Driving around Rhodes

We reverted to habit and hired a car for the day, and shared the pleasure and the costs with Paul and Val Mollison, our team mates for one of the two team events at this Diamond Bridge holiday.  We drove around the western and northern part of the island.  We plan to do this again later on in the week with the Gibsons, this time visiting the eastern coast including Lindos town.

Kritinia Castle.  A key strategic fortress built by the Knights of the Order of St John originally on three levels.

There are a few islands around Rhodes and these are two uninhabited ones.  They are so picturesque that I had to take a photo.  Later on this week we are taking a ferry ride to a reputedly beautiful inhabited island, Symi.

The winding roads through Rhodes are dotted with lovely little villages, all with their village church.  Here is the one at Monolithos.

A view of the sweeping beach, yet again on this trip.  Almost every country we have visited has these wonderful sweeping beach panoramas and I keep taking photo after photo, never tiring of the view.

Monolithos Castle.  It too was built by the Knights around 1480 in order to protect the island from attacks.  The climb up to it is quite gentle but slippery due to the number of visitors wearing them away, with great rewarding views at the top.

The remains of the old chapel which is not all that photograph-worthy but must be included so the next two photos can be fully appreciated.  The breathtaking views of the Aegean Sea and the numerous islets off the western Rhodes coast is the best thing about this visit.

A couple of shots through the rear of the old chapel.

And again from the side.

Paul and Val in front of the whitewashed church at the top.

Lunch at Issidoros where we had a very funny discussion about the sardines I ordered which were anchovies.   It was an amazingly Basil Fawlty episode. I said to the proprietor, a genial and friendly Greek, that whilst my dish was very nice they were anchovies not sardines.  He said they were sardines but some sardines were small and some were bigger and these were small sardines and that he had the packet to show me.  I did not want to be confrontational about it but I muttered after he left the table saying they were anchovies.  He returned to show me the packet which clearly had written anchovies. "See" he said "they are sardines"..  I could not argue with that Greek logic :-)

We then drove through and stopped at a small village called Eleoussa where there was this wonderful old abandoned building.

The Juliet style balconies were very attractive..  No idea what this building once was.  There were no signs but the village had a lovely oblong square with this old building taking up one side and a church at one end and another rather imposing civic-looking building at the other end.

Our last stop was at the Valley of the Butterflies but sadly the butterfly season, which lasts until late September, was over.  Not a single butterfly was to be seen but the walk is very nice.