We are in Rota, Spain now... but let me tell you about Rhodes, Greece where we came from about a week ago... Somehow I always seem to have duty on the first day upon pulling into port. This isn't so bad however because that isthe best day to have it in my book. You aren't allowed to leave the ship so you can get some work finished that you don't normally have time to do and work on those quals, get some extra sleep, do that dirty laundry, and by golly maybe just watch a movie. So, I didn't mind spending the first day onboard in Greece as well as now in Spain. Rhodes is a beautiful place and one of the islands of Greece. I had 2 full days there. I took a tour the first day scheduled through the MWR onboard and saw the "the Old City" theAcropolis on Mt. Philerimos, also the presumed location of the Collosus of Greece where currently there are 2 towers in a harbor, and old amphitheater and colloseum, as well as the Palace of the Grand Master. This was all very cool and old. Definitely reminded me of those old Greecian war movies..with the old walls and cobblestone streets. The tour was only the morning. That afternoon we had gyros and some divine gelato. We spent the afternoon shopping in the Old City among the winding streets. We came back to dump our stuff on the ship and the plan was to go out later.. but I fell asleep.Thank goodness I set my alarm for before quarters the next day. The second day morning I shopped some more in the Old Town. I had a crepe filled with bananas and nutella. That stuff was super popular there for some reason. I personally thought it was hilarious... It made me reminesce of 2nd grade when that was kind of cool to have a nutella sandwich at lunch. We had some superb iced coffee drinks to put a jump start to the day too. We made our way through the old section and to the new section of the city. Here we decided to conclude our shopping and hoofed it back to the shuttle bus to the ship. I bought so much stuff in Greece. We then dropped off our stuff and packed our bags to go to Lindos,Greece. We were very lucky to receive a lift from no other than the Greek Abassador to America and the American Ambassador to Greece who were rolling by in a lovely black mercedes after spending the morning with the CO of my ship. They graciously took us to the ATM on the other side of the city and set us up with a wonderful taxi driver to take us all the way to Lindoswithout getting ripped off. I was told that where I was sitting in theMercedes not even a week ago the Commander of European Naval Forces had sat as well as the Assistant Secretary of State! The first taxi driver didn't know much English and we, unfortunately didn't know much Greek. Needless tosay that 1 hr and 25 min taxi ride down the coast to the historic town of Lindos, Greece was uneventful conversationally. The landscape, however, was magnificent. It was stereotypical Greek land I guess you could say. Somevery rocky mountains and random goats crossing the road with glimpses of theMediterranean off to the side of the road. Upon arrival to Lindos we grabbed some more gyros for a late afternoon bite to eat. These were much better than the first ones for some reason. Lindos is a little town of white stucco buildings all built along the base and up the mountain where this old Acropolis structure stands. It looks like a castle and it is the highest part on the horizon. There is a little cove with beaches there too. Therewere some resorts but not obnoxious American type. More like the smallromantic type of setting. The town of Lindos had even more narrow streets than the Old Town in Rhodes. We decided not to walk to the top of the mountain so we hitched a donkey ride instead. Yes, I rode on the top of a donkey up a mountain. When we got to the top the view was very picturistic and a "Kodak Moment"... we decided to walk down the mountain since the ride up was a little sketchy. What was left of a cobblestone pathway was extremely slick due to the hundred/ thousands of years of wear so the donkeys would loose their footing along the cliff edge. After the mountain trip we headed down to the beach for some R&R. We rented some chairs and a thatched umbrella, bathroom and changing room services for 2 Euros. Pretty good deal. There were some restaurants on the sand so we got hooked up with some drinks and baclava. Divine. We finally got a rideback to the Old City from Lindos around sundown and had a wonderful taxidriver. He had good English skills and had been driving for about 22 years.He said literally all the taxi drivers knew him in Rhodes... we asked b/c he kept waving at everyone. We verified this later by asking the taxi driverto the ship if they knew "Yani"... it was funny. We ordered a "Greek platter"... which was a spread of traditional food just like we wanted...Their liquor they were known for is Ouzo and it tastes like black licorice. Its the kind that is good for about 2 sips worth and then is very strong. We concluded with more gelato...It was a wonderful time in Greece. Very beautiful... I can see why there were about 9 different cruise ships thatpulled in and out during our time in port there. Definitely recommend going... try to combine it with some other isles though. I'm in Rota, Spain now.