What to do when your ferry gets cancelled

 Our ferry to Turkey was cancelled. Scary at first, but we ended up shunted to another boat two days later. With our unexpected bonus days on Rhodes, we said goodbye to Vassilis - our unbelievably obliging host, who presented us with our very own amphora as we left - and drove south towards Lindos. We'd planned to visit Stegna en route, but missed the turnoff and found ourselves in the sleepy town of Charaki instead. There we had an exceptional lunch at a little taverna called Kostas & Elena, crowned with a complimentary plate of ice cream, brownies, currants and strawberries. Twelve eyes shone as the curly-haired young waiter ceremoniously placed it on the table, saying, "this is from us," and it was scrumptious.

Anyway, I had only meant to write a line about Charaki. Half an hour later, we parked our poor, soon-to-be-sideswiped rental car in the amoeba-shaped parking lot, and walked into Lindos. It's very cute! The streets are too narrow for cars, so it's very quiet. Everything is mercilessly whitewashed. The city slopes steeply downward towards a couple of beautiful beaches. I imagine it will feel quite touristy a few weeks from now, but the cobblestoned streets were mostly empty and the girls' constant hollering echoed (as did the braying donkeys). 

The Acropolis was stupendous, this massive fortress looming a hundred metres above town with crumbling granite walls. For centuries the locals would all retreat up here every time invaders sailed in, and you could easily imagine the ancient Lindians cheerfully dropping rocks on the Spartans (or whoever) and waiting for them to go away while enjoying the view, petting cats and eating mandarins. 

We swam in the frigid waters (even Tamar!) It was pretty nippy, but so unbelievably clear (not to mention devoid of ravening jellyfish that will kill you in moments) that Sophia, Tova and I swam around for a good while looking at the fish in all their splendid hues of brown and greyish-brown. Some beaches are rocky, others sandy, but all of them have the most surreal tones of postcard-blue that I never get tired of looking at.

Our diet on Rhodes consisted mostly of olives, bread, Greek salad, minestrone soup, many cheeses (graviera mostly popular; manouri, less so), mandarins and pizza. Probably good that Passover's rolling around as we could use a break from the carbs. They did fuel a few good hikes up to Tsampaki and Filerimos Monastery - Rhodes is hillier than I'd expected.

Some jerk dinged up our car, about which the less said the better, and we got on a boat to Fethiye, Turkey! This was a much smaller catamaran ferry, notorious for seasickness, but Poseidon smiled and kept the seas smooth. At the other end, we burned a completely useless hour waiting for the single customs agent to talk on the phone and occasionally examine one of the hundred impatiently waiting passports - but, other than that, it was an easy journey. We've been in Turkey for two days, but it feels like ten - so I'd better save that for next time.

Sunrise over Rhodes

Lindos town

"Rhodes Blue" should be a colour of paint

Young Jakob probably read books visiting the Acropolis too 

It looks so warm and inviting, but then you touch it

Zadie channeling her inner Athena

Z

The monks must have been mighty fit to live up here