Spring Break Trip - Rhodes

Let me tell you a little bit about the ferry, as it is very nice. It feels like a mini cruise ship. One of the middle floors is all cafes and places to eat and lounge, while up one floor is an outdoor covered area with an area to stand outside and enjoy the breeze in your hair. The chairs are very comfortable but the food is very overpriced, which is not like an all-inclusive cruise food. The lower levels are for the many cars, semi-trucks, motorcycles, and other transportation vehicles that need to transfer islands. It is truly amazing how much could fit in the ferry. After a few hours I woke up with the sun rising through the windows. A few more hours and we arrived in Rhodes. To get to the ferry port, we had to pass Mandraki harbor, where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.

When they announce that we are arriving in a port, the hoard of people getting off at that port all push and shove to get to the lower level where we will exit, and they cram together like they are in an apocalyptic movie. As the bridge lowers, people crowd together more and more, eager to exit the ferry. It’s quite crazy! So after the adventure of getting off the boat, I had the adventure of trying to find my hotel.

The city of Rhodes has two parts: the Old Town is enclosed by the old city wall and the moat, which is now dried up and used as a green space, while the New Town is all of the development outside of the city walls. Old town has a medieval feel, with the Palace of the Grand Master (the castle), the
Street of the Knights (where all the knights from all over the world used to have their own buildings/hotels), the Hospital of the Knights (which now is the archaeological museum in Rhodes), and the cobblestone skinny streets. New Town has all the modern shops, including a 1 Euro store, where everything is 1 Euro. The ferry port is quite far from Old Town Rhodes, where my hotel was. I wandered through all of Old Town, looking for my hotel. Instead of my hotel, I found a church that used to have a road cut through it before they realized that it was a church, and the Jewish square that has a monument dedicated to the Jews who were taken from Rhodes to Nazi concentration camps and died during World War II. But after about an hour of wandering, I finally found my hotel! It was surrounded by road construction, which made it even more of a challenge to get to. I went to try the door, but it was locked. I worried a little bit as I had already paid for the hotel and no one was there to let me in. I went a got lunch – fresh squeezed orange juice and gyro (my new favorite food!) – and went back to my hotel in the hopes of someone being there. And there was! He had gone to lunch but was expecting me. I got settled in my room and then went to the archaeological museum in the old Hospital of the Knights, which was only about a block away from my hotel.

The hospital, which kind of feels like a fortress, is still completely intact. It is just one huge square with a large courtyard in the center. One of the workers told me what each of the rooms was used for when it was a hospital. One was used as a dining hall while the smaller rooms were for the patients. Now, as it has the archaeological museum in it, each room has different sculptures, pottery, and artifacts from all over the island of Rhodes. The island of Rhodes has been inhabited through the ages, as can be seen by the artifacts found on the island. In the garden next to the hospital they have mosaics from not only Rhodes, but from the island of Kos as well, which is the last island that I will visit on this trip. They displayed the mosaics vertically on the wall so that the visitors could see the designs easier.

I got finished at the museum at 3pm, and due to it being low tourist season, everything closes early. In fact, many of the museums were not open whatsoever as they are renovating or fixing the building during the low season. So I went to Mandraki harbor and saw the place where the Colossus would have been. Now the harbor entrance has two Italian statues of deer welcoming boats into the harbor. They are just as famous as the Colossus as they have been there for many years now, in my opinion. Also near the harbor is the fortress of St. Nicholas and a few ancient windmills that now there are only 3 left. Afterwards I tried to find a restaurant in Old Town, but everything was closed due to low season except the restaurant I went to for lunch. The owner was a bit surprised to see me again, but happy for the business. We chatted a bit (as many people on the Rhodes speak English thanks to it being a major tourist location) and she was so excited for me to be touring Rhodes. She said “see you tomorrow!”  She was like my mini mom for Rhodes.

The next morning I got up early and took a bus to Lindos, on the south side of the island. It was one of the 3 major ancient city states on the island of Rhodes. Its acropolis is stunning as it rises above the town on this large hill overlooking the town. The town is very quaint with the white houses so popular in Greece. It felt very Greek. It is also believed that St. Paul stopped in the harbor of Lindos while traveling through the Mediterranean. After climbing up to the top of the acropolis, which took about 15-20 minutes, I was rewarded with views of the ocean all around me and the town below me. The sky was so blue and the remains of the acropolis are the marble white color, which provided gorgeous pictures yet again. It was fascinating to read about the restoration of the acropolis. Apparently a group of Italian archaeologists started the task of piecing the buildings together. However, they matched things up incorrectly, putting a piece of a building from one area with a piece from another. And even worse, they used concrete to attach the pieces together. When the next group of archaeologists came and realized that the Italians were incorrect, they could not separate the pieces without destroying them and so, as a result, many of the original pieces could not be used anymore. I had never heard of a group of archaeologists doing something so terribly wrong before. I’m glad that they have it right now.

I wandered through the town, put my feet in the water, wishing I could swim, but it was too cold, and headed back to Rhodes. After eating some more gyros, I traveled to the acropolis of Rhodes, which is located in the New Town of Rhodes, and watched the sun set over the beautiful island. Unfortunately it was cloudy, but I still got many neat pictures with the lonely pillars left from the main temple. The stadium and theater are still very well intact at the acropolis, so much so that the locals use the stadium as a running track. In modern times, these places are still used for the exact same purpose as they were built many years ago. The old lives with the new.

The next morning I woke up early to visit the Palace of the Grand Masters. This palace was actually almost completely destroyed in a fire, but to appease Mussolini’s fantasies, it was rebuilt. It’s nice to have something completed after seeing so many ruins, even if it’s not the original. The Palace is now a museum with the lower level having the ancient artifacts and the upper rooms displaying things from Greek and Roman times. The upper floor was the only section open during the off season. It was neat to wander through the rooms with huge fireplaces, large chandeliers, and all of the mosaics from Rhodes and Kos. It really felt like you are in a castle.

I then walked the perimeter of Old Town Rhodes by means of the dried up moat. The depth of this moat would have been at least 20-30 feet if filled to the top. I tried to imagine what this fortified city must have been like in its glory. The moat only goes about halfway around the city. The sides that face the sea are just protected by high walls. In the summertime, you can walk on the walls all the way around the city. For me, I actually preferred walking in the moat with all the grass and trees and looking up at the majesty of the walls. After my walk around the city, I found the modern art museum, which contained paintings from 20^th century Greek artists. There were many pictures of the scenery of Greece, including the Acropolis in Athens, in addition to the more modern abstract art. I then walked through New Town Rhodes and felt the hustle and bustle of a vibrant community. I returned to my favorite restaurant to have one more gyro and said goodbye to my mini mother before catching my ferry to Kos.