In a poll of two, my parents, one hundred percent of participants recommended Rhodes as a great Greek destination, with a nice mixture of beaches, history and places to eat and drink. I’m not much of a beach person but the rest sounded good so I very quickly booked a week off work and took an Easyjet flight to Diagoras airport.

I didn’t know a huge amount about the place before I got there. I quickly realised that, like Alexandria, the one thing that Rhodes is most famous for, the Colossus, is no longer there. In the place that it is rumoured to have been located are two statues of deer. This sounds odd until you realise that deer are considered to special.

Okay, that’s still odd. The story is that the deer scared the snakes away from the island. I’ve seen no mention of how deer could scare away snakes so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

The other thing that Rhodes (and other nearby islands) are sort of famous for is sponges. They made much of their original fortunes and riches by harvesting and selling the contents of the Med. I guess synthetic sponges won out eventually.

But I’m not really going to talk much about either of those things any more. Over the next few days I’m going to have a few most posts, with pictures and brief commentary about the highlights of what I saw on my week away.

• Rhodes Town
• East coast, including Lindos
• West cost, including Kamiros
• Symi, a nearby, smaller island