenirs we would buy because this was sure a good place to do it. We returned to the villa for some tub time and then out to another nice dinner.

Friday, May 17, 2024

Today we took a high-speed boat past Turkey to the island of Symi. High-speed boats aren’t actually that fun because you have to stay in your seat mostly and it’s loud, but it’s pretty much the only way to get to Symi in under four hours. The town is super cute but not a lot going on there except its super cuteness. We walked all around the island, took a bunch of pictures, and got concerned about Charlotte’s finger that wasn’t healing and Geneveive’s doctor boyfriend said was probably cellulitis. Cool thing though, in Europe, you can get the medicine for stuff like that at the pharmacy and you don’t have to see a doctor. But all the pharmacies were closed so this would have to wait.

After that little bit of panic, we ate a nice lunch, got back on the boat, and went to a swimming area we enjoyed. One guy got a bit ahead of his skis and swam all the way out to the shore (Charlotte and I started and then about halfway there we realized we’d still have to swim all the way back in the time allotted and turned around) and somehow didn’t understand they were serious about people returning to the boat when they blew the horn so he had to try to swim it all in one go which, despite clearly being a good swimmer, he could not do. So they threw out a ring for him and then a rescue swimmer from the boat went in after him and the entire boat was watching. I bet it was the most embarrassing moment of his life. He was a young, fit guy too! So let that be a lesson to you: on the Greek boat tour do not be that guy!

We got back to Rhodes and then Charlotte and I set out to find a pharmacy. The pharmacist was very nice, she took a look at Charlotte’s finger, declared it to indeed be cellulitis, and sold us a tube of steroid cream for less than $2.00. Can you imagine?

Saturday, May 18, 2024

We started the day with the neighborhood orange cat coming over our wall into our patio looking for treats which of course we provided. And then we went on another boat tour. This time we were on a slower boat to Lindos to see the Acropolis and two swimming stops. It was a very nice and relaxing ride. Climbing to the Acropolis in full sun was not as relaxing, however. The Acropolis was free for us because the wifi was out on the island so they could not process tickets. This saved us about $60 which was cool. It is a very nice acropolis but we were very glad to get back into some shade. I hope the ancient Greeks had trees around so they didn’t have to suffer the full sun.

We headed back down and found a nice restaurant and then dipped our feet in the ocean before returning to the boat. These swimming stops were a bit more mellow. No shore to swim to so no problems there. Very nice clear blue water too.

 

 

 

Sunday, May 19, 2024

Today we walked around Rhodes (this time we really did walk around and pretty much saw all of it). We stopped in an pub and also had lunch in a really great casual place, Salt and Pepper, spent a lot of time with the neighborhood cats we had bought treats for, and enjoyed our rooftop hot tub until it was time for our fancy Sushi dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday, May 20, 2024

Today was our last day in Rhodes. We asked the owner of our AirBnB if we could leave our luggage past checkout because our plane didn’t leave until 9pm and he did us one better, let us just stay in the apartment until then. So we got to enjoy another full day in Rhodes which we were not expecting. We got to hang out for one more day, walk around Rhodes one more day and enjoy our orange patio kitty one more day. We tried to go a breakfast restaurant that was closed so we wound up at a vegetarian brunch restaurant and I don’t know if Mark was hungry or what but all of a sudden he was really annoyed at Genevieve for planning two days in Crete with the same provider. I had okay’d the plan and was just super glad to have someone else doing the leg work for a change and of course he was free while she was planning to make a comment. So that was a big blowout I didn’t see coming. But after a cool-off period all was well. We did return to Salt and Pepper for lunch where the owner was expecting us because he’d read my Tripadvisor review from the day before! Just a nice relaxing day. The owner sent the car to come get us again and take us to the airport, where we got on our SkyExpress flight with no issues, and arrived in Heraklion Crete where we were able to take a cab to the Creta Maris Resort. They put Mark and I in one villa and then Genevieve and Charlotte in another close by. We were tired so we walked around the resort a wee little bit and then went to bed.

 

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