Day 11: Symi

We had an earlier than normal start today, with my alarm going off at 7am, because we had an exciting day trip planned. We needed to leave Faliraki around 07.45, which unfortunately meant that we weren't able to have breakfast at our accommodation; no one around here seems to be a particularly early riser, so breakfast generally doesn't start until 8.

We drove into the centre of Rhodes Town, then walked towards the harbour. I had booked us tickets for a ferry departing Rhodes at 9am for the small island of Symi.

Symi is situated about 40 miles northwest of Rhodes.

It's closer to Turkey than it is to Greece and we had some views of the Turkish coastline from the boat on the way there. If you look at the photo below, the further bit of land in the distance on the left is Turkey.

The journey from Rhodes to Symi took around 90 minutes.

As the boat began to approach the harbour in Symi, we got our first views of the colourful houses which make up the main town.

I was really excited to see that it looked just as pretty in real life as it had in the pictures I'd seen online.

The views were spectacular even as we were just waiting in line to get off the boat.

Perhaps partly due to the proximity of Turkey, it seemed like a very patriotic town and we soon spotted a large Greek flag on the hillside.

Symi is quite a mountainous island and a lot of the main town is built up into the hillside.

It was a baking hot day today and so we didn't feel like much uphill climbing.

Luckily, it wasn't really necessary to go uphill. There was quite a long flat round around the harbour, so we stuck to exploring that.

This church tower by the water reminded me a bit of Perast in Montenegro.

In other places, the colours were so bright that they reminded me a bit of Procida, the colourful Italian island off the coast of Naples which we visited in 2017.

The houses in Procida had been a mixture of pinks, blues and yellows though. Here it felt like yellow was the dominant colour.

The population of Symi is only around 2500 people, most of whom live in the main town around the harbour.

Historically the main industries on the island were sponges and shipbuilding. Today, tourism is the main employer.

It's certainly a popular destination for people to visit as a day-trip from Rhodes.

Although it felt like we were off the beaten track, there were actually a lot of other British tourists on the island.

A lot of people seemed to stay in the first part of the harbour which had the most shops - or else were travelling around the town on a tourist train - so as we walked further away from where we'd disembarked from the ferry, things got quieter.

It must be really peaceful here in the evenings once all the day-trippers have gone home!

As we walked further around we realised that there was another beautiful church up on the hill, with a large bell tower standing next to it.

I think Symi might win the prize for most picturesque place we've been on this holiday!

Once we'd explored as far as we could around the harbour, we found a restaurant with tables in the shade to get some lunch.

Definitely one of the best lunch views I've ever had!

I had pasticcio, which is definitely becoming my favourite Greek food. And it only cost €9!

I also had yoghurt and honey, which is a new discovery on this trip. The honey here is delicious!

Then we just had time for another stroll around the harbour, followed by a drink in the shade, before it was time to catch the ferry back to Rhodes.

Symi was incredible and definitely well worth visiting as a day trip from Rhodes