Aegean
October first found us sailing past the coast of Turkey on our way to Rhodes at the far eastern end of the Aegean.
There, we encountered historical traces left on the landscape by ancient Greeks and Romans, the Knights Templar, and even the Italians who occupied the island in the early 20th century.
Local Trekking Hellas reps collected us in Rhodes City and transported us to Embonas, there to begin our Trekking Rhodes excursion. We learned that Embonas is known far and wide for its wonderful food and local wine.
On Akramitis, we could see the full extent of the outer Aegean—east to Cyprus, west to the Aegean islands and Greece, southwest to Karpathos and Crete.
In Lindos, we saw our first white Cycladic town absolutely mobbed with tourists.
We finished our stay in Rhodos with three nights at a house in Kritika, a suburb of Rhodes City settled 100 years ago by Muslim refugees from Crete.
We explored the modern city (H&M in Rhodes City is a great place restock a wardrobe!) and watched The Guns of Navarone, now that we could appreciate the geography of eastern Rhodos. We even drove the entire circumference of the island in our rental car just so we could revisit our beloved southwestern region.
From Rhodes, we took a ferry back to Athens and then another one south to Santorini, where we explored the volcanic landscape. Verdict: geography amazing, culture awful, traffic likely impossible and impassible in August.
And that was the eastern Aegean. It was mid-October—time for our last stage: Crete.