Rhodes

We flew early in the morning from Athens to Rhodes, and when we arrived, we got in a taxi and headed to the hotel. Not long in to our taxi ride, we could see out the windows, that we were approaching a huge castle! And in that castle was where we were staying. The area in the castle walls is called Old Town, and it might just be my favorite place! Seriously, I told Brad we should change our wedding to a destination wedding, so I can get married in a castle! (Don’t worry though, we’re not changing it.)

Here are just a few pictures of the castle.

The taxi driver drove over the bridge, which would have been over the moat, and then he drove through the castle walls. We then arrived at the hotel and looked around and found that the place was a ghost town. We got checked in to the hotel, which thankfully that was open, and we asked the lady what there was to do. Unfortunately, since it was off-season, there isn’t a lot to do (unless a cruise ship comes to the island that day) besides eat, drink and take in the culture. And that’s pretty much what we did the whole time we were there.

After taking our much needed nap after travelling so early in the morning, we wandered into town to find something to eat. After passing many restaurants that were closed for the season, we found one that had the typical Greek food: kebabs, gyros, souvlaki, etc.

Brad and I both got gyros to eat, and ended up scarfing them down before we headed over to the beach. We walked up and down the waters edge, and then found a bench to sit on and watch the sunset.

Here’s a picture from that.

After taking in the beauty, we decided to go get dinner at a hole in the wall restaurant. We simply stumbled across it as we were walking back towards our hotel, and decided to give it a try. We were the only people in there, and I’m pretty sure the owner was just happy to have business, so she gave us special treatment. She gave us each a huge bowl of minestrone on the house, and then each of our meals was made deliciously. I had spaghetti and Brad had meatballs, and it was a nice change from the gyros and kebabs we eat each day.

After dinner, the town had shut down even more than earlier, so we just went back to the hotel and watched Netflix on my laptop. After finishing watching a Christmas movie (yes, it was my choice and not Brad’s to watch Christmas movies already) we fell asleep.
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Our second day in Rhodes was also spent at the beach, but today we got in and swam. But before we got to the beach, we stopped and had breakfast. Well maybe we had dessert for breakfast, but either way, my nutella crepes with ice cream were fantastic! Brad doesn’t think ice cream is a breakfast food, so he went the more traditional route of an omelet. 

Since we were in Bali before Greece, it was a little tough to convince myself that the weather was warm enough for a beach day. It was only about 68 degrees, but I figured I better stop being a chicken and just get in the water. I immediately regretted that decision! The water was freezing and there was no easing your way in to it. The bottom dropped off just a few feet from shore, so there was no wading your way out, you just had to go for it.

I went for it and started swimming at the drop off, shivering the whole way. You would think that swimming and moving around should warm you up, but it didn’t. It took about 15 minutes to finally get used to it, and that’s when I started to enjoy the beauty of the Mediterranean. The water was so clear that you could see all the way to the bottom. Brad tried to dive down as far as he could, but he didn’t even come close to the bottom. We are guessing it was about 25 feet deep of crystal clear water. You could even clearly see fish swimming beneath you!

Brad and I took turns wearing the goggles and watching the fish swim around. Then, after about an hour of swimming and treading water, we decided to head back in. It was also freezing when we got out, and we quickly ran to our towels. We laid out and shivered while we tried to get dry, and finally we just decided to go back and take a hot shower.

Here’s a picture of the beach that we swam in.

When we were walking back to the hotel on our way to go shower, we noticed that Old Town was not all shut up today (as seen in the picture below). There were shops and restaurants open, so after getting ready, we went out to look in some of them. The shops had the typical tourist stuff: shirts, magnets, key chains, etc. All cool things, but with limited space, we decided we better not get anything.

Since all of the shops pretty much had the same things, we decided to be done shopping, and head back down towards the water. Three cruise ships were docked in the harbor, and about the time we got down there, they were blowing their horns in preparation for leaving. We climbed up on the castle wall and sat there and watched the cruise ships set sail right as the sun was setting.

Here are a few pictures of what we were looking at along with the sight of the cruise ships.

Once it was getting dark, we wandered back up from the harbor and went to dinner, before heading back to the hotel to watch Netflix and go to bed.

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Day three in Rhodes started out a little different. We went to have crepes for breakfast, and while we were at the café, it seemed as if every person in the town was gathered in the square right outside. We asked our waiter what was going on, and he explained that today was a holiday in Rhodes, and they would have a parade to honor the protector of the city.

The protector of the city kept everyone safe during all of the different periods that the island went through. First, there was the classical period in which the Colossus of Rhodes was built. This was a statue standing 108 feet tall that stood above the harbor entrance. It was one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. Below I put a picture of it, but I didn’t take the picture because after an earthquake the statue fell and there’s nothing left of it.

Rhodes then went through a Roman period and during this time, the Apostle Paul actually stopped on the island. Acts 21:1 says, “After we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and sailed straight to Kos. The next day we went to Rhodes and from there to Patara.” I thought that was kind of cool, so I figured I should share.

Next Rhodes entered the medieval times, and during this, the island was a major crossroads for ships sailing between Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. All of these different cultures started to shape the island as it went through a Knights Period, the Ottoman Era, and an Italian Period. Finally, after being bombed in World War II, it has turned in to what it is today. The island has so much history, and it was nice to learn about it from a local whose family has lived on the island for generations.

After watching the parade, we went back to the hotel to grab my camera and explore the castle. We wandered around for hours because it is so massive, and here are some of the pictures we took.

By the time we had walked all the way around the castle walls, it was late afternoon. We were getting pretty hungry, so we went and had some pizza at a café overlooking the square. I got a cheese pizza, which to my surprise didn’t have any marinara sauce on it. It was actually just cheesy bread, but still pretty good. Brad had some pasta, and we sat there and enjoyed our food and a glass of wine, while people watching all of the tourists below.

Once we had had our fill of people watching, we headed back out to the ocean. We walked along the beach and watched as the sun started to drop below the horizon. We took in the sunset, and then walked back to the hotel to do the only thing there is to do after the cruise ships leave and the restaurants close. So that is we watched Netflix and went to bed.

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On our last day in Rhodes we flew back to Athens in the evening, but before we did that, we spent the day exploring more of the castle.

We got up and had breakfast, and then went down to the courtyard of the castle. Down here, you could see that along the edge of the castle walls were some small openings. These openings led to tunnels that went under the castle walls, so we crawled through them and came out on the other side of the wall.

Here are some pictures from down in the courtyard looking up at the huge castle.

We had a blast exploring, but soon it was time for us to go back to the hotel and pack our things. We have gotten so good at packing, since we do it so often, that it takes us no time at all. We have everything ready to go, and then we take a taxi back to the airport. We fly back to Athens and then spend the night sleeping on the cold airport floor. (We have a flight to Santorini early in the morning, so it didn’t make much sense to get a hotel for only about six hours.)