Rhodes was closed! We’re too early…

We’d rented a car for 2 days so that we could do the island justice. Happened to be Monday and Tuesday. Rhodes town is situated on the top (North East) point of the island so we decided the first day we’d go down the center of the island to the east coast down at Lindos.

The interior of Rhodes is pretty but not spectacular in any way – but it was fun winding along the narrow roads and not meeting another single vehicle until we got close to the coast. Once on the coast, clusters of large hotels – mostly empty in March – showed that Rhodes is a major tourist destination with most folk attracted to the beaches and warm weather. Unfortunately, many of the beaches are stony – though there are several sand beaches.

We arrived in Lindos to find it closed. The only activity were locals making places ready for the coming tourist season. The castle sits high over the town below, but we didn’t have the urge to climb up to it, so we wandered through the ‘streets’ looking for a place to enjoy a beer and perhaps some lunch. No such luck – Lindos is closed!!!

We made our way back towards Toodle-oo! stopping off at Lidl for a pretty major provisioning event.

The following day we went down the west coast. Again, lots of evidence of hotels and beach bars – mostly closed for the off-season. We arrived at our first destination of the day – a Monastery – but guess what? It was closed! This time, not because of the season but because it was Tuesday! We’d forgotten that all Government run museums and tourist areas are closed on Tuesdays!

We met with two other couples in rental cars in the car park and chatted with them briefly. They too were caught out by Tuesday! However, one of them said they’d been to Lindos on Monday and found a place to eat and drink in the old town… and that the castle was a must see! Oh rats!

We continued our tour, moving away from the coast and up into the hills – where we happened upon some vineyards – and a winery… It was OPEN! First day of the season – and in fact we were the first customers of the year!

We also scored a first – when some weeks later we opened one of the bottles we’d procured there, it was really nice! Always in the past we’ve bought at a winery and it’s like they sell you bottles of something different because as soon as you get home and try it, you find it to be total crap! What made it better is that the owner – a nice young man in his 5th year of business – threw in an extra bottle since we were his first customers!

On the news that Lindos wasn’t completely closed we decided to head back there and maybe walk up to the castle – and find ourselves a drink… Nope! We confirmed that Lindos is definitely closed, including the castle that we walked up to… don’t know what that guy was smoking!

We scored again when we got back to Rhodes town – a great chandlery with a super selection of familiar products.