Entries about greece

Today started out a bit slower. I enjoyed a peaceful breakfast before Roger finally rolled out of bed and we ended up going ashore and leaving Tracy sleeping. The port at Rhodes is right by the old town. There was one other ship before us and by mid day there were five ships in port. Many people took tours or went to beaches. We walked across into the old town and Roger enjoyed an espresso and we got free Internet. We watched the town slowly come to life as hoards of tourists funneled through the gates. We checked back just before 10:30 and Tracy was still passed out so we went exploring, up one lane and down another. Rhodes is very different from Mykonos, more rustic and many places in terrible disrepair. Things are not the same box shape and the buildings are not all whitewashed. The town has been taken over by so many groups it has a huge mix of cultures represented. First Roman and Byzantine, conquered by the Knights of St. John, followed by Italians and Ottomans.
We came upon a grandmother sitting outside her place with her brand new little granddaughter, she was very proud to show her off. Further on we followed a tunnel that led to the moat and we wandered along there. We then followed a dog through another smaller tunnel and ended up...well inside somewhere. We continued on and eventually came to the moat again with a field of cannon balls of various sizes. Up a set of stairs we again entered the old town and began to make our way down towards the more touristy area. We saw a cool WWII vintage motorcycle with the rifle holster, saddlebags, and all as well as various other unusual vehicles.
The dog left us at this point and we began to see little shops including one selling doughnuts through her front window. We came to a little shop that caught my eye. The lady who owned it came from Paris and was selling hand crafted glass jewelry and olive woodcarvings.
We crossed paths with Joyce who was looking at the leather products and Doris who was checking out some textiles. We stopped at the wifi cafe and Roger ordered a big beer and I had a glass of wine. The beer glass was at least a foot tall and shaped like a naked women's torso. There must have been a litre of beer in there. Needless to say Roger drank it and was pretty useless the rest of the day.
Back on board we found Tracy at the trivia where she and a couple from Wales had won the game. We met up with Charlotte for a game of scrabble and 'Are you smarter than an activity director'. Tracy took the scrabble game and then she and Roger left for their dance rehearsal and my team of Len and Millie from our Ephesus tour and Marylou from the cruise critic group took the trivia. We nailed it with 26 out of 27. Jonathan and Mel of the activity staff got only 11 and the other teams were just behind us.
Tonight's dinner was great, Paolo had another trick for us and Adrian gave Tracy a pin of Peru's flag. Tonight will be some dance a game of cards and a good sleep.
We had not realized that Charlotte's husband is on the ship as well. He works in the Blu restaurant. They don't see much of each other, as their hours don't mesh too well.

Happy Birthday Robin. Face book and text messages have been sent and Robin was wished a great birthday. I was going to say wish we were there, but the better choice would be, wish you were here.
Charlotte had given us Priority Tender passes so we got ourselves ready and we were the first ones on the first tender. Another ship arrived later and docked. To dock means a bus ride into town. I prefer the tender. We had wandered through the town as it was coming awake and found a beach and were in the water by 9am. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves the whole morning. Clothing optional beach as it turns out. We started wandering back and mad a stop at Nick's taverna for pop and espresso before wandering again. There are some old windmills on the point and we wandered into one. It stunk!!!! It was full of feathers; dead birds, eggs and when you walked up the stairs you met the birds and local cats. There are cats everywhere and many of them look terribly unwell.
The roads/lanes are various widths and pedestrians share the road with, bikes, something like a golf cart and cars. You just step to the side and let them pass. One car almost took the cloths off a window display as it squeezed by. One lane was so narrow I had to take off my backpack to get through.
The Island is only 33 square miles and the population is only 5,000 that swell with tourists who are there for the beaches and nightlife.
We did not meet him, but the town mascot is a pelican named Petro II, Pertos I was struck by a car some ten tears ago.
The houses are box like which is a little unusual for the Islands. The maze of streets is pretty standard as they were built this way to confuse attacking pirates. Villagers, who knew the town could lead the pirates into an ambush. While searching for the 'Chinese' store to look for some pants that the server at the taverna was wearing we stumbled into a little jewelry shop where we made a small purchase.
Finding our way back to the tender we had our usual salad and headed to trivia, as the seniors were nowhere to be found. We won the first game, but really there was only the three of us playing, although our score was pretty good. Did you know Thomas Jefferson was the first president to sit on a toilet in the Whitehouse? The second game was a tie and we had to have three tiebreakers to pull into first place. Jonathan from Mexico was our activity staff member. He speaks five languages, but he still has to work some as his dad spoke nine.
Turns out Joyce and Doris braved the tenders and had wandered through the stores at the port and arrived back a little later ready for a drink. I love that the Celebrity meets you at the dock with couches, tents, cold towels and a cold drink before you board. Ahhhh...I also love the looks from envious passengers on other cruise lines.
We caught the show Remix, it was good, some numbers were not very tight but this group is on a new contract and it will tighten up. The tapping was better than the other night. I was tired and drifted through some of it.
We moved to the entertainment court so that we could get seats for Joyce and Doris for the Dancing with the Stripes. Charlotte came over and already had our names down for the competition. We owed her for the tender tickets so we agreed. Roger ended up with a wonderfully talented young women, I got Boris and Tracy got the head chef. I danced off against Tracy and they did lifts and dirty dancing so there was no competition ... Tracy and the chef moved onto the next round. In Roger's group the couple that beat them went on to win the whole thing. It was wild and fun and some times it was even dance. Each group got three dances chosen randomly. There was cha cha, ballet, interpretive, bollywood, and so on, the final dance off was a merenge.
Tonight sitting on the veranda writing this it is hotter than last night and muggy. Time for sleep.