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Greece: Rhodes

Sunday April 15, 2007: Departure

We still have a full day here in Belgium. The weather is great (27° C), would we leave? Yes of course! We pack everything, clean our house and at 17:15 Maurits picks us up. From Sint-Amands we go to Bornem and also pick up Linda and Patrick. They gave us this journey and we had to arrange a lift to and from Zaventem. We arrive at 18:00, check in (there’s a long queue) and then go to gate 62. That is close to a bar, so we first have a drink: 1 geuze and two Leffe blond. We jut have ordered and they start boarding right away. No stress, drink the drinks and the right on the airplane for 3 hours and 15 minutes. The plane leaves at 20:15, so almost perfectly on time (15 minutes later than scheduled). The flight is good, Eef can lie down and all have exit seats. At 00:30 local time we land on Rhodes. It is 16 degrees and everything is OK. Then we go on the bus from Neckerman and of course 2 people have not yet arrived and we need to wait. We leave at 01:10 and 40 minutes later we’re at our hotel: a huge building. Check in and set everything in our rooms and immediately go to find something to eat. In a small alley we find a grill-house ‘Mr grill’. We have ouzo, retsina and eat a pita each; Jesus, that tastes well. We talk a bit and drink some more and at 03:30 we go to bed. We quickly arrange everything and sleep. It’s already late and everybody’s tired, so we sleep well.

Monday April 16, 2007: Rhodes city

We sleep too long to meet the time for breakfast and are only awake at 11:00. Because we did not have breakfast, we are ‘obliged’ to walk to the centre to drink a frappe and then to eat something. We follow the coast on foot and then walk straight through the city to the new town and the new market at the harbor: a cozy square with a lot of cute terraces and here we drink our first frappe. It’s great here! The sun is shining and we enjoy the peace. Then Timo is the guide for the others to the old part of town. We walk in the old town trough Liberty Gate, walk through the alleys – this reminds us of Plaka in Athens. Up via Odos Sokrates to the mosque of Soliman and via the Streets of the knights back to the new part in town. In the street of the knights there are the old consulates of France, Italy and other countries. We did not have breakfast and start to get hungry, so we return to the new market where we sat this morning already. We have ouzo (Patrik, Linda and Timo) and Eef has a Mythos. We eat pork and lamb meat. The waiter brings 1 dish with rice, lamb, pork and patates tiganites, and then another one with rice, lamb pork and patates sto fourno. It really is very good, but way too much, since we already have choriatiki with it. We need to leave some of the food, because it was way too much, but very very good. After lunch we are tired, so we walk back to the hotel and rest. Linda goes p to her room, Eef, Timo and Patrick rest at the pool. Eef and Timo dive into the water and are again awake, because the water is ice-cold. We bake in the sun for an hour and then go for a walk. Patrick and Linda have a coffee and Eef and Timo walk along the beach. We pass the aquarium and sit down at the Mandraki harbor. We enjoy the evening sun and the peace, great. We call André of the Waterhoppers to arrange a dive for Wednesday. He will pick us up at 10:00 at the hotel and then we can start. Back at the hotel we rest some more and we meet Linda and Patrick to grab something to eat. We walk back to Mr Grill and 1 pita is enough for us now and we drink loads of retsina: 4 times half a liter and 1 liter from a carton. At 23:00 we are tired again and we go to bed. Tomorrow we’ll try to be on time for breakfast, so we’ll need to get up at 09:00.

Tuesday April 17, 2007: A day very calmly

Getting our of bed is not easy today: we drank too much ouzo and retsina yesterday. We’re already the third day here and we still need to have our first breakfast at the hotel. So quickly at 09:10 out of bed and immediately to the breakfast table; Greek hotel-tradition: bread with cheese, cereals (but no milk), fruit juice mixed with water, coffee, fruits, yoghurt, honey and for the British people eggs, beans in tomato sauce, bacon, sausages, mushrooms a.o. Timo eats well, Eef a bit less because her stomach. Right on time (at 09:25) also Linda and Patrick arrive here. We’ve made it. The weather does not look good today: cloudy and cold. We think it’s only 18 degrees. Timo and Eef hope to convince the weather gods to let the sun shine. Eef is burnt since yesterday, so it’s not that bad. Tomorrow we need to dive, so Timo wants to check out the underwater camera. WITH THIS TYPE OF WEATHER? We get our snorkeling gear: mask, snorkel, fins, shorty (certainly need this), towels, underwater camera and then we go. A bit down the road (the beach is right in front of the hotel, we only need to cross the street) we locate a good lace for snorkeling: a beach with small rocks, we can get into the water easily and right in the start of the sea there are big rocks. We need to see something here. Only the cold frightens us a bit. Timo enters first: brrr. Eef is next: Brrrr! We persevere; we have fans already, so we don’t want to disappoint them. We slowly enter the water and eventually it is OK. Well, if you expect water of 10 degrees and it’s 11, then it’s OK. We swim around the rocks, but there is nothing to see. Only blue, you barely see the bottom of the sea. The water is not dirty, but it’s blue, turquoise. You can only see two meters away. Timo sees some small fish, but Eef sees nothing. That’s stupid, what a disappointment. We think the reason might be that the sun is not shining and therefore there is little light in the water. Timo wanted to test the camera and that is what he managed. Everything is OK, so tomorrow we take the camera with us. After 15 minutes maximum we get out of the water and walk back to the Blue Sky Hotel. They are cleaning our room, so we wait a while on the hall. Then we clean the gear and take a shower. It’s 11:15 meanwhile. Timo suggests to take the bus to Archangellos. What a good idea! We cross the city and check when we can take the bus: at 13:00. So we need to wait 45 minutes. We take a short walk along the harbor until we hear: ‘Hello’. Linda is sitting on a bench. We join her and a minute later Patrick also arrives. They are going to drink something on a terrace and we take the bus. Right at 13:00 the bus leaves: the one for Lardos. On the tour we need to wait for a connection for 10 minutes. Really nice, the bus driver is really angry. At 13:45 we arrive in Archangelos. Back in time. We search directly for Savvas and find the restaurant rather quickly. The restaurant has changed a lot; the roof is closed now and the restaurant too. That is a bit a disappointment. We walk through Archangelos and Eef buys a booklet in the same shop as 7 years ago and we go and drink frappe. Mmmm. We start writing the diary. At 15:15 we return, buy a bag of chips, because we’re hungry, walk around a bit and take the bus back at 15:50. We arrive there at about five and we immediately go back to the hotel. Patrick is sleeping at the pool and Timo joins him. Eef is going to sleep in bed. At 18:10 Timo wakes up Eef, she slept a bit. All together we go and watch the sunset, but there are too many clouds, so we walk to the centre. We eat at 20:00 and have choriatiki, tiri saganaki, kolokitokeftedes, gigandes, tzatziki with ice tea (Eef), Mythos (Timo) and nero and retsina (Patrik en Linda). It tastes well and it is not expensive. Afterwards we play cards, but it starts the get chilly because of the wind and at 22:30 we’re back the Blue Sky Hotel. We close our eyes and immediately fall asleep.

Wednesday April 18, 2007: Diving

Today we are awake on time. We get up at 08:00 and go for breakfast: same as yesterday. We wait a moment for Linda and Patrik and then at 10:15 André picks us up. He was our contact person at Waterhoppers. We drive a few kilometers along the coastline and there they have a small desk. There are two Polish persons, 1 American from Las Vegas and two Dutch guys; André and Tsjeert. We arrange all paper work and then we can leave for Kallitheia. The thermae were just like we remembered. Only then there was a fence that prohibited the passing towards the bay. Now we bring all stuff down, get ready and then we can dive away. One of the Polish guys and the American do the Discover Scuba Diving and the other Polish guy and us go for the dive in the bay. That sounds nice. It’s the first time Timo takes the camera he bought from Janick to practice. Very good. Timo is relaxed and Eef is too, we go down and everything is OK. We first swim to the other side of the bay and everything is very pretty, a beautiful underwater world. We swim over the sand over the grass plains and enter the caves on the other side of the bay. We emerge and we do another check now. Eef and I are OK and we do it all ‘siga siga’. Plenty of small fish, beautiful rocks and all is OK. Just before we get to the surface Timo sees a sepia and points this out to Eef. GR8! So we get out of the water, put on dry clothes and drink a bit and have a sandwich with cheese and ham. And then it’s time for our second dive. We dive with the same team: André, Eef, Timo and the Polish guy. Now we go deeper than the first dive: 17,4 against 12 meters and that should not be done, but then again. We see the same fish as before, also 1 nice cave and come out of the water after a 40 minute dive. Eef sees a moray eel and the other don’t. A note for Timo is not to eat too much between the two dives. After that we drive back to the hotel and we can look back on two nice dives. We rinse our gear and take a shower we walk to the old town and check on some old buildings. We have a break on a terrace on the square with the fountain of the seahorses. And there we enjoy a Mythos. Eef then walks very fast to the hotel and back to get warm clothes and then we eat something at Everest Grill, the same restaurant as before. Now we have kokkino krasi, dolmakdakia, calamari, kip, tiri and gemista, very good. We sit here a while and are offered free tsipouro and ouzo and around 22:45 we return to the hotel. We drink some retsina, watch TV and go to sleep.

Thursday April 19, 2007: Trip to the South of Rhodes

Today we rent a car after breakfast. There is a rent-a-car close to the hotel: Delfi is the name. And for today and tomorrow they have a Fiat Punto, a light blue one. It costs 30 Euro per day and 60 for two days: there is no discount if you rent it two days. So we can depart, Timo drives and Patrik leads the way. We drive today to Lachania, where Dino and Willy (acquaintances from Belgium) built a few apartments and they now let the rooms. Timo guides the Fiat without problems out the city and Linda asks for a first stop and a frappe. We remember there is a restaurant on the top of Tsambika and we stop there the first time at 11:30. The car has some trouble driving to the top; on two occasions we need to use first gear to drive up and then we think that we did this on foot seven years ago, in the month of August, around noon and after a walk of about 2 hours. We love the great view on the coast and the inland and the frappe. Then we drive south. We quickly visit Varelis, the hotel we had in 2000 and then drive in one haul along the coast to Lachania. The road is great with marvelous views on small en bigger bays. We find the centre of Lachania easily: 1 church, Taverna Platanos, two plane-trees and four springs: small, very cozy and actual Greek. Here we drink retsina and water. Timo is bob and does not drink anything. We eat a bit here, because it’s 13:30 and we’re starting to get hungry. We ask what they have today and order 1 cutlet, patates, moussakas and choriatiki and some more retsina (Patrik and Eef) and nero (Timo and Linda). At 14:30 we leave here and go to Four Elements. We drive around it and see a man in the garden. He’s cleaning the pool with a lot of noise, so he does not hear us directly. After a few attempts (stand on the car and wave over the wall) Willy does notice us. They let us in and welcome us. Dino gets ouzo, pago, elies and we can chat away. Dino and Willy show us the rooms: magnificent! Each room has its own theme: the four elements: water, fire, earth, air. After the visit it’s time to walk the dogs: they have 4; all neglected animals, which need a home. They’re called chicken (the black one), clever, Carlos, Rambos. We walk through the valley and the dry out beds of a river, about an hour, very nice! When we’re back at the hotel Dino offers another drink, but it’s already 19:00 and we still need to drive 80 kilometer, so we go back home. We say goodbye, thank them and Timo drives back to Rhodes city. We arrive there at 20:15. We have a quick wash and eat a pita. We’re tired and don’t want to walk all the way to the centre. Pita, fries, retsina and Mythos: we enjoy it a lot again. We talk on the terrace and then return to the Blue Sky at 23:30. We had a nice day and Timo tries to remove some prickles from the hand of Eef (watch) and then we go to bed.

Friday April 20, 2007: The second day with a car

Before we can leave today it’s the same thing. It takes a long time until we’re really up, then have breakfast, refresh, brush teeth and then we go. Timo is the driver again today and we go to “Epta Piges”. An oasis of peace where on seven different spots water comes out of the earth. Eef and Timo walk to the other side of the mountain where a canal leads the water through the rock. Here we were 7 years ago too. There is a small lake with azure blue water and a waterfall and all that is a splendid wood with singing birds. Then we take the car back and cross the mountains to the other side of the island. We enjoy the rest, stop a moment to see if mimosa plants are blooming. And yes indeed. Then we arrive at the west-coast, where there’s a lot of wind. We stop up to two times, but we don’t like the tavern’s at this part of the island. At a harbor there is also a lot of wind, so we drive to Afandou and find there – with big problems – psirotaverna ‘Avantis’. These Greeks are not really friendly, but they put lovely food on the table: choriatiki, patates tiganites, kalamari, small barbouni; nice! We add Mythos and water. Then we drive a few kilometers back to Ladiko and Anthony Quinn Bay. Here Timo and Eef will snorkel. It’s beautiful, plenty of small rocks, we even saw a little moray eel. The first bay where we snorkel is Ladiko and the next one is Anthony Quinn Bay. Here we need to return tomorrow and maybe even bring the underwater camera. Many little, big and colorful fish. One fireworm, 1 black worm, beautiful colors of weeds on the rocks, really a nice place to snorkel. In the second bay there is a small pub and there are Linda and Patrick. After snorkeling, when Eef and Timo are done, Patrick picks them up and they drink three Mythos. We have a beautiful view, much peace with singing birds and a splendid tranquil bay. The rocks are lying in the sun and the goats climb easily up and down the mountains. At 18:00 Timo drives back to Rhodes, it is very warm here and the wind has dropped. Now the weather is still good, we quickly are ready and go into town. Kallitheia is something we did not see anymore: we passed the exit, but Linda and Patrick did not mind at all. So at about 19:00 we leave for evening meal. We’re happy with Grill ‘Everest’ on the new market, so we return there. We have 1 liter of kokkino krasi and to eat a mixture of tiri sanagaki, ksifias, souvlaki, gigandes and gavro (small Greek fishes). It again tastes very well and we love to be here. Late in the evening it starts to be chilly: there is some wind, during the day we have 2à degrees, but in the evening it cools down a lot. At 22:30 we walk back to the hotel, buy two more desserts and we go to room 306: Eef and Timo’s room. There we drink some ouzo and play the cards. By midnight we go to sleep.

Saturday April 21, 20007: Snorkeling

At 09:00 we get up and we have breakfast: egg, bread, cheese, beans, bacon, yoghurt and fruits. We both go our own ways today. We prepare the bag and take the bus to Ladiko. We were there yesterday too. We get off on the side of the big road and it takes about 20 minutes to reach the second bay and we sit on a terrace and have a frappe. The sun comes and goes, there is some wind and it’s not really hot. Then bigger openings come in the cloudy sky and we can go snorkeling. The water is not as calm as yesterday, but it’s OK. First Timo snorkels alone and takes some pictures. He cruises the half of the bay and he needs to be careful when he moves closer to the rocks. He needs to be cautious not to hit against the rocks because of the heavy waves. There is some fish visible, but nothing special and the view is worse than yesterday because of the wind and waves. And the sun, she comes and goes. Timo needs to heat up a bit in the sun and then Eef joins him into the water. We stay on the right side of the beach and we snorkel to the pier, about 40 meters. Under the pier there is a lot of movement and it looks great. We stay here 15 minutes in the water and see a fish of about 25 centimeter, we don’t know which one. We then get out, dry ourselves and change in order to get warmer. Now the sun is nowhere to see and we sit down to drink something and have a snack: 2 Mythos and 1 choriatiki. They don’t serve anything else, because it’s still winter for Greeks. At 15:30 we return to the big road to take the bus to Rhodes. We get a lift from the guy in the bar, but not far. The bus from 16:10 arrives at 16:30 and we are cold: hard wind and the sun moves away after the clouds. We arrive at the hotel a bit after five and clean our gear and take a shower. We rest a bit on the bed and can already look back on a good vacation – but way too short. Today and tomorrow we don’t want to walk too far to have supper. We’ll eat at Chicken-Mike. We have moussakas, half a chicken, tonosalata, keftedes, tzatziki and 1 liter of red wine. We don’t stay late, play cards, but at 22:00 we are the last people to leave. It looks rather strange: the weekend is less busy than the week. We would expect plenty of people on Friday and Saturday, but that’s not the case. We play some more cards in 306, drink retsina and water until 00:00. Then we have our last night here.

Sunday April 22, 2007: Last day of vacation

It has become a daily habit: get up at around 09:00 and have breakfast, the same as ever: Timo has an egg, Eef has fruits and beans. At 10:00 we leave in search for a supermarket for the people who stay at home – presents. We don’t really find good ones, but buy at Tsambiko (at the square of Grill Everest) red wine for Maurits, ouzo and Metaxa for ourselves, cigarettes for Roel and something special: ouzo with coffee. It is in a plastic bottle and it is typical for Rhodes. We don’t know it and the man suggests us to taste. It tastes good, so we buy one bottle. A bit down the road we find a shop where we buy a bottle of oil for Betty. We can’t find the red peppers for Roel. And then Eef has a good idea: she goes to our friends at Everest and asks where we can buy it. We enter the square and Eef says: “I need your help.” We explain what we need and immediately they help us out, the peppers are called piperies floritis. Again something we have learnt. They show us two shops where we could find them and indeed the first shot is a good one. The lady also recommends other things and does it well, because we also buy 2 bags of olives. Very nice. It’s 11:15, so we return to the Blue Sky, where we need to check out at the latest at 12:00. We pack and at 11:50 we return our keycards. We put our luggage in the room of Patrick and Linda, who booked 1 additional day for 45 Euro. We drink a frappe at Grill Everest – earlier we promised we would come back – and Linda and Patrick are also coming. After the frappe we move to the aperitif: retsina. Eef feels a bit chilly, the sun disappears and sometimes drops are falling down. She decides to run back to the hotel to get a vest. She is there in less than ten minutes, but the fucking card is not working. Damn. She tries for over 15 minutes, but it does not seem to work. Frustrated she goes down, but then the receptionist does not understand, because Eef is already checked out. So she tried again herself, but she had to come down again and explain that was the room of our friends. And where are they then? Eventually they do something with the card and she finally manages to enter the room. What a difficult situation. Back on the way to Everest, Timo starting to worry already, came to meet her. Quickly loose the frustration, and we go to the restaurant and order three pita and one spaghetti and eat. Off course they give us together with the bill three ouzo and one tsipouro, already a tradition. Patrick and Linda go for a walk and Timo and Eef enter the ancient city. Eef has a soft ice and we walk along the sea, back following the coast. On our way there we buy some nero and Mythos and watch some fish. Peace. Back at the Blue Sky we rest at the pool together with Patrick and Linda. We decide to take a plunge, so we are refreshed. The sun disappears when get out of the water, so we will not dry completely. At 19:00 we change in room 307 and then go to Chicken-Mike. At 19:50 Linda and Patrick are also there. We order kokkino krasi and take it easy. We have to order something finally and today it will be 1 pizza, 1 choriatiki and 1 cutlet. They put everything on the table together (ola mazi) and it tastes very well. We drink some red wine, receive 1 bottle for free and enjoy every moment. At 22:00 we return to the hotel, collect our luggage and play cards until they pick us up at 22:30: 10 minutes too early. We take the traditional tour of the hotels and arrive way on time at the airport Diagoras. The normal chat of the tour operator: they treat you as if you were stupid and then you have to hear the comments of the people themselves. Strange people those Romans. We drink something at the bar, play cards and the airplane ca take off 30 minutes earlier than the schedule. After a flight of 4 hours we arrive at Zaventem airport at 03:23. In fact we think this is outrageous that Neckermann and Thomas Cook have arranged it that way. For a flight of three to four hours you loose a complete night of sleep. If you would fly to Costa Rica or something that would be OK, but this. We wait about 20 minutes to collect our luggage. Maurits calls, he does not need to park and that is very good. Patrick and Linda are dropped off at home and we too. At 05:00 we’re at home and we get into bed again. We wake up around 11:00 and this vacation is over; very short, but very relaxing. Great! Thanks a lot Patrick and Linda.