We’re On the Rhodes to Nowhere

Lindos
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By Dan

(Yep, still working on the song title puns. . . .)

Like everyone, Christina and I occasionally allow ourselves to be lured into a sense of complacency. The trip so far has been so easy and pain-free, that we gradually let our guards down. A few recent adventures, though, have reminded us that travel, at least of the sort we’re doing, takes focus and attention, and is going to come with some hassles and frustrations. But, on with the story:

Monday the 22^nd, we had tickets on a 2:50 p.m. flight to the island of Rhodes. As with the trip from Rome to Athens, we had opted to go with a short, fast, cheaper air flight on good old Aegean Air in lieu of a long, slow, expensive ferry. We had previously scouted out the route to the airport on the metro, and our trip to the airport went smoothly until we discovered that trains don’t run out to the airport all that often. That left us cutting things a bit closer than we had intended, but no worries. We checked in, everything was cool, and then the wait began. Some of an air traveler’s least favorite words have got to be, “Due to weather conditions, we regret to inform you. . . . .” At about 4:20 they canceled our flight, but told us that we might make the 4:30 flight. However, we had to go down to the Lost Luggage department to retrieve our checked bags, then check in again. Not something one sees from United at SFO. We did the hustle, got ourselves to the counter, and learned that the 4:30 had been canceled as well, but that we were on a 7:50 pm flight. Ugh. Starting about 7:15, the 7:50 flight kept getting pushed back every 30 minutes or so, still due to weather issues. Apparently, some guy on Rhodes would go outside every half hour, take a look around, and say, “Nah. . . .” Christina and I were running through the various backup options, and weren’t liking what we saw. We had paid for an apartment on Rhodes, we had no idea where to find an affordable place to stay in Athens, and it was already getting late. Finally, about 9:20 pm, we got the word that we were going, although the gate agent told us not to count on anything.

Lindos Beach
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Since some of you may have sensitive stomachs, I’ll spare you the details of late night phone calls, taxi rides, lightning and thunder (and the obvious references to “Go Greece’d lighting. . .”), and meetings with little old Greek ladies on dark street corners, but suffice it to say we made it to our apartment and woke the next morning to the beautiful sight of Lindos, Rhodes. (Etymologists may correct me, but I believe that the Spanish “linda”, meaning “beautiful”, comes from the Greek “lindos”, which I presume means the same thing. They weren’t kidding when they named the place.) Picture a classic Greek town of white-washed houses, narrow streets (no cars allowed), a steep, rocky hill with a Byzantine church and a Crusades-era fort on top of Greek and Roman temples, and spectacular little harbors on both sides. Christina and Grayson quickly made friends with the local internet café owner, while Abby and I got to know some of the local feline population. (“Stray Cat Strut” was another possible title for this blog.) I must make special mention of Sheila at The Link, the book exchange and laundry place in Lindos, who was kind enough to help us set up the kids with a new bunch of reading material.

Rhodes Town Castle
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Our four days on Rhodes had some interesting highs and lows. It was mid-term break in the UK and Germany, so for the first time in months we saw loads of families. It was sort of weird, but a nice change: Abby seized the opportunity to diversify her playmate options and had fun on the beach with some English girls. The weather was spotty, but generally worked just fine for us. Any time you can be on the beach and in the water in late October, something must be working for you. We rented a car one day and drove in to Rhodes Town, which has a spectacular old fort, with an interesting history – it was used by the Knights of Saint John, a group of knights who took care of wounded crusaders, apparently. However, right next door was one of the worst stretches of tacky tourist t-shirt shops I have seen in the last 2 months. We drove through Faliraki, which looked to be one of the most tawdry collections of bars and tattoo parlors east of Tijuana, but a little further came upon a beautiful beach, Tsampika, that had only a couple of lean-to tavernas.

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Throughout Greece, we have had the sense that the tourist season is almost over, and people are shutting down, but at the same time they are trying to squeeze the last few euros they can out of the tourists. It must be scary to make money only 6 months out of 12. (Hmm, come to think of it, I know how it feels, since I’m not making any for at least 9!) We really enjoyed Lindos, and could have stayed longer, had Turkey not been beckoning.