Day 6: Symi to Lindos

After I'd finished yesterday's blog, we went back out to the beach around the corner from our apartment in Symi.

There was just time for another dip in the sea.

Afterwards we headed to the local mini-market for more wine and snacks. On the way, we saw two goats casually munching on a cactus!

After an evening drink on the terrace, we walked around the harbour to find a restaurant for dinner.

Symi looked beautiful lit up at night.

When we'd been at the mini market, we'd bought some yoghurt and honey. That's what we had for breakfast on our terrace this morning.

We just had time to admire the view for a final time before setting off around the harbour towards the point where our ferry back to Rhodes should depart.

The ferry was due to depart at 10.40 but the incoming boat didn't get arrive until some time after 10.20, so we ended up being far too early. Time for another iced espresso while we waited.

The experience on the boat back to Rhodes was completely different to the experience on the way out. There were only a small group of other people making the journey at this time of day.

We were able to walk around the deck and get some lovely views as the boat pulled away from Symi.

We could see how barren and rocky the island is in places, although we did catch sight of some other small settlements.

For most of the journey the best views were of the Turkish coast.

It's a really beautiful coastline here...

...and it looked potentially a bit greener than Symi.

Towards the final half hour of the journey, the coast of Rhodes came into view on the opposite side of the boat.

In the opposite direction we could still just about see the end of Symi (left) and the Turkish peninsula (right).

As we got closer to Rhodes we could see what looked like a strip of whiteness along the coast from all the hotels...

...and the little bit of beach we'd walked on earlier in the week.

The views sailing into the old town harbour were fantastic.

It was fun to see everything from this angle when we'd already spent a couple of days walking around within the walls.

We'd arrived slightly after midday and there was a bus to our next destination - Lindos - at 1pm. We walked towards the bus station and purchased tickets. The tickets informed us that the bus we were waiting for was number 39, so we sat down to wait for it and kept an eye out of that number. As it closer to 1pm, a slightly frantic bus lady approached us and asked which bus we were waiting for, then informed us that the 39 was already here and we needed to go and get on it. We were rather confused because we could see three buses, none of which were labelled as 39. We clarified with her and she directed us to get on a bus which seemed to be labelled as the 76. How odd! It was only when we eventually disembarked in Lindos that we realised that the number 39 was the number of the individual bus (rather than the number of the route, if that makes sense). So it was bus 39 driving route 76.

The journey from Rhodes Town to Lindos took around 90 minutes. When we arrived in Lindos the weather was blisteringly hot, although it seemed like a very dry heat compared to Symi (which had been quite humid). We had about a kilometre to walk to track down our apartment.

It's really unique inside. In addition to a fairly standard kitchen and bathroom...

...we've got a bedroom built in the traditional local style, which involves climbing steps to a raised platform with mattresses.

We've also got a patterned pebble floor, which is beautiful but rather spiky to walk on without shoes!

We were starving by this point as we'd been on the bus over lunchtime, so we wandered around the corner to a small taverna. I had my doubts about the food when I saw they were advertising a Sunday roast on the menu, but the food actually turned out to be really good. I had my favourite pastitsio...

...and Helen had a moussaka that I didn't get a picture of. We also ended up with more wine than ordered as the owner came and topped up our glasses for free towards the end of the meal.

Once we'd finished eating we went for a wander around the little streets of Lindos.