Due to the freedom of the rental car, we covered loads more than we intended to, so just jotting down the order and main points.
Day 1 Butterfly garden. Just the young one and I. Loved the hike between the lush trees, lakes, waterfalls. Visited the Kalopetra monastery at the top. Had milkshake and fresh orange juice in the Cafe inbetween. The climb to the monastery - the steps garlanded by flowery shrubs on both sides was fantastic. Took beautiful pics of the young one. Took a taxi back as K was in a call.
Reached the hotel, freshened up and post K's work wrap up, went to the Ladiko beach just for a look-see.
Had dinner at the best restaurant in Faliraki -Something Differ*ent - it was really the best.
Day 2 - Visited Tsa,mbika beach. The best beach I have ever gone to. Golden sand, Emerald water and a gentle breeze. The changing facilities in all these beaches were a shack but with a bottom board that keeps your stuff out of sand as well as lots of hooks to hang wet clothes. This made a huge difference and made changing very easy and comfortable. Had a whale of a time swimming and enjoying the fabulous view and feeling very blessed. The sun beds are usually around 8 euros each but are clean and comfortable. Came back, freshened up and went to Rhodes Old* town. Thoroughly enjoyed the drive, where the road sometimes was just along the beach. Parked just outside the old town and walk along the Marina. Loved the beach and the cruise ships docked there.
Went to the centre of Rhodes town and there was an absolutely heavenly tree covered - and I mean literally covered like a canopy, central square full of restaurants. Went to George's cafe or some such. Food was ok. Walked all around the town enjoying the medieval architecture. Also went to the Monaster of K*nights. This was a complete dud and our first realisation that Rhodes is very weak in cataloguing artefacts and providing info about the ancient artefacts. Throughout Europe, all such places have wonderful cataloguing and the history and story of each artefact takes you back to those times. Here, there were not even basic labels, forget about history of origin. Such rich artefacts throughout Rhodes and not a single one was catalogued properly. Such a shame!
Had some lovely icecream on th eway back, window shopped in loads more shops and came back home happy tired to a piping hot shower from the solar panels in the hotel!
Day 3 - As per our friend P's recommendation - went to K'alithea springs. It was a wonderful place with a sea view wedding venue simply but stunningly decorated in the hellenic style. Took loads of pics and post some deliberation, decided to swim in the springs (though we were told, the thermal springs do not get warm till peak summer). The water was still relatively warm and a welcome respite. The young one and K snokelled for quite a while , while I enjoyed a safe swim nearer to the shore. They went quite far to explore the underwater scenery.
After a good time, we drove to Lindos town. Though this was a very very pretty beach, we had finished swimming for the day, so we opted to dine at the hill top My**thos restaurant which was at the very start of the plant canopied, winding, very toy like, narrow laned Lindos town with its picturesque white houses. The view was breathtaking - of both Lindos bay and the acropolis. It was very expensive and while K enjoyed his non veg fare, the young one and I had a touch time with the veg fare.
We finished that and decided to brave the climb to the acropolis. It was not too bad. As usual, very little useful cataloguing of such an ancient structure. We took in the views neverthless and came back down to some milkshakes and icecream. The people were very sweet all over Rhodes and this was no exception. The shops had very pretty fare that we window shopped to our hearts content. K's internal radar was perfect as usual and even in that maze of a town, he took us wherever we wanted to go - only after one glance on our way up to the Acropolis.
Day 4 - We had booked a trip to the beautiful Symi island. Got picked up by shuttle to Rhodes* town. Boarded a cruise ship at the Mand%raki harbour. 1 hour trip to Symi via the fast boat. Very pretty island but because of location, very hot. Thankfully we took the liitle train for the 45 minute tour, absolutely enjoyed the picturesque island and hopped off at the Nos beach bay for a quick snorkel and swim. K did say that the bay was a bit dangerous in that while snorkelling he suddenly found himself above a crate atleast 21 metres deep! But both of them snorkelled and swam to their hearts content.
We walked back, drank some fresh Pomegranate juice and boarded our return boat in the nick of time. Got down at the harbour and took the shuttle back.
Day 5 - Drove to yet another beautiful corner of Lindos to board our yellow s%ubmarine boat. Having done this in Mauritius in 2006 and Maldives in 2007, it was depressing to see how much the fish and sealife have been depleted. As usual, K and the young one jumped off the boat anchored for the same pprpose in the middle of the sea for some snorkelling and swmming. Am very glad the young one is so comfortable swimming in the sea as this was one skill I really wanted her to have and enjoy.
We came back to Lindos and K wanted to drive all around the island and see all key landmarks. So we did just that ( the drive, once again was breathtakingly beautiful). We first stopped at a super market and bought some pastries, cakes, chocolates, cookies, Kefir and juice for our trip. There was a very cute orthodox xristian workshipping enclave. I prayed sincerely for the young one to take sensible decisions regarding her GCSEs, do well in her A levels and settle down well in life. She went in. I asked her what she prayed for and she cheekily replies ' Please make mummy give me permission to have cup noodles!'. Grrrr!
Our first step was the gorgeous Parsinisi % beach where the the Ionian Sea meets the Aegean sea . This beach had a lot of waves unlike the others we had seen till now. THe air was moist as well and reminded me a lot of Marina beach and the Mumbai coastline.
..To be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment