You wonder why I carry my knapsack. I got caught once without a bathing suit. Never again.Did I include my travel book? No of course not as that would have explained where I was going and what I was looking at.
I enjoy my breakfast at my hotel because nobody is up at the same time as me. They all partied hard the night before so they are sleeping or just coming home. This morning I was joined by a table of four young men who needed something to eat before heading to bed. Why not end the day with breakfast?
When I say my suitcase weighs 80 pounds, it does, but that is because I am carrying 5 pounds of vitamin pills. You see, I am anal about taking my calcium, multi vitamin, glucosamine, and according to Dr. Oz on Oprah, a woman of my age needs to take 80mg of aspirin a day to ward off a heart attack. So I take it religiously each day. Today, I had packed my vitamins in my pocket. When I was taking them out the little blue aspirin comes loose and falls tinkling to the floor. It bounces along the floor until it reached the feet of the four boys.
Welcome to Temple of Bethena
They look at the little blue pill and then look at me. They tried really hard not to laugh and I couldn’t figure out what was so funny. Then it dawned on me that they thought that was a VIAGRA! They didn’t know what to do. I thought of trying to explain it was for my heart but I knew they didn’t understand English and I was going to dig myself in deeper. So I took a gulp of my coffee and left. Leaving the little blue pill on the floor. I could just image how they fought over who got to take it. I hoped it worked for them. I’m sure he would wake up with a little less of a headache. Probably not what he had hoped for.
I was off to my “French” bus tour. I don’t know if I told you but there weren’t enough English to run a tour so they cancelled it. So I agreed to take the French one on Saturday. The next English would only run on Tuesday and I am leaving Rhodes on Sunday.
View of my house from the neighbours. They were a quiet bunch1
So French it will have to be. I can speak French but a Greek with a Parisian accent was going to be a challenge but I am up for it. So when the bus pulled up and the guide got out and didn’t speak French I thought I was on the wrong bus. No, he confirmed that it was the right bus. It was just that the tour was in Dutch. Dutch? I don’t know Dutch? All I know is “Old Dutch Potato Chips”! Oh I guess I know Amsterdam, Red Light Distric, wooden shoes, windmills and legalized pot. Okay, I can do this. I know some Dutch. If anybody says anything to me I will answer with “Windmill” I can do it!
It became the “Mystery Tour”. I had no idea where I was going or what I was going to see. So the first place we pulled up was “Ancient Kamiros”. Had to pay 4 euros to get in. No problem! I am sure they will have signs around that will have some English on them.
View of the Tanqueray distilling room.
No, not a one. Nobody in my group speaks English (not even the guide) so I did what you would expect me to do. I made my own tour. So this tour of Rhodes is not the real one it is “RHODES ACCORDING TO BETH”.
The ruins are no longer called Ancient Kamiror, it is called “Temple of the Goddess Bethena” Since I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at I decided to have fun. So you will see pictures of the ruins from Goddess Bethena from 2000 BC. She was a naughty one. There are many stories about her but they have not been proven so they remain legends. You will have to see the pictures to get the description of what the ruins were all about.
After the ruins we headed to a church.
Baby lemon trees just starting to gorw. Full producers are up the hill a bit.
What church you ask. I have no idea. All the signs were in Greek, so lets call it St. Yiannis Church.
From there we went to a place that had the one and only sign that had English. It read “Wine Tasting” Okay, now I can figure out what this stop is all about. Head right up there and tell them I will taste one of the red dry, white dry, white sweet, ouzo, banana liqueur and the coconut. I’m can’t understand what they are saying so why not get a buzz.
Had a couple more stops. People would get off the bus and take pictures so would I. Had no idea what I was taking pictures of but I wasn’t going to miss anything on this tour. Click, click, click went the camera.
One of our stops was way up on some mountain.
View from my boudoir.
Don’t know the name of the mountain or where I was on the Island. I could have been north or south. Who knew? The sun was directly up above so my directionality was limited. Got off the bus and I was in the Alps. This wasn’t Greek. It was Dutch. They have taken me someplace from Holland. I go into the hotel and ask the lady. She says “Hotel”. Great! I knew it was a hotel but what is the name and why are we here. She smiles and nods her head. Another person who doesn’t understand English! Click, click more pictures. Of what? We are not sure. Then I see some animals in a pen. I take more pictures. I think they’re deer. Why would they have deer in captivity? They look kind of small. Maybe they’re not deer. Oh well, nobody can tell me different… so they are deer as far as I am concerned.
More churches, more pictures.
My bathtub without the bubbles.
Now I will say this for the tour. The people from Holland were getting an excellent tour as the guide talked the entire time and explained everything. All participants were nodding and laughing and I am standing there pretending to nod so that nobody knows that I am in LALA land!
Just nod and take pictures.
Now after having the mixture of alcohol and being on a bus for four hours I started to get a little sleepy. I am sitting there and my head starts to bob up and down. Now the English woman looks like a dashboard bobble head. Oh Beth, just take more pictures of the sites. Click, click, click.
All in all, it was a very long day but I am sure I heard all about the history of Rhodes.
View from the balcony!
I caught the odd word “politics, archeology, olive, flora, ouzo” The tour group heard how the olive oil is made from the many olive trees, found out all about ouzo and its origin, heard about the history of Rhodes, heard about the many different flowers of Rhodes. They had 10 hours full of information.
But guess what? I don’t mind because tomorrow I am off to Santorini. Thira to those of you that are following this on a map. This is the island that I have based this entire trip on. It is apparently the most beautiful island and the views of the volcano are amazing. It’s her volcano that has caused all the devastation in the Greek Islands over the years.
