The Island of Roses

These days in the Greek Islands are disappearing way too fast. Today's location was Rhodes, or Rodos (Land of the Roses) to the locals. Our intention was to have a cruisy day around the old town, so we had a leisurely breakfast and headed off the boat around 10.

In a serendipitous moment, our friends Jenny and Mark had left at the same time and were chatting to a local taxi driver about a drive around the island. That's a pretty good coincidence seeing as the boat had docked a couple of hours earlier, and there are 1800 passengers on board.

We accepted their suggestion to tour with them, as we had gotten on so well together on our first day in Katakolon. Our driver showed us the local historic spots of significance in the old town, before heading out over the hills to Lindos. He stopped for all the Kodak moments as we again played sight-seers in this lovely little spot. 

 

We declined the offer for our driver to wait for us to allow a climb to the top of the castle overlooking Lindos. I was then a bit surprised to find is back on the road again without driving into the town proper for a walk around as I thought was the deal. We later heard that the streets were super crowded, so in retrospect, perhaps we didn't miss out in as much as I might have thought. 

After a couple more stops to grab our photos, we were back in Rhodes town. The trip was fun, and the company awesome, but the tour was perhaps not as memorable for me as the Katakolon one.

Once back in the town, we found an upstairs eatery and enjoyed a convivial lunch for four, washed down with a bottle of local white. 

Jenny, Mum and I then went shopping. While we had a great time, it was with some regret that I heard from Mark later on, that he had explored the back streets and had found them delightful, and a photographer's dream; this path had been the original plan when we left in the morning, and still now I am kicking myself. I am aching for some authenticity and I just  think we are missing it in so many places whilst we are wearing our sight-seeing glasses.

That's not to say we didn't have an awesome day, we absolutely did. It was topped off with an evening of great company around the dinner table, with Jenny and Mark, and a Scottish and a Canadian couple. Much chatter and raucous laughter emanated from us all, and I've arrived back in my room feeling happy and content. Am so looking forward to my Santorini experience tomorrow. I've wanted to visit that place forever, and I cannot wait!l