The home page tells me that it was 23 March when I last signed on. This was not from any disillusion with the Chat Page but for one welcome reason (that I've had two 3-week holidays - 5 of those weeks on Symi) and one unwelcome (that for essentially all the rest of the time until last weekend I've been down with one fluey virus or another).
Earlier in the year I booked a 1-week holiday in Cyprus over Easter, where we would be studying the spring flowers under the guidance of a professional botanist. Going to that end of the Med just for a week seemed rather a waste, so as soon as I discovered that there were flights between Rhodes and Larnaca the solution was obvious. Accordingly on 26 March I was on the Proteus coming into Yialos the harbour looking very different out of season with the tourist shops all shuttered and a total absence of yachts!
Apart from the fact that there was a flu virus going round the island, which I promptly picked up and which laid me low for 5 days out of my 10-day stay, I found Symi very pleasant indeed at that time of year. I intend to go back! Temperatures were tolerable to excellent: hot in the sun when the sun was shining (I had many beers outside at the Rainbow, where the sun penetrated through the then leafless vine, as well as elsewhere), otherwise thin sweater plus anorak during the day, thick sweater plus anorak during the evening (and eating of course in the evenings always indoors). I had packed shorts but never wore them. OK, it did rain, though in the event no more than it did during my subsequent May-June visit. I was not used to Symi being such a green island, with so many flowers even on the Kalistrata and the other streets and alleys of the town. Cyclamen were still in flower everywhere, though they were starting to wilt by the end of my stay. Walking outside the town would have been very pleasant, though in the event I concentrated on the town itself for the first few days, after which the flu caught up with me and left me too weak to do any serious walking thereafter.
I stayed at Taxiarchis which of course in principle is open all winter. Frank gave me an upstairs studio whose balcony gave a view down to Pedi and caught the sun until lunchtime (thereby also allowing me to dry my washing), and with the doorway at the opposite end where the sun shone from mid-afternoon. The air conditioning, operating in heating mode, was very welcome if not essential both first thing in the morning and in the evening!
Of the bars, in Chorio both the Rainbow and Bulmas were of course open, as were also the ones patronised by the local youth. In the harbour there was a sufficiency of bars open, though probably only 30-50% of the summer total. Pat opened at the beginning of April (though not in the evenings when there would have been hardly any customers). Jean opened on 3 April, 2 nights before I left.
Restaurants too were sufficient but limited. In Chorio, Syllogos was open when I arrived; Giorgo's was having some internal refurbishment but re-opened during my second week. I didn't get as far as Haritomeni, which I have been told opens weekends only throughout the winter. Zoe's and the others remained closed. Because of the flu I got down to Yialos in the evening only once, and ate at Meraklis. Of my other favourites it looked as though Dimitri's was open, and Trata opened, again in my second week. I met Michael in the town(of Michael and Lucy's at Pedi where I often have lunch), and he told me they too were open. Unfortunately because of the flu I didn't get down there.
On 5 April (Maundy Thursday) I returned to Rhodes ready for the following day's flight to Cyprus.