Car Hire Misadventures – Kos, 1983

In 1983 I stayed at the Continental Palace Hotel just outside Kos town.  Only six years previously in his guide to the Greek Islands, Lawrence Durrell described the place as “an unspoilt backwater where the visitor will find good beaches, unsophisticated but clean little hotels and cool breezes even in summer… ”. Prior to travel there had been cases of typhoid on the island so as a precaution we had to have inoculations before leaving the UK.

The Continental Palace was a large hotel (and although modernised and refurbished it is still there today) and much of the holiday was squandered away in pointless days around the swimming pool whilst surrendering to the anaesthesia of the Mythos lunches and the sun frazzled afternoons but for some of the time we rented a flame red open top Suzuki jeep from Stamatis RentaCar, (also still there) and made some attempt to see the island.

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