I arrived here on Friday for what is fast becoming my usual March visit: this time after a 10-day stay on Cyprus on an organised wild flower holiday, looking particularly for orchids, which are at their best around now. Flight schedules meant that I had to spend Thursday night in Athens: the morning plane got to Rhodes on time, ensuring that I made it to the harbour for the Proteus ferry at 12.00. As Adriana has pointed out, at present only the Proteus and the Dodecanese Express are running: the Dodecanese schedule is inconvenient both for the local's shopping trips and for visitors with daytime flights, as it leaves Rhodes for Symi in the morning and makes the return trip at the end of the day. Doubtless things will improve soon.
I won't attempt to repeat all the details that I gave of out-of-season Symi this time last year: if anyone has any particular questions I will do my best to answer them. The photos that I put up last year of Symi in its winter garb are still posted on my Flickr pages, if anybody wants to see them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21006318@N04/sets/
So far we've had a couple of days of fairly good weather, good enough for sitting outside during the day at least if you're wearing a jacket and find somewhere out of the wind: nearly all the cafes that are open down in the harbour, apart from Pacho's, are surrounded by plastic sheeting to keep the weather out and the heat in. Fine for the locals no doubt, but for this visitor at least it does rather spoil the view. Lots of the businesses on the north side of the harbour (including the former Pat's) now sport the smart white awnings with outward-leaning wooden supports which we were told was the traditional design.
A party was the official blessing and opening of Jenine and Tina's new cafe, The Olive Tree. This too was very well attended, almost entirely by the English. I'd taken my camera along and lots of other people were snapping away throughout the priest's invocations and prayers, so I did too. I've given priority to editing those and have posted a selection on my Flickr site (see above). There are several very familiar faces!
Finally a note on prices, which from my limited experience so far (and before any summer increase) don't look too unreasonable (at least if you think of them in Euros rather than the Sterling equivalent). My bill at Giorgo's last night a main course plus a half litre of wine came to 13 Euros, and a large Mythos at Pacho's was 2 Euros.
I'll keep you updated.