Tag: Mediterranean

Ρόδος / Rhodos / Rhodes

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25 years ago I visited Ρόδος for the first time. A cute oldtown, a castle, 5 hotels along the beach. My friend Lisa and I rented a scooter, we drove around the island, it was a quiet, relaxing vacation.

It looks very different now, not 5, but what seems to be 100 hotels, all the streets paved, cruise ships in the port, bus loads full of tourists shipped to all the beautiful destinations.

We signed up for a wine tasting + cooking class + 10-course meal and we loved every bit of it! Together with 6 other people from our cruise we headed out to a 45min drive to a winery where our host Jason waited for us and walked us through the vineyards where his small family winery grow 7 different varieties if wine. Some from France (Merlot, Chardonnay), some old varieties from Greece. The following winetasting was delicious, informative and prepared a relaxed mood to start the cooking class. Tzatziki, dolmas, and an eggplant dip was what we made.

The 10-course meal topped off everything in the best way possible; one dish after another, one better than the previous, wine and more wine was poured – we all were very happy!

Cruise Ship Art

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Yes, there is such thing as cruise ship art! Like cruise ship music, that consists of poorly paid, uninspired, overworked, tired looking professionals, that can be heard in 5 different locations, cruise ship art is everywhere. It is right in your face and it is painful. They have artwork in every hallway, staircase, elevator. And they have an art gallery!

So this art gallery has a collection of very interesting / amusing paintings and sculptures, all of which fall under the category: “the Alps, the roaring elk, the sunset”! But it is modified towards the cruise ship art lovers, who happen to have left their taste at home. All those pieces are very bright (primary colors, mixing colors is overrated, right?), very interesting (caricature Mickey Mouse in front of a naturalistically painted romantic forest setting – wait a minute, wasn’t there gonna be a roaring elk?) and extremely ugly (abstract blizzard in orange, red and black).

What surprises the most is, that the so-called art gallery is busy. Very busy! People are standing in line to get rid of their money; I guess they have too much of it! And then – from day 1 on – there are “sold” stickers on a few of those art pieces! That makes the art lovers get their elbows out and try to skip the lines and purchase quickly! Of course it’s all one-of-a-kind – indeed and thank god there aren’t any more! Hush hush, quick quick! The so-called art experts give you professional advise and recommend paintings according to your decor at home. Yikes 😱

Zakynthos

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So I’d already been in Rome, Napoli and Sicily. Zakynthos, or Zaki as the locals call it, was the fist “new”. And it was a good one! A beautiful little island with lots of little farms growing mostly olive trees. The main summer income for the islanders is tourism, the main winter income is olive oil. No wonder that they sell all kinds of olive products everywhere: oil, lotions, along with honey, wine etc.

Our friends Yuki and Bill, Ted and I joined a day-long tour by bus & boat. Half of the day we drove around the island, first on the westside, where most of the 20,000 people live, then on the eastside with its high cliffs and gorgeous views.

The most famous view is down to the shipwreck beach. A group of cigarette smugglers had a problem with their ship and – instead of being caught by the coastguard – they just abandoned their vessel and ran off. The ship ended up on this beach and is falling apart ever since this happened (in the 1980s). Unfortunately the beach is closed and you are not allowed to go ashore because of falling rocks from the cliff surrounding the beach.

We had a few more stops with views to other beaches, one of which had sulfuric gases bubbling out of the water near the beach, making every public restroom small like a perfume store. But it is healthy apparently… On top of the cliff above the stinky beach is a little bar, where the people on the beach can order food and drinks, that then is transported down by an interesting gondola basket

The second part of the day we spent on a boat, moving along the coast and it’s many little beaches, coves and grottos. We drove inside a few of them, we swam in the Mediterranean we had a lot of fun!!! The crystal clear water has all shades of blue and turquoise – like heaven to me ❤️