Lindos Acropolis, 10 June 2012

The Climb

You need to be reasonably fit and steady on your feet to walk up to the acropolis at Lindos. We took a break at every available shaded spot on the way to rehydrate and recuperate. Of course you can get quite far on one of the donkeys – the local taxi service – but do bare in mind that you will be dropped off at the bottom of a steep flight of steps, and there will be more steps to follow.

The views from the path are magnificent. However, there are places where there's nothing between you and an awful long drop except for maybe a bit more path, so you'll enjoy these particular views a lot more if you don't share my fear of heights. Illogical, I know, it's the falling and hitting the rocks below that I should be wary of, but in these situations I stick to the inside of the path to allow braver souls to pass by on the outside.

The Acropolis

The acropolis is well worth the climb. There are not only remains from ancient Greece (including the Doric temple dedicated to Athena Lindia), but also from Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman occupations. The Knights of St John also made their mark, the acropolis having been an important stronghold in medieval times. The building work continues today as various structures are renovated.

I made this short film, a video tour of Lindos acropolis, and the photos above were taken by Genie.

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Lindos, Rhodes

Pefkos to Lindos

Lindos, to the north of the peninsula, is easily reached using the regular coach service from Pefkos. The journey lasts less than 15 minutes. When you're dropped off outside Lindos, the most notable feature is the magnificent acropolis built into the top of the massive rock around which the town of Lindos was built. Walk downhill for 5 minutes and you reach the main square, with views out to the sea. This is as far as the taxi service can take you. The streets of Lindos were designed with horses in mind, with maybe a small cart. They are narrow and bustling with life. The local taxis take the form of donkeys.

Streets of Lindos

Here's a short video of Genie and I getting lost trying to find our way up to the acropolis, which is actually very well sign-posted but easily missed when you're both viewing the world through a camera. I have much more footage of these streets and will probably be making Streets of Lindos follow-up movies, maybe even including a few donkeys, but I do like this rough-and-ready edit as it gives a good idea of the light and shade in the streets.

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7th of June in the afternoon, Pefkos, Rhodes

My Birthday

I'm 53 years old today and I may choose what we do for the rest of the day. Genie has given me a beautifully set moonstone which I can wear on the same necklace I usually have on for my lapis lazuli. Fab!

There's a snack bar near the beach serving, amongst other tasty dishes, the best kebabs ever. We'll have lunch here. I don't often eat pork but the Gyros proves to be irresistible. With lashings of Mythos beer. We will certainly be returning here.

I'm happy just to be wandering around, paddling in the sea, and topping up with Mythos from time to time. Genie enjoys swimming in the sea, and I enjoy watching her. A happy day.

Sunset at the main beach, Pefkos

In the evening I made this short film of the sunset at the main beach.

Philosophia Beach Restaurant

The perfect end to the perfect day. Supper at the Philosophia beach restaurant, which is a short climb up well-lit steps from the main beach, and offers excellent cuisine as well as a fantastic sea view. The people that run the Philosophia are a charming couple, and we are to return here time after time. We love fresh seafood!

"Philosophia" means lover of wisdom, and not lover of Mythos beer, by the way.

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First morning at Stella Hotel, Pefkos

Air Conditioning

Neither of us had slept very much that first night in Pefkos. It was quiet enough – the local bars turn off the music at midnight – but our apartment at Stella Hotel had been far too warm and stuffy. We really had to arrange for air-conditioning.

It cost less than €50 for the remote control for our air-conditioning unit for the remaining 13 nights, but the unit turned out to be faulty. Offered the apartment next door, which was identical in size and layout – spacious with a balcony overlooking the main strip – we spent half an hour moving in and spreading our belongings around haphazardly as before. Home again.

Shopping

Sunblock was at the top of our shopping list. When I'd looked online for the average maximum daytime temperature for Rhodes in June (24°C) I'd obviously been looking at Rhodes city temperatures. A few locals had already told us to add 10 degrees for Pefkos! The sun had risen by 8.30 and by 10.30 there was hardly any shade on our balcony. I'd spotted the local pharmacy across the road so the sunblock would be easy.

There are many supermarkets in Pefkos, but by far the handiest for us was the Stella supermarket which was 30 seconds away from our apartment and great for the heavy stuff such as the six-packs of 2L bottles of mineral water (which cost less than €2, which works out at around 16 cents per litre), not to mention the bottles of Mythos. We also got a discount there as guests at the Stella.

Shopping was a joy. The local produce was fresh and remarkably cheap. We bought freshly baked bread, tomatoes, cheese, olives, stuffed vine leaves, and water melons which were in season. And at the pharmacy, where we got our sunblock, we were recommended a natural mosquito repellant that was safe to use on our faces. Not that we'd been bitten yet, but if we were to hang around by the beach after sunset we wanted to be prepared.

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Glasgow to Rhodes

Booking

Genie and I booked our trip to Rhodes online. We'd been to Greece only once before – to Alykes on the island of Zakynthos (Zante) in October 2010, which we'd booked through Thomas Cook. That had been our first ever "package holiday" and was a great success, so we took the same route again and looked at last-minute deals on the Thomas Cook website.

After researching Rhodes online I reckoned we ought to be looking at accommodation about half-way down the east coast: Lindos or Pefkos. The whole of the east coast of Rhodes island is sandy beach broken up occasionally by rocks. My wife and I are in our 50s and the peace and quiet afforded by these more "out of the way" places appealed enormously. We booked for Pefkos, staying at Stella Hotel (self-catering). A good deal, as it turned out.

The Flight

Our flight was from Glasgow International airport on 6th June at 6.45 am. As we live in Dunkeld, Perthshire, we decided to travel by train to Glasgow the evening before and to stay at the Holiday Inn Express, which was inexpensive, comfortable and remarkably quiet – really handy for catching our flight the next morning. It's only a two-minute walk to the "check-in". Supper was bought at the airport's Tesco and eaten in our room watching rubbish TV, which reminded us why we chose to get rid of our telly 20 years ago.

Rhodes

Landed at Rhodes airport mid-afternoon and two hours ahead of UK time. Within 20 minutes we were on an air-conditioned coach to Pefkos, and an hour later, settling in to our apartment at the Stella Hotel.

Stretched our legs and checked out some of the local beaches and restaurants. The sunset was stunning from the beach.

Introduction

I'd like to share some of the adventures (and occasional misadventures) my wife Genie and I have experienced during our holidays. I'll be going back as far as 1992 when we were in Sicily at the time that Italy withdrew from the ERM, when we couldn't get our cash changed into the local currency and ended up having to sleep rough. Given the current Euro crisis, that seems as good a place as any to begin our virtual timeline.

Along the way I'll be showing some of Genie's photos and the occasional video I made during our travels. I'll be relying heavily on my scribbled diaries and Genie's photographic evidence for the earlier tales, and will cover trips made to Hungary, Nicaragua, Tunisia, and hopefully more locations if I can find the relevant film negatives and travelogs.

To begin with, though, I'll be writing about our most recent holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes.