Lindos

The following day we went on another adventure where we discovered one of our major differences as a couple that has played out often in our marriage over the years. When I go somewhere new, I like to explore. Laura likes to just relax on a beach and read a book. I feel like you can do that anytime. If I’ve paid all this money and taken all this effort to get somewhere, I’m going to take advantage of it and discover new things. We figured out a compromise.

We rented a moped and rode along the coast until we found a decent beach. It was somewhat remote but there were a few other people. I hung for a little bit to make sure Laura was safe then went off on the moped to explore some more. The next day we took a bus to the eastern end of Crete to catch the ferry to Rhodes.

The capital of the island of Rhodes is also called Rhodes or Rhodes Town which is famous for being the location of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Colossus. It was a 108-foot high statue of the sun god, Helios which was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 B.C. The town is now dominated by medieval fortifications and a Byzantine citadel. We were going to stay in Rhodes Town on our way back so when we got in, we caught a bus for Faliraki down the eastern side of the island to find the waitress from Chicago Pizza Pie Factory.

When we got to the beach in Faliraki, we began to ask around. It was one of those long, wide, flat beaches with rows of chairs and umbrellas for rent, along with all manner of water sports equipment. The waitress from the restaurant was a bit of a party-goer and we could see that this town seemed to have a lot of night clubs. It had the feel of one of those towns that would appeal to the young, English, drinking, all-night party-going crowd – not really our cup of tea.

We could not find the waitress and her husband so we had to figure out what to do. We had heard about another town called Lindos, south of Faliraki and as we didn’t really like the feel of this town, we decided to head there. We’re so glad we did.

Lindos is amazing. It is a jumble of whitewashed houses at the base of a hill that rises to an ancient acropolis. On one side is a large curved bay and beach. The other side has a rugged, rocky terrain containing a small bay. As usual, the water was a clear azure. 

We found an idyllic location to stay amidst the brilliant whitewashed houses. We could step out of our window onto the roof to take in a view of the rest of the town and the acropolis. We had a nice dinner at a rooftop restaurant not too far away.

The next day we went up to explore the acropolis and opted to go to the smaller, less-peopled beach. I left Laura after a while to go explore the rocks. As it was May, the water was still cold but I wanted to see if I could find a place to go cliff-jumping. I found it but there was nowhere to get back up. Once I jumped, I had to swim all the way back to the beach to get out.

We spent the night back in Rhodes Town and checked it out the next day before taking the ferry back to Pireaus. From there we caught the train to the northern Greek town of Thessaloniki where a YWAM family we had known from the ship lived. Laura had been the preschool teacher for their youngest daughter, Lindsey. We hung out there for a few days where Laura became a video game widow. The Orreds had a Nintendo television video game system, which was new to me and I was hooked.

View from the Lindos Acropolis


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