Symi

Our alarm was set for 6.15am so that we could be at breakfast for 7am, and as sunrise was just before 6am, I looked outside and saw the reddest sun, still quite low in the sky.  So I pulled some clothes on and went down to the beach to get some photos.  I’ve not added them to my extras as I hope to do the same tomorrow morning for my Blip.

We had breakfast and our coach picked us up at 8.15am and took us to the port in Rhodes town, via a few other hotels to pick others up.   When we arrived in Rhodes, we were all divided into groups depending on language and each had a tour guide.  We were also given little radio with headphones, which was a good idea as it didn’t matter if we weren’t stood in front of the guide, we could still hear him. We boarded the catarmaran and left at 9.40am to set sail for the island of Symi.  We passed very close to Turkey - we didn’t realise just how close it is.

When we arrived, we all joined our respective guides for a walking tour around the main ‘city’, however, picture a ferry emptying people en-mass who are then squashed into tiny narrow streets - it was awful!  So we made a decision to leave the group and do our own thing, then as we were walking round, we kept seeing others from our group that had done the same thing.

Anyway we had a great time exploring this beautiful island. We walked up the hill to the church and enjoyed the views, and wandered through the tiny streets before stopping for lunch.  We found a nice little taverna and both had Moussaka, which was delicious, and I got a nice photo of the owner which I’ve added to my extras.

We had to be back onboard the Catarmaran by 3.30pm and then we sailed to the south of the island to visit a monestery.  We had an hour there, and it was really nice,  but weren’t able to take photos inside the chapel.

We arrived back in Rhodes at around 6.15pm and the coaches were waiting for us.  An hour later and we were back in Kolymbia where there had obviously been a lot of bad weather again - there was flooding in the fields and lots of water on the roads, and when we got back to our room, everything on the terrace was soaked!  It’s been hot and humid on Symi with not a sign of rain, and Rhodes town was bone dry too.

Unfortunately the rain had been so bad that the outside dining area had been flooded, so we had to eat inside, although we had to queue for a little while as all tables were occupied.  We fly home tomorrow night so are hoping it’ll be nice weather tomorrow, but the forecast is for more rain and storms!