Rhodes: Not the college which should still be called SAM—(so few will get this title but Happy 40th reunion to our old SAM buddies)

Back to Athens airport via the tiny Naxos airport. Once in Athens we had a five hour layover that let me do many blogs. Originally we had a 2 hour layover which given our previous mad rush we decided to extend the time. A bit. We really don’t know why but we got access to the lounge so we had a great place to hang out. Found our cab driver in Rhodes who spelled Brant’s first name correctly. He told us what a crazy summer they had and happy it was finally slowing down. Our airbnb was inside the walled old town. Happily, our cab driver actually lived there as well so he was he able to drive his cab inside (you can only drive inside if you reside there). As it turns about 6,000 people live inside the walls—-not just tourists who think this is a cool place to stay. It is the oldest continually inhabited walled medeievel city in Europe.

It seemed a very mysterious place to arrive at late at night and find that lockbox and wander into the a tiny alley between 2 houses. But all good once inside with a stocked fridge and a basket of food and chilled wine. And an easy walk to a restaurant with the standard set of cats waiting for you to drop your food.

The airbnb is owned by a German woman who has lived here 20-30 years and clearly loved her Greek home. She has remodeled and rebuilt and continues to maintain her airbnb while living next door. So glad she gave us the tip that at noon they would allow tourists to walk the top of the wall around the town. Her sweet dog Balou was our guard dog through our stay. Once you patted him he stopped barking.

We had fun winding our way through old town, except when the cruisers disembarked. We walked many miles all around Rhodes town. We even checked out the casino but had no luck. Brant bought a new wallet from someone crafting the wallets. She had lived in Florida briefly where she learned to speak English fluently and Madrid where she learned to speak Spanish fluently. She says the best way to learn is to pretend it’s easy. Very annoying as I struggle to learn Spanish.

Our neighbors in Los Barriles gave us contact information for another couple from LB who summer in Rhodes every year. Enjoyed having a nice pasta dinner with them. Our first cab driver told us that in Greece everyone loves pasta…so true. Not sure we ever saw a restaurant that did not have pasta…

As we had no car we hopped on a bus that took us to a place called Lindos. We had to slowly (and I do mean slowly) wind ourselves through a skinny alley (shops on both sides)with lots of folks to eventually get to the entrance to the archaeological site. So glad Brant got advance tickets. If we did not have those tickets I am surewe would have been in line for an hour or more. Actually I am pretty sure we would have given up and gone to the beach. As it was we had time for a nice stroll through the place (clever store placement) then a long descent to cafe, bars on beach, a nice swim and a slog back up the hill to the bus.

Rhodes is a big island and we saw only a small slice. Seemed a bit more citified and actually enjoyed that. We worked in one more island by catching a boat out to the island of Symi then getting back with a half hour to spare to catch our cab to the airport to head for Crete.

Symi was a beautiful island with different architecture from what we had seen. Another great place to wander and eat and drink.

Would we come back: Maybe. So many other places to visit but this is a great jump off place to Turkey. I think we would have enjoyed exploring more of the island. And it seemed like a nice place to live.