It's All Greek to Me...

Calvin at Glystra Beach
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Well, we did it. We left beautiful Rome and headed for the new unknown. Thank goodness we have the Baynes' with us. We have rented a nine seater white van Brad has dubbed "The Beast"...that's better than his first idea, which if you have seen the movie RV, he plagiarized their name... Anyway, it's great and it gets us around.

We took off down the eastern coast yesterday and spent quite a few hours at a small beach by Lardos, called Glystra. Not too crowded, and wonderful sand and water. The boys and men snorkled. The kids also had fun on a paddle boat. Us women soaked up the sun and cooled off in the water once in a while. Hey, apparently it's ok if you forget half your bathing suit at home. At least,  I assumed it was accidental. Those poor women...  : )

Overlooking Lindos
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On the way home we stopped in Lindos. It looks like a quaint, quiet town until you get into it - then you find out it's one store after the next, with restaurants everywhere. From the road all you can see is small white buildings flowing down the side of a hill from the acropolis down to the beach. The narrow streets are covered over with vines, and it's pedestrian traffic only as you meander the narrow streets.

For added value for our money we were stopped by the police on our way home. Seemed just routine, but got a few hearts racing... Poor Calvin. He's a good driver, by the way. A few of you know what he drives like in Calgary. It's stood him in good stead in Rome, and now in Greece. He's fast, he's agressive, he sees all the goats.

The happy couple before Brad wished we HAD overlooked Lindos and it's many many shops... : )
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Patty looks like she fits right in. She's tanned darker than most people you see around here, and she's not afraid to ask questions or talk to people. I trail around in her shadow looking white and pasty and repeating  "ef kar is toe"; "thank you" in Greek) Hey, speaking of pasty, that makes me think of pastry. Apparently you CAN eat baklava every day and live to tell the tale. My paunch is growing, but after seeing all the art in Rome, I've convinced myself that "fleshy" is in. (I try to make up for it by climbing the stairs every night, instead of taking the miniscule elevator)

Crystal, I've eaten lots of gelato too, for both you and me. : ) My favorite so far is a long word that starts with s. I can't remember it. It is white with chocolate flakes in it. I'll get on your list of flavours next! Shirstine, we went to Starbucks today for you. I had an iced dark chocolate frappacino. I'm sure that somehow that is good for me. I can rationalize it, just give me time!

Today, MONDAY JULY 14, we took the kids to a water park and left them there for 7 hours. (They say they had lots of fun and almost flew off one of the slides, and met some neat people from England.They had terrific views of the Mediterranean Sea from the slides. What more could a kid want? What? They're mad they missed Starbucks??!!)

After we dropped them off, we drove back to Old Town and explored the Medieval Street of the Knights and the Palace of the Grand Masters. I enjoyed the winding streets of shops and restaurants and in the Palace, I really enjoyed the artifacts of everyday life in the museum. Toys, jewelry, cosmetic cases; evidence of life from hundreds of years ago reminding us that people are just people.

Our stop for lunch in our "Calvinized" restaurant (Calvin Approved) brought us face to face with a character: Graeme Jones, retired British Engineer; now historian/writer extraordinaire. He regaled us with tales of the Knights and Turks while we chowed down on Greek Salad. Brad tried to draw him out about the Masons, but he had to admit that that was not his specialty...we extricated ourselves politely and headed off to the Beast, past a few more shops on the way.

Tonight the kids were tired. The boys went to bed early and don't want to be awakened for Breakfast. We sat on the deck for a while ( our balconey and the Bayne's are adjoining, very handy) and then went our separate ways, leaving only Brad out there working on his computer to the strains of Abba and the Village People. (It was "surprise night" at the poolside bar. As in, "surprise, let's re-live the 80's!") He's in now, and sleeping, so I got the computer for while. AND, ha ha, I can turn down the airconditioner. He likes it up, and I like it down.

Good night from the land of Our Lady of Perpetual Olive Offerings.