Day 7: Lindos

When we went out for a meal last night we found that some of Lindos is a bit posher and more expensive than Rhodes Town. A lot of restaurants here have roof terraces and we ended up on the terrace of a restaurant which didn't look too expensive compared to others.

We had stifado, beef in a tomato sauce, which came in these little pots with their own lids. It was okay, but actually not as good as the much cheaper stifado I'd had in Symi the other day.

I had a nice view up towards the acropolis of Lindos while we were eating though.

Visiting the acropolis was our plan for today. We left our apartment before 9am to try and make the most of the slightly cooler part of the day.

We followed a series of steps up towards the start of the fortifications.

Before too long we had a little view down towards the village.

The climb wasn't actually as bad as I'd been expecting; way easier than the climb to the upper part of Symi.

It felt like it was going to turn into a really hot day, though. This sign confirmed that the acropolis was going to be closed in the afternoon due to the weather.

As we got towards the gate into the acropolis we had a fantastic view down towards the coast.

It looked like a lot of Lindos beach was covered with sun loungers!

We paid EUR 12 each to enter the historical site.

The fortress here was built by the Knights of St John to defend the island from the Ottomans.

We had to climb a few more steps to get up inside the walls.

Once we got higher the views down to the sea were incredible.

Walking around the inside of the fortress was actually quite difficult.

We had to clamber over these rocks, which were a bit slippery in places.

It was a spectacular place to visit, though.

As we'd got up reasonably early, the site wasn't overrun with tour groups.

There were a few organised groups starting to arrive, but we managed to see the temple of Athena Linda without them.

The temple originally dates from around 300 BC.

It was in a really beautiful location, looking out over the sea.

The bay below is known as St Paul's Bay; St Paul apparently landed here during a storm.

The water was an incredible shade of blue.

In order to get further around the site we had to climb down an enormous flight of steps.

It was worth it though, because we got to see this pretty Byzantine church.

The acropolis was definitely starting to feel a bit busier by this point.

We walked past some shady vaults...

...where we found a couple of kittens playing.

As we made our way towards the exit, we spotted the ideal location for a selfie

Then we just had to climb back down the medieval staircase we'd used to enter the site.

It was incredibly hot by this point so we stopped off at the acropolis cafe for a freddocino.

We'd climbed up to the acropolis this morning via a series of stairs from the middle of the village. We decided to go down a different way, on a wider trail which I think is used to bring tourists to the top by donkey. Too hot for donkeys today though!

As we made our way down there were some great views back up towards the castle...

...and down towards the coast, which is really quite rocky here.

We were soon back in the village.

We passed this gorgeous little church...

...then had a quick look at the local beach, before heading back to the apartment to enjoy a blast of air con.

We ended up having lunch on another roof terrace.

I tried giouvetsi, a dish made of beef, tomato and very small pasta.

Helen had briam, which was a bowl full of roasted vegetables.

The temperatures by this point were extremely hot, as confirmed by the weather app on my phone.

The whole region seems to be unusually hot at the moment.

After lunch we decided to research bus times back to Rhodes Town for tomorrow. We discovered there's a little shuttle bus which leaves from the edge of the village, taking you uphill to the main road where the actual bus stops are for the bargain price of EUR 0.50. We experimented with that, found the bus ticket booth and confirmed the time of our bus for tomorrow. We also saw a really pretty church...