last day in Rhodes

By the time I left the hotel this morning the sun had barely crawled out of its bed in the Aegean Sea. It looked like it was in need of a coffee to brighten it up before it set about its daily chore of baking tourists.

   A few stores and restaurants were just beginning to open as I made my way towards Old Town. Arriving just before 7:30am, I found that I had the place pretty much to myself. That allowed me to take photographs of the various buildings and streets without trying to shoot around swarms of tourists. It was also still cool enough to make the walk a pleasant experience.

  Returning to the hotel, we quickly packed and had a somewhat late breakfast before checking out and parking our bags with the hotel porter.

  Returning to Old Town around 11am, we found the streets comfortably busy but not overcrowded, since only a couple of smaller cruise ships were in port and none of the passengers had been herded into town yet- probably doing the tour of Lindos first.

 Venturing off the main drags onto some of the minor side streets and alleys turned out to be quite an adventure. Unrestored ruins of churches, mosques and other buildings were dotted about the town. We walked these back streets for an hour or so, encountering very few tourists on the way. Returning to the central part of the town we soon found ourselves back in the swarm. After a rather overpriced lunch (40 euro) we returned to the hotel to await our shuttle to the airport

 A Dash-8 was our mode of transport for the 40 minute trip to Crete.

  Upon arrival we met our Air Transat rep who directed us to a  Mercedez Benz taxi for our trip to the hotel

  Suffice to say, the only way to make the trip even more frightening would have been to have been strapped to the hood of a Formula One race car. Oblivious to posted speed limits, road markings and other drivers, we reached speeds of at least 140kph at several points on the journey. I had always wondered what it would be like to be treated like royalty and what flashed through my mind was Lady Di’s final car ride. Luckily we survived the episode, emerging from the vehicle at the same time as another couple. They too had been subjected to a similarly hair raising ride.

  Sunday 18^th 4pm

Since we arrived at the hotel in total darkness we had little idea of our surroundings until we opened the curtains this morning.

  The Terra Maris is an all inclusive located on the side of a hill, just outside the town of Limin Hersonissos. Situated on the north coast, it is approx 35km east of the capital Heraklion. The hotel view from the balcony shows a rather dry rocky landscape dotted with white villas, olive trees, Cyprus and smaller evergreens. The sea is approx ¼ mile away, appearing pale blue and rather hazy because of the heat and humidity.

 The town itself stretches for about 3km to the east and seems to consist of one main street and a boardwalk with dozens of cross streets running between them and on towards the south into a range of rocky hills.

  The boardwalk reminded me of typical seaside resorts everywhere, with a seemingly never-ending line of restaurants, bars and souvenir shops all offering the same items as everyone else.

 Clearly geared towards a British audience, the bars all had large flat screen TV’s with chalk signs outside indicating the times of various First Division Football matches occurring throughout the day. Not once did I see any promotion of any Italian, Greek or German league matches.

With 3 full days on the island we have opted for one lazy day (today), an organized tour of Knossos for Monday and a bus trip into Heraklion for Tuesday. Knossos is an ancient site, with significant mythological roots located some distance from the hotel.

  The island itself is quite large, about 250km in length and about 70 km in width, divided into 5 provinces or districts, each with its own capital city. It is about as far south as one can go while still remaining in Europe so the temperature is somewhat uncomfortable with little in the way of cooling breezes. Clearly it is far too large to explore on such a short visit but worth bookmarking for a longer visit in the future.