So, when I said we scored the other day, that was an understatement. Cereals, yogurts, croissants, muffins, fruit and honey lined the table. He brought out an over-flowing cup of fresh squeezed orange juice for each of us. Coffee and espresso (my two favorite buddies) were also in attendance. As if all this wasn't enough, he brought out cold cuts, cheese, jams and three different type of pastry things, one with spinach, one with cheese and one with the goodness of the world wrapped up and then baked over and covered with pure happiness. What a delightfully indulgent morning!
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| breakfast spread |
Our original plan had been to only stay in Rhodes for one day before heading over to the surrounding islands. After our first hotel debacle, we knew we'd be spending at least two-- one to see the southern part of the island on which we were unexpectedly dropped, and another to go back up north and visit Rhodes Town. This is now our third day, another unforeseen surprise. Since the only boat off the island is an overnight ship and does not leave the dock until midnight, we now have secured ourselves another day. In keeping with our lazy morning, we decided to find the beaches bordering the city and "chill".
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| rhodes beach |
Jon graciously let us keep our luggage and computers at his place as well as offered to take us to the ship later that night. (Maybe we should rename Jon as "Doctor Love". Either that or "Doctor We Love You!") We stuffed some remaining breakfast items in our purses (you know, we might get hungry in 45 minutes or so...) and walked through the winding streets, over the large moat now filled with shockingly green grass, and out of the large stone walls surrounding the Old City.
The new part of Rhodes Town is a mixture of modern furniture stores, big name clothing stores and sketchy stores selling random items. We found the beach with minimal trouble but don't get too impressed-- we are on an island. We pretty much just had to pick a direction and would have found water eventually. The water here is unbelievable. Three different color blues come together to form a band running along the shore. We plopped down on lounge chairs under an umbrella, one of many that spread up and down the beach, paid the Man 8 euros for the privilege, and read our books next to the crashing water, fully loving this gift of an unplanned day.
When we had finished our books/had enough of the scantily clad bodies around us (note: Americans may be fat, but at least they know when to NOT wear at two piece. Here, not so much...) we navigated our way back into the Old City. It was around 3 o'clock so we figured we should eat something. We sat down at a restaurant Jon had recommended, took turns washing the beach off of us as best we could in their small restroom (good ole sink bathing!) and ordered some grilled veggies and Tatziki. Suddenly Mom, in a spasm-like fashion, starts shaking her head. Really really shaking it. Confused look on her face. Finger in her ear. What is going on?!
-- I think a bug just flew in my ear. I hear him moving in there.
Awesome.
No amount of prying seemed to be able to dislodge the invader who was clearly content with staying warm and comfortable right where he was. (It was great watching her stick a cloth napkin in her ear to see if it could get down farther than her finger, though. Especially when the waiter glanced over and was unsure if it was a signal to bring more water.)
Mom, our new ear pet, and I paid for lunch and wandered around more in the ancient fortified city. We spent the rest of the day just wandering, well, wandering and watching Mom suddenly convulse as if she abruptly got violently cold, shouting at her unwelcome guest to just leave!
Seriously? How does this stuff happen?
We found some delectable gyros for dinner and topped the meal off with crepes slathered with nutella. As the sun set, we dawdled back to Zacosta to collect our things and tell Jon goodbye. We must have sat out there with him in the courtyard for at least an hour. We saw pictures of how he turned his place into the magnificent villa from ruins, literally ancient Old City Greek ruins. He had some crazy stories of the joys of dealing with the Greek construction permitting police and Armenian stone workers. He should have been an architect. Oh yea, and did I mention that he personally ran the Olympic torch for the country at the opening ceremony in the Athens Olympics? Yea. He's that cool. Goodbye "Doctor We Love You".
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| lobby on ship |
Jon dropped us at the port and we loaded on to the Blue Star Ferry for our over-night ride to Santorini. We had no idea what to expect from an over-night ferry but let's just say, with its hardwood floors, four restaurants, movie theaters and cabin showers that are bigger than the one we had in Rome, we were pretty comfortable. Even Mom's ear pet seemed to calm down for the night.
Farewell Rhodes. It was an inadvertent visit but lovely just the same.
