Eastern European Vacation Day 12

Monday November 8th, 2010.
Today we visited the beautiful Greek island of Rhodes. I was out on the balcony as the ship made a smooth stop and tied up at the dock very close to the small Old Town. From my vantage point, as well as the large ruined stone turret right in front of me on the dock, I could see the whole town which still has an intact 15th century defensive wall that was constructed by the Knights of St. John during the crusades. I could also see the large castle which is actually called the Palace of the Grand Master. There are also two small mosques within the walled old town – the whole place has a medieval England feel to it, with a slight eastern influence.

We left the ship at around 9:30AM and walked about 5 minutes to the Virgin Gate entry to the walled town. The weather was very nice, the warmest day we’ve had so far on our trip. Inside the town, which is mostly pedestrian – with lots of narrow cobbled streets, you immediately can see how the old structures have been adapted for modern use. Many of the ancient buildings are still intact, the vast majority has been put to use as shops or restaurants. Periodically the narrow alley would open up into a small square – typically with a central fountain – very picturesque and quaint.

We made our way in the general direction of the Palace, stopping to shop of visit a ruined church along the way. All of the shops are aimed at tourists, mostly jewelry and the usual dross – shop after shop of much the same thing. It was about at this point that we began to notice the flies – the island seems to have a higher than normal share of common house flies, not sure if this is normal for Rhodes or peculiar to this particular time of year.

The street leading up to the Palace is called the Avenue of the Knights once again narrow and cobbled, about the length of a football field. Historically the safekeeping of the town was divided among the various groups of knights and each group had a kind of “headquarters office”; these places were called Inns and they were all located along the Avenue of the Knights. Many of the old heraldic shields can still be seen above the doorways along the avenue. Most of the Inns have now been put to use as government offices or foreign consulates.

By the time we reached the top of the avenue, which is actually a small hill, we were looking forward to getting into the Palace – so we marched over to the entrance only to find that the place was closed on Mondays, and this is Monday! In fact all of the museums and historical sites on the island are closed on Mondays. We made a bee line (or maybe that should be fly line) for the nearest cafe and ordered a consolation beer – even though it was only about 10:15 in the morning!

Suitably refreshed and consoled we set off back through the town for more combing through the tourist tat – in search of that one nugget that just might be worth haggling over. After a while it was becoming monotonous so we made our way back to the Virgin Gate and the short stroll to the ship. We were back on board by noon – just in time for a pub lunch and another glorious afternoon on the balcony with my book!