Rhodes

April 2016 and our first visit to Greece.  We left Guernsey on the Saturday as we had tickets to see Jeff Lynne’s ELO at the O2 on the Saturday night.  Needless to say, they were brilliant.

It was an early start for us on the Sunday on a 7am flight from Heathrow to Athens.  At this time of year, direct flights between Rhodes and Gatwick are only on certain days as their holiday season doesn’t really start until May.  We had a couple of hours at Athens airport – sadly, not long enough to actually go and see anything but we wandered around outside in the warm sunshine – feet on Greek soil for the first time.  Our flight to Rhodes was on time and an hour later we were touching down, at around 5.30pm.

Our hosts for the week were Kevin and Sally – Guernsey expats (and friends!) who have lived in Rhodes for some 12 years.  They run Afandou Village Apartments which we would highly recommend (check out their Trip Advisor ratings – all excellent).  They collected us from the airport and did a slightly longer route back to give us a taste of the area (the journey usually takes about 20 minutes).

Our one bedroom apartment was lovely – large bedroom, with its own terrace at the back,

Our lovely bedroom at Afandou Village Apartments

large shower room and an open plan living area with a small kitchenette, and a small terrace at the front to catch the evening sunshine.  Perfect for what we needed.  Kevin and Sally said that they were having pizza that evening, delivered from the local pizzeria, and asked us to join them, which we happily agreed.  We went for a wander into the village to get some basics for breakfast the next morning, then joined Kevin and Sally on their rooftop terrace for pizza and a few drinks….till 1:30am!

 

On Monday morning, our hire car was delivered to the apartments.  Kevin and Sally had arranged this through the hire car company in Afandou village, as this was cheaper than collecting it at the airport.  We drove south to Lindos which is further down the eastern coast of Rhodes.

View across Lindos overlooked by the Acropolis

Lindos is beautiful – the atypical Greek village with white houses, albeit very touristy, all overlooked by the Lindos Acropolis.  We wandered around the village, buying a couple of souvenirs (useful ones, not tat!) and then had lunch in a rooftop restaurant called Delight.  As with the rest of our holiday, we tried to sample as much Greek cuisine as we could, and our lunch was lovely.  Unfortunately, the Acropolis was closed on Mondays, so we vowed to return later in the week to see it.  As we’d had a late – and quite big – lunch, we drove back to the apartment, then walked down into the village for ice cream before an early night (after the previous late one!)

 

Tuesday started with some rain, but it didn’t last.  We drove to Anthony Quinn bay (yes, named after the actor – more info here) which is beautiful, then drove to a little village called Koskinou which has houses with brightly coloured doors.  We then continued south to the infamous Falaraki.  This used to be a Club 18-30 haunt but not so much these days although it still has that look with the strip clubs and bars.  This again was very quiet as the season had not yet started.  We returned to Afandou village and had the first of several gyros.  Gyros are the Greek equivalent of fast food.  They consist of cooked meat, tomato, onion and tzatziki in pittas, usually served with chips.  Delicious!  In the takeaways / restaurants, you can see the meat cooking, which looks like doner-kebab meat, but isn’t processed in any way, just pure meat.

I went for iced coffee (which everyone drinks) with Sally at Afandou Beach kantina, while Bob played golf with a friend of theirs, Panayoti, who had visited Guernsey for the Island Games in 2003.  Bob said the golf course was challenging, to say the least, but he enjoyed his game.  We finished off the day with dinner in Afandou.  We went to a small local place called Ouzadiko.  Somewhere that we said we would never have tried without Kevin and Sally’s recommendation, but we had a fabulous meal – prawns in ouzo and Greek yoghurt with honey amongst other things! – and a great laugh with the locals.  Most speak a little English which was just as well as we don’t speak any Greek.  The owner sat with us when we arrived to go through the menu – which was in Greek.  Good job he spoke English!

Mid week already – on Wednesday we drove to Rhodes. We wandered around the old town which is very pretty but very commercialised, such that when you walk into Athena square (the main one) they are beckoning you from the other side to come and eat in their restaurant!

Athena Square, Rhodes Old Town

We also wandered around the new town, and stopped for lunch at Augoustinos, which is renowned as being the best gyros place to go to on the island, which we would definitely recommend.   We strolled along the harbour, admiring a huge super yacht called the Ocean Venture, then had ice cream in the old town before making our way back to the car.  We were invited to dinner on Sally and Kevin’s terrace, where Sally cooked a lovely meal comprising a number of traditional Greek dishes.  A lovely evening……till 1:30am again….!

 

On Thursday we drove west, across the island, stopping at the Panorama café which wasn’t yet open for the season unfortunately but it had stunning views. We continued down to the west coast, stopping at Elafos ceramic shop to buy a small Greek urn – well you can’t go home without one surely?! We then stopped at Kamiros, a huge site of ancient Roman ruins with beautiful views from the top.

Kamiros ancient city ruins

We drove back round the coast, around Rhodes harbour and back through Falaraki, stopping at Afandou beach kantina for ice cream. We went back into Rhodes old town in the evening, as apparently it is a ‘must see’ at night, but it was relatively deserted as the tourist season hadn’t really started yet. We had a lovely dinner at La Verka restaurant, which we found in one of the side streets.

 

Isn’t it funny how Fridays give you an entirely feeling when you’re on holiday rather than at work? We returned to Lindos and went up to the Acropolis.  We’re glad we made the effort to return as it is quite amazing to see and the views from the top are incredible.

Lindos Acropolis

We did feel sorry for the donkeys which you can ride up on rather than walk – needless to say, we walked.   After strolling back through Lindos to the car, we drove west across the island to Monolithos castle which we didn’t go into but viewed from the top – we could see there were a lot of steps and we’d already done quite a few!  We drove back around the coast to Afandou and had dinner at Danielle pizzeria – calzones, which were huge! This was actually Good Friday for the Greeks, and in the evening we went into the village at 8:30 to see the local rituals. We went into the church for a few minutes to see what was going on, then followed the procession, as did most of the village, around the streets, being regularly showered in holy water! We returned to Mike’s Bar for drinks (and another late night).

 

Saturday was our last full day 😦  We drove up to Rhodes to see the Acropolis which we eventually found and weren’t really that impressed with.  We thought the Lindos Acropolis and the Kamiros ruins were better, although you pay for both of these. We returned to Rhodes town for a gyros lunch then wandered back through the old town and had ice cream sitting on the steps overlooking Athena Square. We drove back to the east coast, to Anthony Quinn bay, where Bob had a swim – too cold for me, although he said it was lovely once you were in!

Anthony Quinn Bay – with Bob snorkelling!

We took Sally and Kevin out for dinner on our last evening and they took us to Anthoula Taverna in Kolymbia.  We then returned to Afandou to see the Easter celebrations, where the whole village congregates outside the church with candles which are all gradually lit.  It was quite spectacular to see.  Afterwards we sat in Mike’s Bar till 1:30am again….

 

On Sunday morning we drove down to Kolymbia, having seen a little of it the previous evening and had a stroll round before returning to Afandou beach where we sat in the sun for a while, admiring the beautiful colour of the Aegean Sea.

Afandou Beach, looking out into the Aegean Sea

Then back to the village for a final ice cream before returning to the apartment to pack.  Our flight to Athens was late afternoon, and Sally and Kevin had invited us for lunch on the rooftop terrace before we headed for the airport.

 

We absolutely loved our time on Rhodes.  Our weather (with the exception of the couple of hours rain on Tuesday) was glorious – temperatures in the mid-20s so nice and warm without being too hot.  We loved the island, loved Greek food (gyros in particular!) and loved the people who are friendly and helpful.  Many speak at least some English, and I have vowed to try and learn a little Greek before we return.  Our first visit to Greece – but certainly not our last.