As we were finishing up our waltz around Athens the big question came up of how to select a Greek island to visit, when you have literally 100’s (or thousands when you include the unoccupied ones) of options? Now we were certain that there were no bad islands, but there was a lot of decisions to make on ferries vs. flights, overall trip travel route vs backtracking back through Athens , splashing out some cash vs. budget-friendly islands, the classic island experience vs something off the beaten path, historically significant places vs. relaxation destination. As we are travelling we are travelling for 8 months and trying to call this trip ‘Grade 9 Social Studies class’ for our daughter, we selected islands that are A) historically significant, B) Has a Ferry Connection into Turkey (ie no back tracking back to Athens) and finally were C) Budget Friendly. The Final Selection was: Rhodes and Kos.
Rhodes was the first stop and besides learning from one of my classics classes at uni that one of the ancient, but long destroyed, wonders of the worlds originated here (The Colossus of Rhodes), I didn’t know a whole lot about it. Well it turns out that Rhodes has a beautifully preserved old town that dates back to the crusades era (1300AD or so) and this is the place to be if you want to get lost in windy cobblestone roads, run the tourist shop gambit with haggling merchants, and see the upper castle where the Knights Hospitalier (who eventually morphed into St. Johns Ambulance over the centuries) were a strange mix of medics and soilders who reigned over this island as a stronghold against the Ottoman empire… until they lost and fled to Malta.
Besides learning about some ancient historical facts, Rhodes was also taken up with beautiful days laying on the beach, cycling around the city, petting/feeding every stray cat we bumped into (there were a lot), and enjoying an epic amount of delicious seafood and grilled meats on the daily. Rhodes was beautiful, but even in the warm shoulder season tourism was still going pretty heavy with 100’s of people like us clogging up the street, I would hate to see it in high season.
After a 3hr ferry we made it to the island of Kos, which we selected for it’s strategic connection to Bodrum Turkey (where we had a flight in a few days to Istanbul) but also because Kos is one of those famous places that pops up in Homer’s Illiad as well as a good base to explore nearby islands as day trips. Kos is also a quite cheap beach destination and Laura was quite insistant on enjoying more laid back days in the sun. I totally agreed to those demands and we spent the day in sunbeds on a boat trip to see the islands of Plati, Kalymnos, and Pserimos for some epic swimming and learning about sea sponges as well as visited the old volcano caldera in Nisyros island and the townsite there.
After a few days of beaches, ancient Roman houses, and petting even more kitties we took the ferry into Turkey to the city of Bodrum. This is a vacation town for Turks and normally a day trip for visitors from Greece, not a typical area of transit into the country for staying for awhile. So we were the only ones with luggage on this ferry and arranging to get to our hotel was not the most simple of tasks, especially as the hotel and airport were 40-50kms away. Anyway, we managed it with great support from the hotel and walked into the virtual ghost town that was Bodrum at this time of year. While the party was still going strong on the Greek islands, it was the sobering morning after in Bodrum with almost no one on the streets, beaches, and restaurants. Bodrum defintely had nicer facilities (although somewhat worse beaches) than Greece, but it was a little eiree that no one was there.
That is it for Europe! We are moving on to more of Turkey and getting into the Caucaus region for our upcoming journeys, stay tuned!
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