Woke up just before sunrise at 7.15, to an orange glow in a strangely-clouded sky. Decided it was worth a photo and got out of bed and went outside onto the balcony.
Afterwards, I went back to bed and snatched another 45 minutes’ sleep before rising once again. The Balmoral was making her way into port on the island of Rhodes, where she would remain overnight. We hadn’t been here before, so we looked forward to exploring. From what we could see from our balcony vantage point, it looked as if Rhodes was a very old and historic port; we could see many fortifications and ramparted city walls.
From what we had read, it seems that the history of Rhodes is certainly rich and intriguing. The island has been invaded countless times by pirates and powerful nations. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times during the passage of time. Ancient civilisations walked on the land and each nation that ruled over the island left behind signs of their existence. Each monument or building standing on the island unveils a story of its own.
Rhodes was home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Colossus! The awe-inspiring structure, known as Rhodes symbol, stood proudly at the entrance of Mandraki Port. Colossus was constructed in 280 BC but was unfortunately hit by a devastating earthquake years later. It would have stood not far from where Balmoral was now.
After breakfast in the Spey restaurant, with its huge circular windows affording wonderful views, we went out on deck to watch as the Balmoral moved into her berth and was made fast. We had the day at our leisure as we didn’t have any excursions booked and it looked as if you could walk off the ship into the old town.
To let those on the excursions disembark first, we had a look at the Daily Times to see if there were any games this morning in the Lido Bar. Indeed there was; a game of carpet bowls. We made our way down there to the usual crowd, and Hubert walking around with his clipboard taking the names of those who wanted to play. Trevor and I were knocked out in the first round.
We then decided to go ashore and proceeded to the gangway to disembark. Then we took a slow stroll to wherever our legs took us. The sky was a flawless blue as we walked along Mandraki harbour, and I took a photo of the Balmoral. It was quite sad really, as this was our final port and final berth of this cruise; tomorrow evening we would be disembarking from this point. 🙁
It was quite a busy port, as the cruise ships dock near the ferry port, and we could see bustling queues of people waiting with their suitcases for the ferry to Crete. As we went past them towards the city walls, we came across an interesting bronze statue of bottlenose dolphins.
Outside the city walls, taxi drivers tried to tempt us into taking tours of the island with them, and local buses as well as tour buses went to and fro. We decided that it would be a good idea to have a look around on foot first, then see if we could find a hop-on-hop-off open-topped bus to explore.
We set off into the old town. There were many souvenir shops, pavement cafés, restaurants and bars. In many cases, the smiling proprietors vyed for our custom, one guy telling us “it’s never too early for beer!” We said we would call on the way back. In the meantime, Trevor was on the lookout for a new leather belt.
Soon we came across a shop which displayed some of its leather goods outside; wallets, handbags, sandals and belts. After examining the men’s belts for a short while, Trevor selected one and took it into the shop to pay. It was only five euros so not a bad price.
We had a good look around the charming cobbled streets and squares, with their unique buildings, turrets and arches. An intriguing castle-like building towered over the harbour, and we decided to go up and have a look, predicting fantastic views.
We then had a look on Google Maps to see if there was the city tour HOHO bus stop anywhere; in fact, there was one just over the road and we could see the next bus slowly filling up with passengers, so we walked over and paid our 20 euros each, collecting a map of the route and a pair of earphones (for the English commentary) as we proceeded up to the top deck.
This was fantastic! As well as the Old Town which we’d already been exploring this morning, we were able to see a different side of Rhodes. Rugged mountains, sweeping sandy beaches, upmarket hotels, shops, restaurants… and of course, relics of the past such as the heavily-scaffolded Acropolis of Lindos. As the bus wended its way along the sea-front we could see why Rhodes has been such a popular holiday destination for so long, and we would certainly be tempted to return for a longer stay.
Once we’d done the full circuit, we alighted at the same stop at which we’d boarded, and walked along to the harbour where we were able to get some good photos of the Balmoral.
It was around 2.00pm when we returned to the ship and went to the Thistle for a light lunch. When we got back to 9088 we saw that hotel services had returned the bottle of wine they’d confiscated from us in Kefalonia as we were disembarking tomorrow. But tomorrow is another day – we still had the rest of today to enjoy that bottle! 😀
In fact, I decided to take a glass of it out onto the balcony and sit and read for a while. We saw in the Daily Times that there was a game of Baggo at three o’clock and Trevor decided to go up and play, but I just stayed behind in our cabin, and enjoyed a power nap after my glass of wine.
Once Trevor returned, we reluctantly dragged one of the suitcases out from under the bed and made a start with our packing, filling the case with anything we wouldn’t need again this cruise. As our luggage didn’t have to be outside our cabin until 2.00am, we didn’t really have to hurry and could leave the second case until later.
Soon it was time to start getting washed and changed for our last dinner on board. We made our way to the Ballindalloch Restaurant and table #99 one last time, where we enjoyed another delicious dinner as well as the company of Steve and Tracey, who had been convivial and interesting table companions. They had expressed an interest in reading this blog when they got home, so we left them with our ‘calling card’ and said we’d see them in the Lido Lounge later on for the final quiz.
Tonight’s entertainment featured the Welsh comedy magician, Taffy Spencer, once again. We enjoyed his illusions and his banter and thought he was thoroughly entertaining, but as we were leaving the Neptune Lounge we could hear some of the miserable old farts rubbishing the comedian and complaining that the entertainment had been poor all week. They must have been on a different cruise from us, then!
Afterwards, we hotfooted it up to the Lido Bar for the quiz, and it didn’t take long for Tracey and Steve to join us. We didn’t make the hat-trick of wins, only clocking 10/15. We sat talking for a while and enjoying more cocktails, then Steve returned to their suite and came back with the bottle of cava that they’d been given at the start of the cruise. It turned out that they can’t drink anything fizzy, so they donated the bottle to us because they knew that I enjoyed the cava. How kind! We offered to buy them a drink each but they were ready to turn in, so we said we’d probably see them tomorrow.
We then went back to 9088 to finish off our packing, changing into the clothes we’d be travelling home in tomorrow. Once we’d placed the bags outside in the corridor for collection, we decided to go to the Morning Light for a nightcap, as it wasn’t yet midnight and we didn’t have to be up too early in the morning; we didn’t have to vacate our cabin until 10.00am.
I enjoyed a sangria while Trevor opted for a whisky, and we sat on our barstools and chatted with the friendly barman. The we returned to 9088 and sat out on the balcony in the darkness for a short while, looking at the port lit up at night.
After putting the bottle of Pere Ventura cava into our fridge to chill for tomorrow, we propped open the balcony door and settled down to sleep for our last night on board the beautiful Balmoral. 🙁