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Covid
is pretty much in the rear view mirror here in Israel and most of Europe and we have resumed
our trips to Europe. Since we had a booked and paid for flight to
Athens (we cancelled a cruise, but the
flight remained), which was purchased at "covid prices", it would have
been expensive to
change it. So, we took advantage of it, and used it to spend 4 days in Athens, and
afterwards, 4 days in Rhodes. We have both been to Athens (more than once), but we had never spent any serious time together visiting this incredible city, so that's what we did this time. Greece is one of the poorest countries in western Europe, but there's still plenty to see in this ancient city, the "cradle of western civilzation". Below is what we saw and did.
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 the colossus of rhodes, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world |
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A FULL SIZED PICTURE |
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| While
in Athens,
we stayed at a gem of a hotel called Elia Ermou
Athens.
The
service was wonderful, and the hotel facilities are excellent, but the
best part is the location. It is right in the middle of everything,
on Ermou Street, just steps from Syntagma, and a short walk to
Monastiriki Square. Breakfast in the rooftop restaurant is a delight.
The buffet is
excellent, and the view of the Acropolis is excellent and unobstructed. |
MATT BARRETT'S SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR ATHENS GREAT SITE FOR VISITNG ATHENS |
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 THE ENTRANCE TO ELIA ERMOU |
The only negative here is the room design. The room and bathroom area are a bit cramped, and the shower area is open to the room, a definite inconvenience. I should add that we had a “family deluxe” room, so I definitely expected something larger. | ||||||
 THE ENTRANCE TO TO THE MUSEUM |
The
most important attraction in Athens is the Acropolis,
a
remnant of ancient Greek culture from 3000 years ago. You can see it
from just about everywhere in Athens, and is the most iconic symbol of
the city. We had been up to visit the Acropolis a few years ago, so
this time we decided to only visit the Acropolis
Museum, which is relatively new. |
 THE ACROPOLIS AT NIGHT |
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| This
was a disappointing museum. It’s a beautiful building, but rather
“soulless”. First off, the building is confusing getting from floor to
floor, and the exhibits were all just a collection of stones and
statues and statue fragments. I understand that that’s the main
attraction in what is an archaeological museum, but there was nothing
about the life at the time, and apparently, no humans were involved in
the building or the running of the Acropolis. |
 IN THE ACROPOLIS MUSEUM |
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 ON THE MUSEUM'S THIRD FLOOR |
The best part of the museum visit is the film presentation on the third floor, and I recommend to any visitors to start on the third floor and work their way down from there, after viewing the film. However, even the film presentation had its drawbacks. I knew it was there, but there were no signs or indications anywhere in the museum that it even existed. Also, it is not in its own enclosed space, and very nearby there were groups milling about with their guides explaining things at full volume. It made listening to the film narration very difficult. | ||||||
 EXHIBIT AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM |
We also
visited the Jewish
Museum of Athens, and found it to be far more alive and interesting
than the Acropolis Museum. It
was a delight to visit. It’s small, and compact, but very well designed
and we enjoyed our visit very much. There were exhibits about Jewish
life in Greece throughout history. An hour is enough, and we thoroughly
enjoyed our hour. |
 STAIRWELL AT THE JEWISH MUSEUM |
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 THE REMAINS OF HADRIANS LIBRARY |
We
took a free walking tour of central Athens with “Athens Free
Tours”.
For those not familiar with the format, the tour is free, and at the
end you pay whatever you think it was worth. Our guide was Eleni, who
was very informative and whose English was very American, as she had
spent much of her early life in the states. We had about 18 people in
the group (half from Australia), and we spent about 3.5 hours touring
central Athens. |
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| THIS IS A PICTURE I TOOK IN 2000  ALISA WITH ONE OF THE PARLIAMENTARY GUARDS |
On the tour, we visited Syntagma, the Panathenaic Stadium and complex, the Parliament with its famous guards, the National Gardens, the famous statue of General Karaiskakis, and a good deal of time in Plaka, and the various archeological sites there. To the right is a picture of one of the buildings of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. It's called "The Academy", and is an impressive neoclassical building with an interesting array of statues on the upper front facade. In the right foreground of the picture is our guide Eleni, explaining about the entire complex. I highly recommend this tour. |  THE "ACADEMY" WITH OUR GUIDE ELENA IN THE FOREGROUND |
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| As I noted above, our hotel was located right on Ermou Street, one of the longest and straightest streets in Athens. It is a direct connection between two of the main squares of Athens – Syntagma and Monastiriki squares. A large part of it is pedestrian only and it is the main upscale shopping street of Athens. It’s a must if you are in Athens for more than one day. At one end is Syntagma Square, but there's not much to do here, except walk around and look at the buildings. On the other hand (and at the other end of Ermou Street), is Monastiriki Square. | tzistarakis mosque at
monastiriki BUILT IN 1759; TODAY PART OF A MUSEUM |
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 MONASTIRIKI SQUARE |
Monastiriki
is the exact opposite of Syntagma. It's raucous, noisy, and full of
crowds and things to do. Lots to do and see here in this incredible
area - restaurants, bars, historical buildings, the flea market, the
crowds. It’s a fun place, and not to be missed, especially at night.
It's also a place to keep a tight hold on your wallet and bags. |
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To
summarize Athens, I would say that it is a city of great contrasts.
Greece in
general is one of the poorer countries of western Europe (it went
bankrupt only a few years ago in 2009), and has only recently paid off
most of its debts to the IMF. Athens reflects this situation. The city
is somewhat rundown, and it is symbolic that its main attractions
are centuries old ruins. Greece also suffered severely during the 2
years of
covid, as one of its main industries is tourism. On the brighter side, the people are friendly and upbeat, the prices are cheap, and we enjoyed our visit to Athens. |
GREECE PAYS OFf ITS DEBTS to the imf GREECE ENDS BAILOUT MONITORING GREECE SEES RENEWAL OF TOURISM |
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some quick facts about rhodes |
After our 4
days in Athens, we flew to Rhodes.
Historically,
Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders
of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has
been declared a World Heritage Site, and today, it is one of the most
popular tourist destinations in Europe. The population of Rhodes is
about 115,000 people, and it is the 4th largest of the Greek islands. |
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| The old town of Rhodes is a great place for a self-guided walk when you visit. It’s easy to get around, it's not too big, it’s full of interesting and historical places, shopping, and restaurants, and is usually very busy and full of tourists. Everybody who visits Rhodes either starts or finishes with a visit to the old town. Below are its major attractions. | |||||||
 THE PALACE OF THE GRAND MASTER |
The Palace of the Grand Master is as impressive as its
name sounds. What we
see today is mostly a restoration done in the 1930's by the Italians
who ruled the island at that time. It's been amazingly restored,
especially considering that it lay in ruins for several centuries. It
is a beautiful building, with an impressive courtyard. The second floor
is full of galleries and rooms filled with artifacts and furniture. To
the right is a knight of the order of St. John. |
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| a
short drone video of the palace comprehensive 11 minute video of a palace visit |
I do have a warning if you visit here. To get up to the second floor, there is a looong staircase. The staircase is wide, but it has no handrail at all. Considering the advanced age of many of the visitors here, this seems to be a real safety issue. I went up alone, as Alisa decided to remain on the ground floor. She wasn’t alone waiting on the ground floor. |  SCARY STAIRCASE |
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more about the street of the knights |
The Street of the Knights
is one of the main attractions in the old town and is a must for all
tours. It’s one of the best-preserved medieval streets in Europe. It’s
interesting, but also a bit frustrating. It’s basically a long row of
closed buildings which used to house the various contingents of
knights. Only a few of the buildings had signs describing what used to
be inside. |
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| There was no real information to see or read. It was somehow fascinating, but it was empty except for the tourists, and I couldn’t quite envision knights on their horses galloping down the street. I understand from my research that some of the Inns are open to visitors at certain hours, but while we were there (on a sunny Tuesday morning in September), the entire street was shut as tight as a drum. |  STREET OF THE KNIGHTS |
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 HIPPOCRATES SQUARE |
Hippocrates Square is the main square of Rhodes old town. It’s full of stores and restaurants. It’s also close to several popular attractions. The main road running through the old town is Sokratous Road, and it leads right to this square. At the other end of the road is the Suleymaniye Mosque, built in the 16th century by the ruling Ottomans, and which is today one of the major landmarks of the city. |  SHOPPING in the old town |
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 KAHAL SHALOM SYNAGOGUE |
Just beyond Hippocrates Square is the Jewish quarter, where you can find a beautifully restored synagogue (The Kahal Shalom Synagogue), a Jewish museum, and Jewish Martyrs Square. We did not enter the synagogue, and therefore didn't take any pictures. However I know it is a beautifully restored synagogue, and am posting a couple of pictures donated by new friends we met right outside the synagogue. |  KAHAL SHALOM SYNAGOGUE |
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self guided tour of mandraki harbor by gpsmycity dock of the bay otis reading |
There's plenty to see outside of the old town as well. We spent
several hours at Mandraki Harbour,
the assumed location of the Colossus of Rhodes. We sat on a bench just
watched the tourists, the hawkers, the boats, their skippers, and the
sales people who kept trying to get us get us on to one of their boats.
It was all very idyllic, and it turned out to be one of the highlights
of our visit to Rhodes. It reminded me of one of my favorite songs - "The Dock of the Bay", by Otis Reading. Link to the left. |
 BOAT RIDES FROM MANDRAKI HARBOUR |
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 MANDRAKI HARBOUR |
As for the Collosus of Rhodes,
don't look for it as it's not there. The Colossus was a gigantic
33-metre-high bronze statue of the sun god Helios which presumably
stood guarding the harbour of Rhodes in the 3rd century BCE. At that time,
Rhodes was one of the most important trading ports in the ancient
Mediterranean and the statue was considered one of the Seven Wonders of
the Ancient World. However, it's exact location is still a point of
debate. |
more on the collosus of rhodes national geographic on the collosus of rhodes |
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 TASTING OLIVE OIL |
We booked a private driving
tour of Rhodes with Rhodes Private Tours.
We spent the day with our driver and guide Michael, who was an
excellent driver and extremely informative guide. The car was clean and
comfortable.
We visited the usual tourist stops including a pottery factory, an olive oil producer and the Anastasia Triantafillou Winery. However, the highlight of the tour was the visit to Lindos, with the beautiful views of St. Paul’s Bay. It was an enjoyable day. Booking was easy, and our email correspondence was always prompt and helpful. Some more details below. |
 IN THE CERAMICS FACTORY |
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 A CURIOUS ROADSIDE WINE BAR |
Lindos
is the second most popular place to visit on Rhodes Island. It’s a
small village with a warren of alleys and narrow streets which are full
of shops, restaurants and tourists. It might not be everybody’s cup of
tea because of the crowds. It’s very commercial, and very popular with
the cruise ship tours. It’s also clean and neat, and very well
organized. We enjoyed it and found some interesting items to buy and
bring home. |
 ALISA AND ANASTASIA TASTING WINE |
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 look closely and you can see hikers on their way up to the acropolis |
As for St. Paul’s Bay,
it is located right next to the village of Lindos. We viewed it from
above and were impressed by the beauty of this bay. It’s absolutely
beautiful, and there’s not much else to say. There's also an acropolis
at Lindos. The Lindos Acropolis is (so we were told) the second most
popular archeological site to visit in Greece after the acropolis in
Athens. It’s very impressive from below, but it's a long slog to get up
to the top. We decided not to take the walk up, and merely viewed it
from ground level. It’s a lovely sight! |
 ST. PAUL'S BAY |
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| The
winery we visited (Anastasia Triantafillou), was a pleasant diversion. The
winery offers refreshments and food and of course, wine tasting. We
were hosted by the chief winemaker, Anastasia. |
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| ELLA Ella was the first restaurant
we ate at during this visit to Athens. It was literally steps
from the entrance of our hotel. We ordered 4 appetizers, and we enjoyed
them all. They were calamari, octopus, shrimp balls, and marinated
sardines. They were all good sized and we didn’t need anything else.
The best dish was the shrimp balls, which were delicious.
Summary: This is a nice restaurant for modern local cuisine. Would return. |
 SHRIMP BALLS |
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 MY ONLY MOUSSAKA |
ACROPOL Acropol
is a restaurant located
in the heart of Plaka, and we ate lunch here at the end of our walking
tour of Athens. We had shrimp and moussaka here for lunch. The moussaka
at Acropol was the only moussaka I had during the entire trip, and it
was pretty good. The service
was slow, but friendly, and the food was tasty and we enjoyed our lunch
here.
Summary: A decent place to eat if you have nowhere better to go. |
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| STROFI Strofi is located right near the Acropolis, and the view from the rooftop dining area is almost on top of the Acropolis. Too bad that the food and the service were only half as good as the view. The service was sketchy at best, and the food was OK, but nothing special. Also, there are 2 flights of stairs to get up to the rooftop. We had a salad, sea bream, and sea bass in grape leaves. As I said, everything was good, but nothing beyond that. Summary: The food was OK, but I wouldn't go back for seconds. |
 THE BEST PART OF STROFI THE VIEW! |
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 FRIED ZUCCHINI BALLS |
KAFENEIO ORAIA
ELLAS This restaurant is located on a
little square full or restaurants just
outside of Monastiriki Square. It’s one of those restaurants that look
like all the others, but the food was great and had we more time to
spend in Athens, we would have returned for another meal. The food is
classic Greek, and the service was more than friendly. We became pals
with the floor manager, Constantino (who looks just like Bruce Willis), and
we chatted quite a bit. He told us we could stay and sit there as long as we
wanted and we spent about 3 hours there, watching the world go by.
We had a giant salad, fried zucchini balls, and several glasses of ouzo
and tsipouro.
Summary: Had fun here.
Constantino runs the place well. Would happily return. |
 ME WITH CONSTANTINO; A BRUCE WILLIS LOOK=ALIKE |
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 DINING IN THE GARDEN |
2MAZI We were told that “mazi” in Greek means together, and refers to the 2 partners who opened and run the restaurant. We think that it should stand for aMAZIng, because that’s what the food was here – absolutely amazing and a total surprise. I had read that this was a good restaurant, but the food here was absolutely Michelin star quality. |
 PORK TENDERLOIN |
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 SMOKED TUNA TARTARE |
We were
there for lunch, and the place was nearly empty, so we had the
opportunity to chat with the entire staff, Arda (hope I got the name
right), our waitress and sommelier, Leo, apparently a partner and/or
manager, and best of all, chef Dimitrius. Beyond just the
enjoyment of
the dishes, we had a great time at this restaurant. We sat outside in a
lovely shaded garden. The dishes we had included smoked tuna tartare, a delicious egg-lemon fish soup, and incredible pork tenderloin. We washed it down with a bottle of Greek chardonnay. We even ordered and enjoyed dessert. Everything was fabulous. Summary: Amazingly good. Michelin star quality. Want to return! |
 ALISA WITH CHEF DIMITRIUS |
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| CTC URBAN GASTRONOMY
(1 Michelin star) CTC was as good as expected, with an incredible tasting menu, and a very lovely garden setting. The service was impeccable, and the dish presentations were incredible. With a 10-course tasting menu, I can’t describe all the dishes, so I'll just describe the most outstanding. Our favorites were the corn soup with lobster and truffle foam, and the calamari pesto. The only disappointing dish was dessert, which seemed a bit contrived. As we left the restaurant to get into our taxi, we were given 2 printed menus of our culinary experience. Click on the thumbnail to the right to see the full sized menu in PDF format. There were also additional dishes not listed on the menu. Summary: a wonderful and bargain priced Michelin star restaurant experience. |
 the ctc journey tasting menu open in adobe acrobat. |
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 ANOTHER RESTAURANT WITH A GARDEN DINING AREA |
WONDER Wonder was a bit of a wonder.
It was a short walk from our hotel in Rhodes, and I picked it for our
first dinner in Rhodes. I wondered about the name, and I wondered about
the menu. Our dinner was good, but not quite wonderful.
The menu was unexpected. From the online descriptions, I expected mostly fish and seafood. It wasn’t quite that way, but the food was tasty, and unusual, and the setting was a very pleasant courtyard. The food was enjoyable, but the overall experience was underwhelming, primarilly because of the service. |
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The service was spotty at best and it took a while until a
waitress arrived at our table who understood both the menu, and the English Language.The most interesting dish we had was
deep-fried scallops with kadaif, wasabi and some sort of foam. I have
never
been a fan of deep-fried scallops, but this dish was quite good. We
also enjoyed the
house wine which was served in a Grecian amphora. Summary: Unusual menu, nice setting, mostly good food, but spotty service. Don't think we would return for another meal. |
 DEEP FRIED SCALLOPS WITH KADAIF, WASABI AND FOAM |
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| PAN I
VINO
Pan&Vino is an Italian restaurant located very near our hotel in
Rhodes. We stopped in one evening for a late snack. The service was
professional and the food we ordered was tasty. If we had wanted
another Italian meal during our stay in Rhodes, we would have happily
returned to this restaurant.
Summary: Good Italian
restaurant worth visiting if you want Italian food. |
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 PESKASI |
PESKASI Peskasi was an experience. It’s
located on the western shore of Rhodes
town, and we walked there from our hotel. It wasn’t that far, but when we got to the beachfront, the
wind was so strong , that we could hardly
stay on our feet.
Fortunately, we enjoyed our dinner very much which made us forget about the windy walk. It was a lovely dinner accompanied by a beautiful sunset. |
 PESKASI SUNSET |
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 SARDINES NEXT TO GRILLED SHRIMP |
This
restaurant is well known for its seafood, and we weren’t disappointed.
We had marinated sardines, grilled shrimp, grilled halibut, and stuffed
calamari. Everything was very good, but the stuffed calamari was
unusual and exceptional.The restaurant is not fancy, but the service is super friendly, and the
seafood is probably the best in Rhodes town.
Summary: Simple and
friendly restaurant with the best seafood in Rhodes. |
 VERY TASTY STUFFED SQUID |
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delicious scallops served with beard (roe)  NOT MANY RESTAURANTS SERVE IT LIKE THIS |
ALEXIS 4 SEASONS This was probably our favorite
restaurant in Rhodes. It’s located in the old town right near
Hippocrates Square, and we had a delightful lunch here. We were the
only paying customers for lunch, and the only company we had was the
owner/manager (who was also our waiter and server) who was having lunch
with his 2 daughters. We had several chats with him during lunch.
This is primarily a fish and seafood restaurant and everything was excellent. We had oysters, scallops, and a lovely dish of seabream served with 2 grilled shrimp. The seabream was presented in a very original way. While we were dining, quite a few people came in to make dinner reservations. Summary: Excellent restaurant with great seafood. |
 SEA BREAM ACCOMPANIED BY 2 GRILLED SHRIMP |
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 EXCELLENT FRIED CALAMARI |
RONDA Ronda is a lovely beachfront restaurant, where the diners are right next to the sunbathers on Elli beach, the beach nearest to Mandraki Harbor. The restaurant is definitely doing its best to be upscale and on the elegant side, despite the laid-back seaside location. Service was far better than expected for a beachfront restaurant. It’s also huge, with many tables and a full bar area. The food was surprisingly good. I had oysters and mussels with some sort of foam. Alisa had fried calamari done perfectly. Summary: A beautiful beachfront restaurant with atmosphere and good food. |
my video at ronda |
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 MAESTRO RESTAURANT RIGHT ON THE BEACH |
MAESTRO (Ialyssos) Maestro is a simple beachfront restaurant located in the village of Iyalissos just south of Rhodes town (and very near the airport). We ate lunch here after a car tour of Rhodes Island. It was recommended by our driver and it was surprisingly good. Summary: Simple seafront restaurant with very nice food. |
 MARINATED SARDINES AND TINY FRIED SHRIMP |
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| KUBUKICANTON Kabuki is an Asian restaurant located right near our hotel in Rhodes, and we decided to eat here for the last meal of our visit there. It’s a big, beautiful restaurant, but the food and service left much to be desired. The food was OK, but the service was poor. There was lots of waiting (our waiting) and waiters who couldn’t answer even the most basic questions about the menu. Summary: Beautiful but disappointing Asian restaurant. |
 LOVELY, BUT DISAPPOINTING RESTAURANT |
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| MATT BARRETT'S GREECE GUIDES MY FAVORITE SITE FOR GREECE TOURISM INFO! |
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| DISCOVER GREECE |
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| THIS IS ATHENS |
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| GREEK LANDSCAPES |
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| VISIT GREECE |
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| SECRET GREECE |
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| LONELY PLANET - BEST DAY TRIPS FROM ATHENS |
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| RHODES GUIDE | |||||||
| GUIDE TO RHODES WINES |
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| TOURIST GUIDE TO RHODES |
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| FASCINATING 360º VIDEO OF MANDRAKI HARBOR | |||||||
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| I couldn't resist posting a couple of pictures from our trip to Athens in 2000. Below are 2 which I couldn't take on this trip, because we didn't trek up to the Acropolis. Click here to see the other one from 2000 which I posted above. Excuse the quality. These pictures were taken with an SLR, printed on paper, sat in an album for 22 years, and then recently scanned. | |||||||
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| Greek Key web set theme courtesy of Crystal Cloud Graphics. | |||||||
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This is a page from our site "Travels with Steve & Alisa". It describes one of the many trips we have made together. We've built these pages not just to describe our trips, but to help other travelers if we can. Please use the information we've provided freely, and let us know if you have any questions we might be able to answer about your own planned trip, or just let us know if we have helped you. Or perhaps you have some information we could add to the site. Visit our home page using the link to the right.
Enjoy
your next
trip!!
~Steve & Alisa~
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