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Rhodes, Greece
Entry 39 of 52 | show all | print this entry |
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World Cruise
Rhodes, Greece
Tuesday, April 10, 10:30 am-4:30 pm
We sure were disappointed that this wasn't a sea day - we're both exhausted and I picked up a stomach bug yesterday (eating raw salad was probably a bad choice). At least we didn't start until late! How whiney is that--we're docked in a beautiful Greek isle and all we care about is that we're exhausted and my stomach hurts.
Anyway, we went on a short excursion: Medieval Rhodes and the Grand Master's Palace, for 2 1/2 hours and $49 each. As it turns out, we might have enjoyed just walking through the town just as much as the excursion, but who knows these things in advance.
Rhodes is at the eastern end of the Aegean Sea, very close to Turkey and Asia Minor. It's the 4th largest Greek island, created by a volcano and subject to periodic earthquakes. Because of it's strategic location it has been a trade and military center throughout history. It has been occupied by Persia, Rome, the Knights of St. John, the Ottoman Turks, and the Germans during WW2. Rhodes only became part of Greece in 1947.
The island is very small and a partial day was plenty of time for our visit. Our first stop was at the top of Mt. Smith, where we saw the ruins of the Acropolis. The ruins are just sitting out for anyone to walk up to, very casual.
We saw a heavily restored theater (only 3 of the bottom benches are original black marble), a stadium in very good condition, the 3 restored columns of the Temple of Apollo Pythios, and some scappy remains of the Temple of Athena Polias. These are all from the Roman period, in the early hundreds, if I remember right.
At this point we were promised a bathroom. However, the bathroom was closed due to plumbing problems. People were really ticked off. You know how miserable you can get once you've been promised a bathroom and then you're told you have to wait a long time. The bathroom on the bus wasn't supposed to be used, since they didn't clean or stock it for the brief tour we were on.
Rhodes once had one of the seven wonders of the world, a huge statue inthe harbor right on the tip of the island. This Colossus was destroyed in an earthquake around 300 AD, if I remember right. Now there are statues of 2 deer, representing the deer which were brought to the island to eliminate snakes. I think this must be an urban legend.
Then we went to the D'Amboise entrance gate
of the still-standing medieval city. From here on, we did a lot of walking. The walls of the city are sometimes as thick as 7 feet and the walls go all the way around the old town.
The old town has been designated a World Heritage Site (another notch on our world heritage sites belt). The walls are 85% original, which is amazing considering how old they are.
We entered the walls and throughout old town are shops along every street. Tourism is the primary industry.
Almost immediately we were at the palace of the Grand Master, built by and named for the head of the Knights of St. John. The K of SJ were (and still are) a Catholic order, made up of about 700 people, 1/3 monks, 1/3 soldiers, and 1/3 support staff. They were established during the Crusades, and eventually besieged and took over Rhodes for several hundred years. They built this palace for the head of the order.
It was disappointing that this palace was destroyed, then rebuilt in the mid 1800s, so what we saw was a copy, albeit an old one. Also it wasn't anything to write home about. John didn't go inside, I guess because it smacked of "museum" even though it isn't called a museum.
Finally, a bathroom. Our guide was not the best we've had--her voice didn't project well, and she didn't seem to know what to do about the long bathroom break we had to take, because there were only 2 stalls for the women, and the men's was somehow worse, although I don't know how. She just started the tour, even though some of our group was still in the bathroom.
Anyway, the most interesting thing about the castle was the alabaster window (who knew?)
It works like a natural stained glass.
There were lots of mosaics on the floors
and the only reason I mention it is because they were all moved from churches in other locations, and we heard how they move them. They cover the mosaic with wax, then wood, then concrete. They remove the mosaic in sections, all encased like this. Then they lay the sections down in the new location, remove the concrete, the wood and the wax, and viola! I am accumulating more trivia!
We left the palace and headed down the cobbled Street of the Knights,
which is original both on the street and the buildings on either side, which were originally 7 meeting houses (like bars), one for each of the nationalities which made up the Knights.
The street ends at the square, and you can see all the shops everywhere.
We sat down at one of the outdoor restaurants
and John had a beer and I had a grapefruit juice (I ordered a diet Pepsi/Coke, but they didn't have that, so he brought me this.) I had no idea what I was going to get when he took my order--his English was spotty. It was extremely pleasant sitting in the sun.
The weather today was a perfect spring day--high was about 70 F. I think we're going to have spring weather from here on. It kind of made up for the fact that we turned our clocks forward and lost an hour of sleep last night. We pick up that hour tomorrow night, but that doesn't make losing an hour of sleep, especially in our exhausted state, any easier.
We abandoned our tour when we decided to sit and have a drink. We thought we'd walk back to the ship (John's idea, can you imagine?) since the guide said it should take about 1/2 an hour, but on the way we ran into
the ship's shuttle bus and hopped on it. A good thing, too, because towards the end of the walk we would have lost our sidewalk and been walking through a boatyard. We didn't have the primo dock spot; a Princess ship did, right next to one of the old town gates.
We ordered room service pizza when we returned to our cabin, and then didn't want dinner, so now our schedule is all messed up.
Tomorrow's a sea day--we are really looking forward to a day of rest. After that sea day, we have 7 or 8 solid days of ports. I think the most we've had since we started has been 2 port days in a row. This is going to be quite an adjustment.
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