On to Lindos, Rhodes

Another amazing day in beautiful Rhodes, Greece!  We traveled south and west along the Aegean coast to the village of Lindos.  Lindos is one of the oldest settlements on the island of Rhodes and is steeped with history.  Rising above the town is the Acropolis with ruins from a temple dedicated to the goddess Athena.  Around 1300 AD, the Knights of St. John took over the hilltop and constructed an impressive fortress.  We parked at a distance and climbed to the Acropolis.  We took turns taking photos of each other on a lofty pedestal while striking poses worthy of the greek gods.

The Old Town of Lindos is another mish-mash of narrow cobblestone pedestrian streets lined with small shops. Each country we've visited has it's distinctive collection of souvenirs.  If we had room in our backpacks, we'd load up on little statues and ceramic reproductions of ancient pottery.  While wandering through the streets of Lindos we discovered two Orthodox Churches, both built in the fourteenth century.  I took lots of photos of The Church of the Panagia before seeing the sign that said "no photos!"  I also missed the sign that said "no shorts!" and an unhappy guard let me know about my transgression after it was too late.  I guess I'd better pay closer attention.

Below the Acropolis and the village of Lindos is The Bay of St. Paul.  It's a very small and almost perfectly-circular body of turqoise water with two small outlets into the Aegean Sea.  Two small beaches welcome sun-seekers to the bay, and perched on a rocky hillside is the Church of St. Paul.  Legend has it that Paul was shipwrecked off the coast of Lindos (that info is not in the Bible, but Paul did get shipwrecked a lot.)   Tradition says that he sought refuge in the bay and went on to establish the church of Rhodes.   The Book of Acts just records that he stopped on the island on the way back to Jerusalem from Rome on his third missionary journey.  I swam in the cool, clear waters of St. Paul Bay while Leroy walked back to Lindos and shopped for souvenirs. 

Back at our home in Afandou, we dipped in the pool and then packed up our belongings before dinner.  We are up early tomorrow for a 6:45 a.m. flight to the island of Santorini.

Pic of the Day

The Church of Panagia, Lindos, Rhodes, Greece

Exploring Rhodes Town

We're enjoying a relaxed few days on the island of Rhodes.  This morning we drove up the coast to the ancient walled city of Rhodes Town.  The wall was built in 1309 and it - along with the entire Old City - is amazingly picturesque and in terrific condition after eight hundred years.  The city was founded long before the Crusaders took it over.  Its current appearance dates from that era, however.  It's easy to imagine knights on horseback charging through the arched, stone gates.  We explored the Palace of the Grand Masters, a 1939 reconstruction of a previously destroyed castle.  It contains numerous fifth century mosaics from a nearby island.  Signs demand Do not walk on the mosaics!" yet they cover most of the hallway surfaces.  We ended up taking great leaps over them to avoid breaking the rules.  

Rhodes Town is mostly a pedestrian city, with countless tourist shops lining the narrow streets.  We climbed a clock tower to get a good view from above and see the cruise ships that release thousands of eager tourists into the city each day.  Always watching our daily food budget, we split a small sausage roll for lunch so we could indulge in waffle cones topped with three scoops of gelatto!  After trudging through the streets and taking in the sights for a few hours, we crossed back over the moat and drove to a beautiful beach between Rhodes Town and our house in Afandou.

Stephen cooked dinner tonight, and we feasted on roasted chicken and local vegetables outdoors in our poolside garden surrounded by olive trees.  Tomorrow we venture west to sites associated with the Apostle Paul's visits to Rhodes.

Pic of the Day

The "Street of the Knights," Rhodes, Greece

On to Rhodes!

Yesterday was a long day.  We left our hotel on Samos Island at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at our next temporary home just before 9 p.m.  Turns out it was the air traffic controllers striking just for the afternoon, right when our trip to Rhodes was planned.  We ended up with ten or so hours to kill on our extended layover in Athens.  Since we're spending three days in the heart of Athens in a couple weeks, Leroy and I decided to take a bus from the airport to the seaport where cruise ships and ferries deliver folks from the islands.  The bus first dropped us off at a bleak spot near several now-defunct and decaying venues from the 2004 Summer Olympics.  As we waited for a second bus to take us all the way to the port, a friendly older gentleman started talking to us in Greek  When we gave him our "we're sorry, we don't understand Greek" look, he asked us in English where we were from.  Turns out he's a resident of Hamilton Ontario, an hour from Buffalo, visiting family in Greece.  He helped us get on the right bus and gave us helpful sightseeing advice when we all got to the port.  We visited a fish market with octopi and other creatures, looked over the huge cruise ships, and caught the return bus to the airport.

We're in Rhodes now, one of the large Greek Islands in the Aegean Sea.  It's just off the coast of Turkey, like Samos, but there are no direct flights thus the layover in Athens.  We rented a car with Stephen and Jim and headed to Afandou on the south shore.  We are staying four nights in a small, modern house with its own swimming pool.  There is a view of the sea, which is just a short walk down a dirt lane from the house.  We spent the day being lazy and catching up on necessities: reading, laundry, swimming in the pool, shopping for groceris.  Leroy and I put on our bathing suits and strolled to the beach, but the weather turned cool and windy again so the beach was empty and we didn't go in the water.

The Apostle Paul visited Rhodes on at least two of his missionary journeys.  During his day, the harbor entrance at Rhodes Town was dominated by the Colossus: a nearly-one hundred foot tall statue of a Titan that was later toppled by an earthquake.  We're looking forward to visiting the Crusader-era Old Town of Rhodes tomorrow morning.

Pic of the Day

Afandou Beach, Rhodes, Greece

Final Day on Samos

Transportation is dicey in the Greek Islands.  You just never know when ferry service will be canceled or when an airline strike will cut you off from the rest of the world.  When we got to Samos, we found out the scheduled start for the hydrofoil to Patmos (where John wrote the Book of Revelation) was delayed until June.  That was a disappointment, but we knew getting to Patmos wasn't a sure thing.  This afternoon we got word that our flight to Rhodes via Athens for tomorrow afternoon was cancelled due to a strike.  Now we're leaving our hotel at 5:30 a.m. and the 3 hour one-stop flight has stretched to 12 hours.  We've learned to roll with the punches, though, and will make the most of the ten hour layover in Athens.

Today we explored the north side of Samos Island.  The weather could not have been more ideal for walking beaches and scaling heights in the island's interior.  Not far from Vathi is an old fishing village named Kokkari.  It's been mostly taken over ​ the tourist industry, but it was almost completely silent today.  The tourist season hasn't started in earnest yet, and the economy in Greece has really taken a bite out of tourism.  We watched boats bobbing in the harbor and visited a stately Eastern Orthodox Church with stunning icons.  The town stretches for a mile or so along the beach and has amazing views of Samos's mountain range.

A bit further west, we parked the car and followed a dirt path down a steep incline to Tsamadou Beach.  There was no sand, but that didn't stop us from spreading our beach towels on the rocky shore.  After soaking up the sun for an hour or so, I got up my courage and plunged into the ultramarine sea.  It wasn't as cold as I expected!  Unfortunately, Leroy could not be coaxed away from his towel.  Our next island is a bit south, so maybe he'll find the water more to his liking there!

Our final stop before returning to Vathi was the mountaintop village of Manolates.  The sign by the main road said it was four kilometers to the south.  If the sign is correct, it was the longest 4K I've ever experienced.  A narrow lane with countless steep, hairpin turns led us through a dark forest to a spectacular vista above the Aegean Sea.  A charming hodgepodge of stuccoed, tiled cottages arranged around a whitewashed church comprises the village.  We wandered around for a while before descending to the sea while holding our breath again on the guardrail-less road.

Time to pack up and get some sleep before our early wake-up call!