If you like castles, Rhodes is the place to visit. We arrived late afternoon from Crete and found our hotel just north of the airport in Ialysos. The owner of the hotel was quite interesting, having been a sailor, chef, hotelier and great collector of minerals and fossils. He built the hotel himself on his family land and opened a museum for his large collection of rocks and fossils in the basement of the building. We sat for a glass of wine and chatted at length about Vancouver and politics. Note: don’t discuss politics with Greeks. They are rather touchy about the almost 400 yrs of Turkish occupation, especially in Rhodes where they are so close to Turkey.
It turned out that the owners had lived in the Netherlands for many years, so dinner was a selection of Beef Rendang and Curried Chicken with spicy green beans and jasmine rice. Unexpected and so delicious for the gluten free people in our party of two! After dinner, we were invited to see the enormous and amazing collection of minerals and fossils the owner had collected all over the world. Many of his items would now have to be held in a government museum as they can no longer be traded, so we were fortunate to get a tour of this private museum.
The next day, we drove up into the high hills to find our villa. The buildings are newly constructed in the old Rodian style, thick walls and a lot of concrete inside. I would say it was designed to be a passive solar home. Our 2 bedroom home was tastefully decorated and well equipped. In the morning, the owner arrived with a warm loaf of traditional bread and a wifi hotspot device. He made sure we had plenty of info about what to see on the island.
But before we checked into our villa, we decided to go to the beach for the afternoon and then buy some groceries in town. For the first time in several days, I got to cook our breakfasts and make a simple dinner of ham, cheese, bread, and my favourite snack – dolmadakia (they come in a can you know!). Of course, a good Rodian wine was served with dinner.
Turning my world upside down! 
Reblogged this on Turning my world upside down! and commented:
Rhodes was a whole other kind of island, filled with castles and much history. The hotel we rented was actually a small house, situated in an olive grove. The house and the rest of the agro-tourism complex were built in the traditional Rodian style, with thick stone walls, lots of polished concrete and about anything we could want in a vacation rental. We spent a few days in Rhodes, touring in our rental car. I am sure we saw places the cruise ship passengers never get to visit.
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Isn’t it nice to do your own catering. It’s hard to imagine that you would tire of eating out, but one of the pleasures of travelling for us is going to the supermarket or local farmers’ market and preparing food from local produce.
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I agree perfectly! The other issue for me is food restrictions. Trying to avoid gluten and dairy limited the options for me. Now that we are home, we are trying to reproduce the wonderful food we ate but we haven’t found that wonderful olive oil here. I wish we could have brought some Cretan oil back with us.
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