Bermudian Robyn Skinner is on the road seeing the sights of Europe, sometimes enjoying a bit of luxury — a Starbuck's coffee. Here she reports from Greece, where she was delighted to find Lindos!

Next Stop: Rhodes Town, Rhodes, Greece.

After an overnight ferry ride from Athens to the main town of the Island of Rhodes we were zombies and praying that we could just crash in our hotel room. When we arrived at the hotel we were initially overjoyed to hear we could, well that was until we realised they were completely gutting the room next door! I couldn't stand the thought of more noise (after being forced to listen to blaring Greek television all night on the ferry) so we returned to reception and begged for a quiet room.

The receptionist was helpful, but we would have to wait until after 12 noon for the room. No problem because there was a Starbucks across the road (yes sometimes on the road you have to cave in and indulge in creature comforts and this met my caffeine fix!).

Since I was now fully caffeinated and couldn't crash even after the harrowing ferry ride, we decided to press on and investigate what Rhodes Town had to offer. This Island capital is actually three towns (or that's what the brochure says) split into modern, ancient and mediaeval.

The modern area is one of buildings from the 20th century while the ancient includes the temples of Zeus, Athena Poliados and Apollo, stadium, gymnasium and theatre that dates from 408 B.C. The mediaeval town, with its high walls and moat was constructed by the Knights of St. John. It is enormous and dominates Rhodes Town. Unfortunately, the tourist season had not entered full swing so all of the shops that fill the mediaeval town were closed. After wandering around trying to find any signs of life we gave up and decided to hike up the hill to the ancient city.

All we could find left of the city were a few columns that a sign claimed were part of the temple of Apollo. Not exactly sure where the other parts of the city were but we searched high and low with no luck. What we were able to find was an amazing view of the coastline though and a dramatic sunset.

There was also a great view of the Turkish coastline which we would soon be conquering. In fact Rhodes was Turkish until 1912 when it was taken by the Italians, then by the Germans until the end of the Second World War when Rhodes was finally incorporated into Greece in March 1947. This recent inclusion might make you think there would be some other cultural influences, but it is most definitely a Greek island!

On our walk back to the modern part of town (where we were staying and where restaurants and shops were open) I popped into a health food store on the off chance I might actually find some gluten-free food. As a side note to celiacs (those who are allergic to wheat, rye, oats, barley and malt) out there: Gluten-free food is now widely available in Europe. I have been amazed at what I have been able to buy even in Italy the bastion of pasta and pizza.

In most supermarkets I can usually find at least crackers and cookies if not an entire aisles full of gluten free food and at this organic store I was again in luck. Gluten-free cereal!!! Perhaps only celiacs will understand the excitement this can instill but imagine being unable to eat most breakfasts for months on end and when packing lunches eating just meat and cheese!

Anyway, enough of that. Town was quiet so after eating our dinner of Greek salad, meat and French fries we headed home. The next day we decided to rent a car to drive to the other end of the Island.

Driving in Rhodes proved far calmer than on mainland Greece (maybe it's that Island thing) and we made it to Lindos (no not the grocery store though I thoroughly enjoyed that joke to the annoyance of my travel buddy).

It is a beautiful town of whitewashed houses and two aqua coves that are dominated by an acropolis which looks more like a castle. We almost missed this because it closes at 2 p.m. but luckily there was a nice guard who let us run to the top for five minutes before he had to close up. The view of the clear blue water and the green countryside was spectacular.

It was too cold to swim and again most of the shops were closed so we decided to drive to the Valley of the Butterflies which is another, apparently, must-see of Rhodes.

It is a beautiful valley and we enjoyed the hike, but there was not a butterfly in sight. I swear every country has one of these valleys to attract gullible tourists like us. It was getting late so we decided to head back to the capital with a quick stop at the top of Filerimos hill with its 15th century monastery to watch the sunset.

It was too late to see the monastery, but from the massive cross at the top of the hill we watched the sun descend. Heading back to the car was like a scene from a Hitchcock film: me, my travel buddy, pitch black night, scrub trees, an abandoned dog, stray cats and then suddenly a loud screeching in the trees above us.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, but my brave travel buddy armed with his trusty camera lit-up the trees with his flash. No monsters there just some peacocks perched in the trees! Before this could turn into a horror film (Attack of the Killer Peacocks) we zipped back to Rhodes Town to grab some dinner and prepare for the ferry to Turkey the next day.

The trip, which is supposed to be only about an hour (I mean you can see Turkey from Rhodes) cost a small fortune almost as much as the two day trip from Venice to Patras, Greece, so we figured we would have just as luxurious a ride. No such luck. What greeted us was a rusting hulk, slightly bigger than a fishing boat. Surprisingly the ride was comfortable, but took three and a half hours rather than the one hour promised by all of the travel agents.

Arriving in Turkey by water is just about the best way to get there. The coastline is absolutely stunning with steep mountains descending into crystal clear blue water and inlet after inlet just waiting for harried westerners to get lost in. As we crossed the watery border, flags of different colours were raised on our boat (so hopefully the Turkish military wouldn't sink us) and we arrived in Marmaris.

Entrance to this land of Ottoman sultans, harems and modern Islam requires a visa, which amounts to little more than a landing fee. For me, with British passport in hand, it was only ten pounds paid at the dock, while my Canadian travel buddy cost us almost $100.

This was a reunion of sorts for me because about six years ago I taught English in Istanbul, the capital of Turkey, for about five months and traveled around the country for about two and half weeks. It was great to be back in this predominately Muslim country that straddles both Europe and Asia, but is desperately pushing more towards their European neighbours than perhaps their Asian.

Marmaris is a tourist Mecca with large hotels looming over its beach and a harbour that draws cruise ships and abundant sail boat tourism. We were just going to stay for two days to use it as a base to explore the surrounding area, but more administration got the better of us and we ended up staying for four days.

The first two days was in a pension that had the fattest cat I have ever seen in my life. It could barely walk! Unfortunately, that was the highlight of this place for which we were paying 50 Turkish lira (TLR). We were just happy not to be paying Euros so we didn't realise how much we were being ripped off by the elderly couple running the pension.

Fifty TLR amounts to about $31 which doesn't seem like much, but for the next two nights in Marmaris we found a nice hotel for 40 TLR that also included a Turkish breakfast of tomatoes, cucumbers, a boiled egg, bread, jam and honey! Oh well, I guess we helped with their retirement fund.

After handling our admin we rented a car for two days to get out of Marmaris, which, if we had been there during the height of summer, would have been a massive party town and probably would have been fun to lounge on the beach and hang-out at the bars. However, with not much happening we chose to wake up early and tackle the nearby Hisaronu Peninsula, which is dotted with fishing villages and pine forests. It was a beautiful drive stopping in these tiny little villages where cattle outnumber people and bee-keeping is a way of life.

The circuit is about 120 km and not a single gas station can be found the entire way! Despite numerous warnings to my travel buddy before we left Marmaris he decided it would be more fun to see how far we could get on 15TLR of gas (that amounts to about five litres). Needless to say the last 50 km of the trip was made by coasting down hills, running on fumes and me steaming in the passenger seat. He thought it was all good fun and I thought how much fun it would be to kick him out of the car (I couldn't drive stick shift though so I guess I had to keep him).

We still had the car the next day so we set-off to find the ruins of the ancient, industrious port city of Knidos which dates from 400 B.C. However, on the way to Knidos my travel buddy decided he was sick of doing all the driving and he was going to teach me how to drive stick shift in the windy, mountainous roads of Turkey (which also by the way are notorious for their accidents!).

Most people learn in a parking lot or maybe a field. No, I was forced to figure out shifting, the clutch and which gear I was supposed to use as I tried to also navigate roads not much wider than Tribe roads in Bermuda, but have massive tourist buses tearing around corners. Thank goodness I was a quick learner even though I screamed when cars came by and the steep descents that made the road look like it would throw us into a valley. If I didn't have a heart attack the day before my travel buddy was testing the limits of my blood vessels this day. After about half an hour of this, he eventually took over to spare both of us.

We made it, one way or another, to Knidos which is 3km of ruins on the very tippy top point of the Datca Peninsula. Me, my travel buddy and a herd of goats scrambled among the ruins, ate lunch and surveyed the scene that (much like Bermuda) prospered because ships became stuck here. The currents that meet at the tip meant many times boats would have to wait for good winds before they could continue. This led to business in repairs, hospitality, trading and the establishment of Knidos.

It was at least 70 km back to Marmaris and we had to return the car by 8 p.m. so we needed to leave by at least 5p.m. What my travel buddy failed to tell me was that the gas light had already lit-up before we arrived in Knidos meaning we had gas for less than 50 km, not enough to get back. It was a quiet ride of desperation to the town of Datca where we were finally able to find a gas station where a battle over how much to put in was won by the girl nearly having a conniption.

We made it back to Marmaris safely and with plenty of petrol, but I was done for the night so after returning the car we made dinner in the hotel and turned-in to be ready for our next adventure Bodrum, Turkey.