Thursday 12 October 2017

Port of Rhodes, Greece

Excursion: "Lindos & Rhodes Town"

Forecast: Sunny clear skies

Max: 24°

Sunrise: 7:11am

Sunset 6:34pm

The city of Rhodes has three separate areas, merging to create a picture of past and 'ancient city' with its classical stadium, theatre and ruins of the Temple of Apollo. The 'old city' with its walled town, medieval buildings and vaults recalling the days of the Crusaders. The 'new town', a modern resort with luxury hotels and the most picturesque harbour, Mandraki.

The bright green hills, rich green valleys and uninterrupted line of golden beaches makes Rhodes a truly a blessed place. Add in the excellent facilities for tourism, the island's special blend of cosmopolitan and traditional, and numbers cultural and archaeological sites and you have got the perfect holiday destination.

Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of land area and is also the island group's historical capital.

The city of Rhodes has over 50,636 inhabitants. It is located north-east of Crete, south-east of Athens, and just off the Anatolian coast of Turkey. Rhodes' nickname is "The island of the Knights", named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who once conquered the land. Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The medieval old town of the city of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

We docked early, as is usual for day visitations. Same rhythmic disembarking, now goes even smoother and without any incidents, we are masters of this day tripping!!

I awoke early, just as we were docking and sighted the familiar tug that greets this huge vessel and sees it safely dockside. Today our host guide is Antonio, who, outside of tourist season is in fact an archeologist by profession so makes the ideal guide, especially of Lindos and 'old city' of Rhodes.

We arrived by coach to Lindos, having to park the coach at the top parking area and walk the steep and quite long pebbled road with small pedestrian section to one side to the township below. Thankfully we were already calmed by knowing we could get taxi from bottom up the very steep road to our awaiting coach when the time came. Small cost of €5 for taxi (no matter how many). We were liking Lindos already.

It was a step-back in time walking through Lidos village, the very small maze of cobblestone passages that we home to "sellers" of every kind. Souvenirs but some beautiful clothing and summer shoes/sandals. While our guide led up to the summit and the Acropolis those who chose to ascend, Phillip and I opted for the less strenuous meander of the village. There were donkeys readily available for the climb to the top, however, we declined the persistence of the "leaders" of the donkeys for the sake of the donkeys!!!

We strolled leisurely around this quaint and lovely township. Visited the 4th century BC, Doric Temple of Athena Lindia, a double-winged portico, and Byzantine church and the fortifications of the Knights of St.John, including the remains of Governor's quarters. We lunched in a delightful roof top restaurant in the heart of LIndos, enjoyed a Greek lunch served by Albanian owners.

The view was truly panoramic and at the very foot of the Acropolis St.Paul's Bay, where the Apostle is said to have sought shelter during a storm.

The island is famous for its long tradition in the art of ceramics, so after a delightful lunch in Lindos and the comfortable taxi ride to rejoin our coach, we made a brief stop at the folk art factory, where local artist and studio owner, sixth generation potter, using age-old methods, made a ceramic vase in front of us. At least the initial stage (minus the kiln) but we saw what would be the final process.

We actually bought and sent home a lovely locally made plate and dish (as our reminder of Rhodes), with the assurance of the owners that our parcel would arrive safely in about a month. (We have never experienced any problems doing this on other trips).

Returning to the 'old town of Rhodes' we left the coach and we were lead by Antonio through maze of cobble-stoned streets built inside the medieval city walls with it's ancient gates, towers, battlements and mosques. Every conqueror who has occupied Rhodes has left behind traces of his presence, so that today a tour of the 'old town of Rhodes', is a trip back in time. Turkish mosques stand next to austere Frankish palaces, ancient temples nudge stone fortifications. It was amazing and interesting. We are sure the knowledge of Antonio (with his qualifications) added to the delight and intrigue.

Antonio left us at one of the four "gates" to the 'old Rhodes' on the waterfront side. Our vessel clearly visible and our passage clearly signed, so we wandered back at our own pace to rejoin the ship.

All aboard time was 5.30pm ready for 6pm departure from this beautiful island.