Kalymnos Trip 1

Wednesday October 17th dawned bright and clear. In fact the same could be said of the next four mornings. It was the last string of really settled weather of the 2012 summer for the Dodecanese islands. It has been a much longer and a much hotter summer than for many, many years. Usually, by this time, we'll have experienced the first couple of storms of the winter but, apart from a few isolated episodes in parts of the island of Rhodes, there'd been nothing to write home about. Nothing to write a post about either!

Still, one thing about the good weather was that we could plan a short break on another island, safe in the knowledge that we'd be able to get out and about and wouldn't find ourselves taking shelter from the rain in inadequate clothing, something that we've done all too often during late holidays to Greece in times past. How often during the seven years that we've now lived out here have we promised ourselves a bit of island-hopping. Well this time we decided to stop promising ourselves and actually do it. Come the beginning of the month of October we were busily Googling away to find an appropriate and modest little room somewhere near or on the harbour at Kalymnos, our chosen destination for this little expedition.

The main village, or town, where the harbour is located and all the main action goes on, is called Pothia and it's a delight. Having boarded the bustling Dodekanisos Express, specifically the vessel called Dodekanisos Pride, just seconds before her departure time of 8.30am on Wednesday morning, October 17th, we stepped off right on time at Pothia harbour at a minute or two before 12 noon in sweltering sunshine. We'd found a small hotel right on the seafront, called the Hotel Therme, and it was visible as we disembarked. Just a few minutes walk took us to the hotel's entrance, which turned out to be a glass door between a small souvenir store and a café. The reception area was on the first floor. As we approached the door from the seafront, a stocky man of average height and probably in his sixties, who was sitting in the café at the table right beside the hotel's entrance, rose to his feet and followed us up the stairs to the reception area. Once we'd arrived at the modest little reception desk, the man, who turned out to be the hotel's proprietor, Kyr. Mihael Kariotis, warmly shook our hands and declared with some pride, "You are Mr. John Manuel!" A fact which he'd remembered from our telephone conversation a couple of days previously.

Having replied in the affirmative, along with a return of his smile, I reminded him that we'd asked for one of the only six rooms which had a harbour view.  

"Of course!" Mr. Kariotis replied, handing me the key to room 17, which was up a further two flights of winding stairs. Staying here, it soon became evident that we'd not go short of some good, healthy exercise. I have to say at this point, that the room was very compact. The photographs on the hotel's website don't show the room in which we stayed. But, once we'd become used to the modest proportions of our home for the next four nights, we soon came to appreciate the fact that he'd given us probably the best view from the most private balcony that the establishment possessed. Small it may have been, but clean and tidy it was too. Plenty of soft white towels were placed across the bed and - what a bonus!!! - I didn't have to find a pin to unblock all the limescale from the showerhead, which never failed to stream with piping hot water.

Out on the balcony I couldn't wait to snap my first couple of shots to show our magnificent view. before we both crashed out and slept for a couple of hours.

Later that evening, my wife got to do something that she hadn't had the opportunity to do for quite a few years. More about that in Kalymnos Trip 2, the next episode!! Incidentally, in the picture at the very top of this post, if you click on it for a larger view, you'll spot almost exactly in the centre of the photo a terracotta-coloured awning. That's the balcony of our room.