Adventures In Walking

The first few days we were recovering from jet lag. It is nine hours ahead here, so Jeff was up most the night and I couldn't wake up in the morning!

We didn't have a car yet, so we were walking to any destinations reasonably close by. Thankfully the supermarket was only a block away.

The first serious sight-seeing location we attempted besides the beach, was Filerimos hill. Located about three miles away, with many layers of history. The Turk, Suleyman the Magnificent, directed the successful 1522 AD siege of Rhodes from the Byzantine castle here. We also wanted to see the ancient acropolis of Ialyssos, one of the founding city states of Rhodes, plus the temples of Zeus and Athena built atop an older Phoenician shrine. The barrel vaulted church of St Ai Yeorgis Hortas with fourteenth and fiftheenth-century frescoes also intrigued us.

The defining marker on the hill is a huge 70 foot concrete cross the Italians built after they took over Rhodes in 1912 during the first World War. We understood the cross could be seen in nearby Turkey, so we thought we would easily locate the correct hill. After an hour and a half of walking, trying to understand Greek signs and dodging traffic, we finally gave up and walked to Rodhos, Old Town which is four miles away instead.

We were so energized after seeing the great sights in Old Town, that we decided to take the beach walk back to Ixia, even though it was longer than the way we walked in originally. It wrapped around the farthest north point of the island and was very scenic with the sun setting over the water. Wow, absolutely worth it!

However, after the sun went down, we got to the part of the walk way that they were still finishing. Working our way around construction and with the adrenaline rush over, I was wishing I was on one of those buses whizzing by! Eventually we got back to the apartment, had some dinner and the world was a great place again.

Days later, after we rented a car, Jeff was determined to find out where we had gone wrong going to Filerimos. Imagine our chagrin when we discovered at one of the confusing busy intersections we had been stuck at, a small sign on a tall post pointing to Filerimos. We didn't see it because we had been standing right under it!

Jeff's Corner: Don't forget to look UP....