The Never-Ending Honeymoon...

Between our summer schedule and some plans of Simon's family in Germany, we ended up being able to go visit them over the summer, therefore having the opportunity to have our honeymoon in Europe somewhere- Since we'd be in the area.  After lots of searching, we found what we thought was exactly what we were looking for in a honeymoon, his dad booked it for us, and our excitement for our trip began to grow.  

Before we headed off on our international adventure, we spent a couple of nights in The Capital Hotel in Little Rock.  It was an awesome stay, and we both felt completely spoiled with all of the frills of the service.  My personal favorite perk, was the room service breakfast!!

After our hotel stay, our first stop was Germany- just for the evening to get over jet lag and then get back on the plane the next morning and head to our real destination GREECE; more specifically, Lindos Princess Beach on the island of Rhodes.

Upon arriving in Rhodes, we had several funny and unexpected experiences.  For one, we ended up with a hot pink rental car. 

 We also discovered that the speed limits in Rhodes are more of a suggestion than fact and upon meeting several miles of construction and being passed with honks and glares at our observance of the 30 km/h speed limit, we vowed to NOT be the stupid americans who cause the traffic jams any more during our stay.   Our hotel was amazing, just like the pictures and we were so excited to finally be there after are several days of travel

                    

We spent the first days enjoying the sun and free ice cream and cappuccinos from the beach restaurant as well as doing some island exploring. 

This is the view from our balcony.  It was really nice to be able to hear the live music or just people-watch from our balcony and not always have to be down in the middle of everything.

The weather was perfect and laying around in the sun doing nothing was super relaxing but we eventually did do some other equally fun things:  We rented a boat and explored the bay, got massages and experienced our first hammam (kinda like a sauna but different), played an excessive amount of mini golf and ate way too many desserts at the dessert buffet. 

This is us out on the boat and you can get a pretty good idea of how amazing and vast the water was.

We also did some touristy things on the island.  We hiked up to the acropolis of Lindos (the town we were in) and rode donkeys back down!! That was most definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me!!  We drove down to the port and visited "The Old Town"and on our last day, on our way to the airport, we drove all around the island of Rhodes seeing some awesome views of the Mediterranean and some cool castles.  

 This is the view from the top of the acropolis

 Here is one of the views Lindos is known for.  It's the little village at the base of the acropolis.  Who needs a tour bus, we found it all by ourselves!

 DONKEYS!!!

 We had know idea where to go on our trip to the old town.  Our goal was to see the colossus remains but all we had was a map in Greek and no concept of social traffic laws.  We weaved our way through the labyrinth-like streets and managed to see a lot of cool things despite our ignorance. 

The port and the Colossus (We finally found it) 

On the way back we went by this handmade ceramics place-one a little out of town in hopes of less touristy, more artisan items- and got some really cool hand painted ceramic bowls and platter.  I thought that was a really neat souvenir.

Every morning we woke up to gorgeous views and delicious breakfasts (that was my favorite meal of the day while we were there).  During the evenings the atmosphere would change because for dinner you had to dress up a little more.  The kids splashing and running around by the pool during the day were in bed and the whole place was much quieter.  The hotel had some entertainment shows at night but they were a little cheesy so we mostly ended up just walking around the resort down by the sea and enjoying the evening atmosphere.  

Our experience on Rhodes was definitely a good one.  The time together was much needed after the stressful months of wedding planning and school.  It was wonderful not having to think about money or food at the hotel, just lazing through the day and doing whatever we wanted.  By the time the week was up I think we were both ready to leave and get on to our next step of vacationing and continuation of our never-ending honeymoon.