Sunday, May 25, 2014

I opened my eyes and felt like I had slept for a long time, I picked up my phone and saw the time: 9:15 am!!! I screamed “OMG hunnie”, poor hubby was still sleeping and woke up immediately and asked “what?”. I told him we overslept, it’s 9 already ahhhh! His reaction: he laughed that I messed up on setting up the alarm! He said the ultimate planner (me) messed up on the time. Darn it, I had my alarm set to weekdays and today is Sunday! I had to completely change my plan, originally, I was planning to wake up early to catch the early bus to Lindos and go up to the Acropolis at 8 when it opens….not anymore. Instead, our plan for the day: just chill out at Rhodes Town!

Before that, we headed up to the 7th floor to check out the view of our hotel. We found out our hotel has a tennis court!

That was what I called “ocean view”!

We went out waiting at the bus station, we checked the bus schedule posted there and the next bus: in 20 minutes sighhh. Not really a good start! When we got off the bus at Rhodes Town, we walked to the New Market and all the shops were still not open, there were a few restaurants opening for breakfast.

The bus stop right across from Alpha Bank:

We walked around and found the entrance to the Medieval Moat!  We decided to take a morning walk there before breakfast. It took us at least 15 minutes to walk around on empty stomach…should have breakfast first!!! But it was enjoyable in the morning before the sun heated up the ground.

We had to walk through this tunnel to get to the other side which is the Old Town.

We walked through the Medieval Clock Tower….

and stopped for some photo of the Suleman Mosque:

Then, led us back to the Sokratous Street.

It was almost 10 am and the street was pretty empty, we were so hungry that we didn’t want to spend time to look for a good place for breakfast and instead we were pulled in by a waiter to the restaurant right next to where we had dinner last night: ARCHIPELAGOS. The had a picture menu but without prices (a sign of tourist trap ahhh too late!).  Hubby ordered an English breakfast and I ordered Greek yogurt with honey.

Our breakfast, guess how much did it cost???

Answer: 20 euros!!!! To make myself feel better, I told myself it was still cheaper than the hotel and with nice view LOL!

After breakfast,  we walked toward the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights and passed by many medieval streets with arches…would be perfect if without those motorcycles parked there!

Here we arrived at the Palace of the Grand Master of Knights! Admission was 6 euros each, note that credit card is not accepted!!!

Those giant towers and walls reminded me of castles in movies!

Once past the entrance gate, the middle courtyard was huge!

The knight shield on the stone ceiling:

I always amazed by those huge architecture, wondered how people built those back then without advanced machinery!

We walked around the courtyard, went into the museum, and finally found the entrance to the palace…just right behind the entrance duh LOL! There was a long stairway leading to the rooms.

The lamp reminded me of the Burano glass chandelier.

The fire place with the knight shield, I love the colors of the stone blocks inside the palace! The colors blended in so well!

We spent around an hour and a half inside the palace walking from rooms to rooms. Once we got out of the palace, we walked down The Avenue of the Knights. However, there were beggars on different section of the street!!!

The Old Town of Rhodes is one of the World Heritage sites.

I stopped by this house with the cute little Bougainvillea flower tree!

We walked past the Sea Gates again! Within the fortress walls, there were many roses planted there.

The crystal clear turquoise water!

The view of the Rhodes Windmills from the Sea Gates:

We walked back into the Old Town for souvenir shopping!

What a cute gelato cafe, I bought a cup of gelato in tiramisu flavor just to take a photo 🙂 The gelato was good and refreshing to the hot afternoon!

Another yogurt cafe:

Majority of the souvenir shops sell either Greek styled dresses, olive soaps and beauty products, or jewelries. I bought a flower pendant for myself and a ring for my best friend; I found the same or similar items in Mykonos and Santorini…Rhodes has the best selections and prices in terms of those “hand made” jewelries! We didn’t bought much since we planned to save spaces for souvenirs in Mykonos and Santorini 🙂 Done with shopping, we ventured out to the back streets without a map or particular direction! We uncovered many lovely medieval streets!

We had a late lunch at Golden Olympiade, we spotted this lovely restaurant last night!

What really attracted us were the white lamps hanging down from the tree, I felt like I was dining right in the middle of the forest – a little peace away from the crowded streets!

Even hubby enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere!

For lunch, I had the seafood spaghetti and hubby had the grilled squid. The seafood taste was light and the shrimps were not grilled so I give the spaghetti a 3.5 stars.

Both dishes were good and the price for the lovely lunch with a Fanta and one bottle of mineral water: 39.30 euros not bad at all!

More tables on the side of the restaurant, we liked the tables under the tree more 🙂

Continue to walk around….we found this artistic tree!

Whoever drew the eyes on this tree is a great artist!

A view of the Palace of the Grand Master from the outside!

I passed by this lovely house and couldn’t resist to have a photo!

There was a no parking sign haha!

 More discovery of shops and streets away from the tourist sites!

We probably walked through more than half of the streets in the Old Town! We got tired and decided to go back to our hotel for dinner and have a good rest so we can wake up for tomorrow’s plan – Lindos! On the way to the bus station, we once again walked through the Sea Gates and this time, we walked all the way to the windmills!

There was a huge line waiting for the bus (the bus goes to the airport as well)!  We were back to the hotel and went up to the 7th floor lobby in order to access the internet for free. I can’t believe now in 2014, all those 4* and 5* hotels are still charging for internet access; all the restaurants and cafes we passed by in town offered free wifi!!!

I saw this white piano right in the middle on the side of the lobby, it looked very romantic to me! It’s one of my dream to learn to play the piano…..still haven’t achieve it yet….so I had to pretend I know how to play for the photo haha!

We had dinner at one of the hotel’s restaurant – L’Onda. Its located on the 6th floor with tables on the deck for the nice sunset view.

For starter, we ordered the grilled octopus, it was really delicious!

I had the seafood spaghetti (again..yea I know…but its one of my goal to find the best seafood spaghetti in the world)!

The spaghetti….seafood taste was on the light side but the ingredients were very fresh so I give it a 4 stars!

Hubby ordered the sea bass fillet, he said it was good.

I saw tiramisu in the dessert menu so I have to give it a try…it was excellent!!! It was creamy but not heavy at all that I could eat more!

Dinner cost: 65.5 euros which was decent for the quality of food and setting 🙂 Good night Rhodes!