Rhodes, like Symi, is fairly quiet

Yesterday I made my annual pilgrimage to Rhodes Traffic Police to renew the license on our three-wheeler. This involved the usual early morning two hour ferry trip to arrive in time before the queue closes for the day. We were late leaving and thus only arrived in Rhodes a few minutes before 10. I dashed round to Mandraki only to find the office door closed and the policewoman on duty informed me that the licensing department was shut as the chap responsible is sick. I told her I had come all the way from Symi especially to do this and asked if there was anyone else who could help me. 'It's okay,' she replied, 'you have until the end of the month and he should be better next week!'

Rhodes, like Symi, is fairly quiet at this time of the year. There was not much in the shops as with three consecutive holiday long weekends supplies were depleted and it takes a while for the supply lines from the mainland to kick in again. The January sales here don't start until 28 January (this is by government decree, unlike other western countries, and is supposed to impose some kind of fairness on pricing and give all retail businesses an equal chance...) so the shops are in a sort of post Christmas limbo as they pack away the seasonal stuff for another year and tend to leave the shelves fairly empty until they are allowed to put out their sale stuff.

The weather continues unsettled with electrical storms, strong winds and rain across the country. It is expected to turn very cold towards the end of the week and strong northerly gales and plunging temperatures are forecast for the weekend. We can't really complain as it has been a very mild winter so far - the Agia Marina river that runs through my property hasn't flowed once yet!

Have a good week.

Regards,
Adriana
www.symivisitor.com