Here I am, back after my week off. The reason I was away all week was because Neil was coming back from Scotland and was due to land around midnight on Tuesday. We’d booked the Castellum for Tuesday to Friday, and it occurred to me that I might as well use the room on the Tuesday, as we were paying for it, and Neil would miss out on the included dinner (and bar). For me to be there when he arrived, rather than the day after as originally planned, meant I had to go to Rhodes on the Monday. Here, I had a choice of boats: the very early morning Blue Star, or the 16.20 Spanos. I thought, ‘Hang the expense,’ and bought a Spanos ticket to avoid a 4.00 am start.
And then we had a storm.
That photo isn’t of the storm, just the winter weather, but because of very high winds, the boats got messed up and it turned out the Spanos was put back to 17.30, but the Blue Star had been put back to 14.15 (later changed to 14.45, and eventually came in around 15.00). I decided to switch ships and go earlier in the afternoon. It was only an additional cost of €5.50 what with my discount card. I could have exchanged the Spanos ticket, but never got around to it, and I’ll get some of my €5.50 back from the government’s M.A.N. scheme, so… whatever.
However, I decided to keep the Monday accommodation cheap to save money, and so, booked into a place called Marnin Apartments, which is not far from the Plaza, off the pedestrian street, and cost me only €25.00 a night. This was for a single room (bring your own towel) with not many mod cons – it’s more of a backpacker’s hostel type thing, but clean, safe, and handy for the new town.
This was my room, where the view from the bed was interesting, and the view from the loo was too.
Bear in mind that by booking the Castellum through its own site cost me €57.00 per night. Now bear in mind my cheap night elsewhere. €25.00 for the room, €20.00 for dinner, €12.00 the next morning for breakfast at the Plaza, which also comes to €57.00 but without any entertainment bill, like a couple of glasses of wine. I might as well have gone straight to Castellum, but if you want somewhere cheap to crash for a night to or from the airport, then look up Marnin Apartments.
As I write this on Sunday, ready for Monday, we’re under a huge raincloud. Rhodes has been flooded in places, roads have been washed away, and the airport was closed for some time. Maybe it still is. We left on Friday in t-shirt weather, but it changed dramatically on Saturday. The weather is forecast to be very wet and somewhat wild all week, so if you are heading this way, check before you set off. I’ll be back tomorrow with more tittle-tattle about our recent adventures in Rhodes which included clothes and Christmas shopping, some medical checkups (because at €40.00 for a consultation you might as well), and plenty of eating, drinking, playing crib, and walking.