greece, 2007
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Rhodes
After we spent a few days in the mainland we went out to the Greek Isles. One of the most popular islands in the Aegean is Rhodes, which is actually closer to Turkish Anatolia than to much of the rest of Greece.
Rhodes is famous for being the site of one of the Colossus of Rhodes, a massive bronze statue that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Rhodians built it in the fourth century BC to celebrate the end of a long and particularly irritating siege, and they didn't kid around: at 300 meters (100 feet) in height, it towered over the harbor for half a century. Then in 226 BC an earthquake caused it to collapse, so its remains spent more time as a ruined curiosity next to the harbor than as an upright monument. 800 years after it fell, the metal was sold as scrap.
There's nothing left of it today, so you have to make due with medieval architecture and the beautiful blue sea.
Speaking of which, this was the view from our hotel.
Not bad. We were in Rhodes New Town, the new area surrounding the medieval heart of the city. If you look way out to sea ...
... you can see Anatolia. Technically that's Asia.
Rhodes Old Town is a real treasure. It's surrounded by its medieval walls, which are entirely intact and quite tall.
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Andrea climbing up the walls.
Amid the walls is a moat, and you can walk most of the way around the town inside it.
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Every entrance to the Old Town is through a gate, and most of the gates involve crossing a bridge over the moat.
Once inside the town, you are enclosed by the walls, which are really formidable.
For a long period of the city's history, starting in the fourteenth century, the town was governed by the Knights Hospitaller, who called themselves the Knights of Rhodes
shortly after they seized power. The knights were organized into eight tongues for the various languages they spoke. Some of them lived in this building,
the Palace of the Grand Masters, which sits at the top of a long and sloping medieval street called the Avenue of the Knights.
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There are many splendid stone buildings on the Avenue of the Knights, and the sidewalks and cobbled street leaves nothing to spoil its historical appearance.
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The Knights' rule came to an end with the coming of the Ottoman Empire, led by Süleyman the Magnificent. While the island is now Greek, many remnants of Ottoman rule
remain. This mosque is named after Süleyman.
Here's a Turkish fountain, like some we saw in Nafplion.
The market street even had a vaguely Middle Eastern appearance, though most of the customers were Americans who had disembarked from cruise ships, and most
of the merchandise was distinctly Greek (like everything you can imagine made out of Olive wood).
But the architecture in the Old Town was the best part of it. Some of it is terribly new, and some of it is ramshackle or in ruins, and the narrow streets run in
a dizzying lack of pattern.
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Andrea wanted one of these door knockers.
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A dilapidated mosque.
The houses were painted in vibrant colors - yellow, salmon, blue and white being the most common.
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North and west of the Old Town is the harbor, which is full of small fishing boats and large cruise ships.
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The north harbor is where the Colossus once stood.
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An old man and the sea.
Greek windmills have a very distinctive appearance. These ones are no longer in use, but they're still rather nice looking.
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The lighthouse.
The deer is the symbol of Rhodes, so the old harbor is flanked by two statues of deer on pedestals.
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I bet you weren't expecting to see a parrot here. He lived in a nice pub that served Bitburger, a nice German pilsener. They also served local Rodos beer,
which is also a pilsener and one of the best I've ever had. It's slightly sweeter than most.
One morning we walked south from the New Town and headed up the hill to the east of the Old Town, where the ancients built the
Acropolis of Rhodes. The view north was lovely.
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There were a lot of lizards about.
The ruins of the Acropolis of Rhodes are well worth seeing.
Andrea is standing in a reconstructed theatre ...
... and there's also a stadium.
This was a rather unusual sunset. In the distant haze the sun turned pale white as it descended.
Lindos
Lindos is a town about midway down the island of Rhodes, and makes a nice day trip from Rhodes Town.
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It's in a bleak but very pretty area along the east coast of the island.
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Much of the town is of the traditional whitewashed appearance common throughout the Greek Isles.
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Lindos has an Acropolis as well, and since it's uphill you can hire a donkeys to take you to it. Which would have been great if we'd needed the help,
but donkeys suffer from a slight problem: they smell bad. It's also very unhealthy to carry tourists up and down hill.
The path has steps, but it's not bad.
On the other hand, these people have to smell the donkeys.
The Acropolis is in a castle that was built later on. The ancient Greek bits are actually mostly reconstructions, because stone wears down as it ages
and the remaining pieces of the columns don't fit in their original positions
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It was nice to hang out by the sea.
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I had a slight cold and was tired from all the walking we'd been doing, so when we reached the public dock near the beach I was
knocked out by the sea air. I think I slept for about 20 minutes. It was great.
Refreshed, we hiked up along the cliffs below the Acropolis.
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We found a lovely little bar set partially within a sixteenth century building with beautiful original wood ceilings, as well as a
stone facade with some relief carved on it.
They also had fresh orange juice, squeezed from local oranges.
