{"id":4586,"date":"2026-09-25T19:59:01","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/?p=4586"},"modified":"2026-09-25T19:59:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:59:03","slug":"old-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/2026\/09\/25\/old-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Old town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I woke up a bit earlier and headed down to breakfast while watching last night\u2019s game between the Packers and the Falcons. Even though I would have loved to just sit, eat slowly, and enjoy the meal, the game, and the warm climate, I finished in under half an hour and went back up to my room. While watching the disappointing end to the game, I published a ticket link for the Leksand Superstars away matches, and then waited for the official ticket release to secure my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One queue position per browser \ud83d\ude42<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I can see the pool from my windows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Packers lost, but at least I got my tickets! I put on sunscreen\u2014which is always a bit tricky to reach on your back, though a spray can definitely help\u2014and walked down to the pool. Arriving an hour later than yesterday meant options were pretty limited, and I only found a single available sunbed, tucked away in the shade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to reading it was. Being in the shade created a slightly odd dilemma: it was bright enough that I wanted my sunglasses on, but too dark to read comfortably through them. In the end, I put on my cap, pulled it down low, and that worked out well enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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No sun \ud83d\ude41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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But too much light \ud83d\ude41<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When I went up to the bar to get a Coke and asked to open a tab, the bartender asked, “Room 111?”<\/em> Either I made quite an impression yesterday, or she\u2019s just exceptionally good at her job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today’s lunch was a much more sensible sandwich than yesterday’s feast. I had completely misjudged how long it would take for the sun to reach my sunbed, which finally happened around half past four. I immediately jumped into the pool and spent the next hour and a half floating and reading until I finished the book. Back in the room, I showered and created an account on The StoryGraph to keep proper track of which Tom Clancy books I\u2019ve actually read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A little less food today. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By then, it was time to explore the Old Town. It\u2019s only a ten-minute walk from the hotel, and I\u2019m becoming more and more pleased with its location. After passing two massive walls and moats, I entered the historic streets. It\u2019s a wonderfully cosy area, though very easy to lose your bearings in. Alleys branched off in every imaginable direction, and the winding streets made navigation a fun challenge. Between the narrow paths, there were plenty of charming small squares filled with greenery, restaurants, and shops\u2014a truly fascinating district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Big walls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Big moat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Big gate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I browsed several shops looking for a souvenir mug to bring home. Early on, I spotted a Pythagoras cup with a great design at a reasonable price. Convinced I\u2019d see the exact same cup further along and wanting to avoid carrying it around, I held off. That turned out to be a miscalculation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Eventually, I found myself outside the fortress walls down by the water, where a long row of boats was docked. A few of them had more storeys than my brother’s house! I sat down for a moment to soak in the harbor atmosphere and took the opportunity to book a boat trip to Lindos for tomorrow. An hour on a speedboat sounded much better than a long bus ride without air conditioning. Hopefully, four hours ashore will be plenty of time, and the midday heat won’t be too overwhelming when we arrive at noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Big boats<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My stomach soon reminded me it was dinner time. Realising that most places inside the Old Town would be relatively pricey, I decided I might as well pay for a good view and landed at La Veranda<\/a> a couple of floors up. It promised a sea view, which you could catch glimpses of between the buildings. It had all the classic signs of a tourist trap\u2014including menus translated into at least six languages, Swedish being one of them\u2014but I ordered garlic bread and the Chicken \u00e0 la Chef with a baked potato, and the food was honestly quite good given the setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Garlic bread<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Chicken ala Chef<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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La Veranda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The view from the veranda<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the meal, I popped into a shop on the same square and spotted another Pythagoras cup. The shopkeeper asked if I knew the story behind it, which kicked off a nice conversation. The cup I was holding featured the goddess Athena, and he explained her various roles beyond just wisdom and strategy. Even though it didn’t explicitly say “Rhodes” on it, it was a unique and beautiful piece, so I decided to buy it after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pebbled streets<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Suddenly an area just overgrown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just as I stepped outside, a drum troupe of about 15 musicians marched past, filling the street with music. They didn’t even have a tip jar out\u2014maybe they save that for when they halt in one of the main squares. As I navigated my way back out of the Old Town, the distant echo of their drums kept bouncing off the stone walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Walking through the maze of tiny alleys\u2014some quite dark, though overall the lighting was very decent\u2014I noticed I was passing right by residential quarters. The doors and shuttered windows varied wildly in age and character. What struck me most was how remarkably clean everything was; even in the tightest corners where you might expect unpleasant smells, there were none. There were no cars allowed in the Old Town either, just a few local scooters zipping around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back at the hotel, I grabbed my laptop and headed down to the bar. I asked if they could put the Sweden vs. Romania match on the TV and mix me a non-alcoholic Pi\u00f1a Colada. They happily obliged just as the match kicked off. By then, I had already written half of this blog post while catching the first half of the MoDo vs. Leksands IF hockey game on my phone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Watching football on TV, writing a blog on the laptop, and hockey on the phone (phone stand to the right of the computer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Tomorrow I’ll go to Landos!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I woke up a bit earlier and headed down to breakfast while watching last night\u2019s game between the Packers and the Falcons. Even though I would have loved to just sit, eat slowly, and enjoy the meal, the game, and the warm climate, I finished in under half an hour and went back up to… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-rhodes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4586"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4616,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4586\/revisions\/4616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backeman.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}