A few more jam packed days so I'm going to see if I can get through the rest of our Greece trip in this post. Yesterday's post was about old town. This is just a small part of what Rhodes had to offer.

Day 3 started off with us picking up a rental car. We got a little Opel with a broken sideview mirror (the little rental company seemed pissed at the birds for breaking mirrors). Hopped into the car and headed out to explore western Rhodes.

Our first stop was Filerimos. This is a giant cross that was put in by the Italians on a hill next to a small peaceful chapel. The entire area was filled with peacocks and peahens and little pea babies.

We didn't stay here long nor visit the monastery (goal was to skip the peak heat for the next destination). Our next destination was the butterfly valley. We were visiting a little late in the season so a lot of the butterflies were laying eggs versus fluttering around. However, we still got to see a bunch as we walked through these valleys. It was hot even in late September and we were burning as we did this walk. That explains the exhausted picture here. Once we got to the end of the upper valley, just for fun, we climbed up to another monastery. No regrets, it was one of the quietest places I have ever seen.

And that was half our day. I have a fond childhood memory of drinking lots of banta when I visited Delhi as a kid. Its a street lemon soda that has a marble in the top. It was the only way to stay cool in the sweltering weather. My Rhodes version of this was drinking loads of fresh orange juice. It was readily available and essential to our survival.

By now we were starving, and so drove by Ancient Kameiros and Kritinia castle to Monolithos in the hope of finding some food. It was around 3pm in this remotish town and so we had one restaurant option. We stuffed up on a bunch of Mezze before heading to Fourni beach to cool off. That’s a picture of my bag cooling off on the beach.

Before getting back on the road, we stopped at a local seller on the side of the road. Here we tried a Rhodes protein bar made of sesame seeds and honey. They totally reminded me of chikki in India that I love! Must try if you are ever in Rhodes.

It was now time to go back up the coast. On the drive, we paused to see Kritinia castle. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to Ancient Kameiros, they were shutting down so we decided to give it a skip. We headed back to old town for some more delicious food before conking off for the night. Pita, dips, kleftikos and calamari stuffed with feta!

Turns out I couldn't fit all of the rest of Rhodes into one post. My next post will be the last chapter in this Greek Odyssey before I move on to the next adventure!