The Photograph
The Story
Rhodes, Greece. November 2007. Good times.
Matt and I stepped off the ship, found a taxi with a cardboard sign reading "Allen" and buoyant under a beautiful bright sky, we sauntered over. Leaning next to an open taxi door, a balding man with glasses and a cardigan stood smoking and chatting to another driver. They both glanced up briefly as we neared them, gave a distracted greeting and went back to what must have been an engrossing conversation. When we got closer to the passenger side of the car with our name on it, the balding driver looked over a little confused, and a bit bothered at having his debate interrupted again. After some small talk we got across that we in fact were the Allen's shown on his sign. He shared a laugh with the other driver, gestured towards the disembarking cruisers filing past us, showing surprise at us being the fare. They had both assumed we were part of the ship's staff getting a break for the day because we seemed to be 30 years younger than most of the other travelers. Suddenly all smiles and excitement at having "young" people to tote around the island, he settled right in to "tour guide extraordinaire".
We told him the only must see things on our to do list were the Palace of the Grand Masters (once home to the Knights of St John), The Acropolis at Lindos, and a glimpse of the place where the Colossus of Rhodes fell. The rest we left up to him. He showed us all, from modern life to ancient relics, and their combination that makes a Rodos he was proud of. When our time with him was up, he left us in the shopping center nearest our ship, suggesting favorite tavernas & boutiques. The picture above shows the last of a blue sky before it turned to rain above the patchwork bay windows and roof tops lining the alley we took back to our floating hotel.
