Another day in Rhodes

FRIDAY Sept 16th

With another sweltering day forecast, I set the alarm for 7:15, hoping to make an early start before the heat meter got cranked all the way to “eleven” [ for all you Spinal Tap fans]

  A walk partway across town brought us to the D’Ambroise Gate of the Old Town. Entering through a large arched doorway, we passed through the outer wall, crossing the dry moat via a stone bridge. Directly ahead, the Grand Master’s Palace had the appearance of a medieval castle. Walking along the narrow roadways, it was not hard to imagine what this place would have looked like during its prime (1400’s)

  Consisting of about 15 main streets the rest of the town is broken up by a maze of alleys and narrow side streets numbering in their hundreds.

Old Town Rhodes

   For the morning we confined ourselves to the northern area where there is an old clock tower, a small mosque and the aforementioned Grand Master’s Palace. Essentially a home for the Grand Master, or leader, of the Knights Templar it is similar in size to the Tower of London, although somewhat lower in height. A large central courtyard is surrounded by the rooms that make up the palace. The original building was destroyed in the mid 1800’s by an explosion in a powder room and was rebuilt during the Italian Occupation.

 Largely unfurnished, the palace is a collection of rooms, mostly off limits to the public. A few on view showed a contemporary art collection and others, collections of artifacts from various eras.

  Leaving the palace and heading southwest, we followed a cobbled street known as Ippoton or the Street of Knights. Consisting of an endless line of tall, nondescript buildings, the street has been used in various movie sets over the years, most notably Guns of Navarone. [On close examination, one could see various crests above the doors of many of the buildings. At the time these indicated to the knights from various European countries where they would be able to seek out men of similar language, class and culture.]

  Surrounded by a dozen or so tour groups and with my camera battery on its last legs, we decided to make our escape so that we could be back at the hotel for lunch.

  Emerging from the Old Town, one could see that 4 large cruise ships were docked for the day, thus explaining the crowded streets.

  The Costa Fortuna was berthed closest to town and behind it 3 smaller ships that were mostly concealed by the bulk of the former- perhaps one was her sister ship- Costa Armanda Lega.

 After a delicious but rather overfilling lunch- pea soup, spinach and feta crepe, pork with potatoes and beans, caramel custard for desert- I spent a few minutes re launching my blog before taking a walk along the beach in front of the hotel.

  If one has ever been to a fishing village where the days catch is laid out on racks in the sun to dry, that is a good approximation of the beach at Rhodes.

 Endless rows of plastic loungers, partly shaded by cheap umbrellas and palm palapas, stretched as far as the eye could see.

"fish" drying on beach!!!

 Each one occupied by (depending on their state of doneness) a white, half baked, burned or nicely browned tourist.

  Decency and a lack of anti-nausea medication prevent me from giving a more detailed description of the scene. Suffice to say- topless bathing should require a maximum per pound limit and for men; someone needs to invent an abdominal unibra- or at least ban Speedo’s if they can’t be seen in a full frontal view.