Rhodes; Saturday, 16 October, 2021

I had another early start as I was being picked up a 9am by the coach to take me over to the town of Lindos, so I had an quick breakfast grabbed my things and was outside the hotel with a couple of minutes to spare before the minibus pulled up. The tour I booked wasn’t really a tour, it was more of a group transfer taking people from a number of hotels to Lindos where we were dropped off and told to be back at the bus station in five hours time – so we were pretty much on our own to explore.

After being dropped off I headed down the quite steep road into the town of Lindos and then immediately started climbing back up again as I headed up to the Acropolis high above the town centre.

Unlike Rhodes there are quite substantial parts of the Lindos Acropolis still standing, so I spent quite a lot of time wandering around the site taking in both the archaeology and the views over the town and surrounding countryside. In the end, I spent nearly two hours exploring the acropolis before heading back down into town where I decided it would probably be a good idea to get a bit to eat.

I found a nice restaurant with a roof terrace, and was initially a little disappointed to be sat on the side over looking the street below and not the coast. That soon changed as a swift, short but very sharp shower came over at just the right angle that I was kept dry by a combination of the neighbouring buildings and the awning, but people overlooking the sea quickly retreated inside with their meals.

After lunch I continued to have a wander through the city and ended up down at the ancient theatre. This is located towards the edge of the town and below the tip of the acropolis. The theatre itself isn’t open to look around, but it’s clear to see from the street with all the seating carved out from the rock – so rather than built it looks more like the theatre was excavated.

Having looked round the theatre I headed back up towards the main square of the city and was trying to decide if I should wait for the bus up the hill, or just walk it, when the shuttle bus suddenly came into view. Running from the square up the steep hill the shuttle bus takes less than 90 seconds to make a journey that would easily be a 10 minute slog, and it does all that for just €0.50, it would be foolish not to take it.

Back up at the main bus station I only had a few minutes to wait before both our bus and the rest of the passengers arrived and we actually ended up leaving about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. It meant that the drive was able to pull off the road at a parking place on the main road high above Lindos to give us some stunning photo views over the town, beach and Acropolis. After the quick photo stop we all headed back onto the bus for the journey back to Rhodes, where I was dropped off back at the hotel, just in time as a couple of minutes late the skies opened again and we got treated to another hefty thunderstorm that lasted nearly an hour.

As the storm subsided I took the opportunity to pop out of the hotel and wander down to the very quiet beach and go for a little paddle, before heading back to the hotel and grabbing dinner and an early night as I had to set my alarm to a ridiculously early time.