Rhodes

Life on the ocean wave .... today we docked in Rhodes. We are here for 3 days...  To be honest not somewhere I have ever given any thought to.. so I was quite  surprised when I opened the curtains to much nicer view than expected.

We walked into the Old Town and it was instantly very beautiful.

Huge walls and collective ruins greeted us from the onset - its very well preserved, it is full of tourists, tourist shops and cafes but it has not been overly spoiled ( well it has been - but natives have to make a living🤣) so it's still looks incredibly atmospheric. 

 I, obviously,  hadnt done much research but I wasnt surprised to find it is a UNESCO Heritage site so I'm guessing that means that they can't mess too much with it. 

In the main town we walked through the busy square and up the wonderful straight street that is famous for the Knights of the Templar. On each side of the street are allegedly inn dating from the different ages- they're all now a little museums or historic places and you can't go in anymore.  

One of the places was having a textiles exhibition. It was very Greek with little translated information. I wasn't blown away by the textiles but they were colourful and quite nice. It was such a beautiful place to have an exhibition you couldn't help but like it all.  

At the top of the road is the Knight's Templars Palace. This is a castle of extraordinary proportions given that in the last blog I said there are no 'Castle's' so I've been proved wrong!

Stunning architecture, wonderful history, much of it rather unpleasantly terrifying - military religous fervour, but I remember being taught Richard the Lionheart was a good man. He had alliances with Knights Templars and nowadays some of his 'agenda' is being rethought..times and opinions change...

All over the town there are interesting spaces - huge stone blocks and lots of decorative pebbles... pretty courtyards and huge towering walls often covered with riotous climbing vegetation

We walked further through the town and got to the medieval bell tower.

For a mere 5 euros (including fre drink)... we could climb to the top of the bell tower. Actually once in the tower the steps were a seriously steep wooden affair with big gaps and I got halfway up and I didn't like it!!! so I let Dr Fred to go to the top and take the photographs

The views were good but I particulary liked the one of the roof of the neighbouring Mosque. The domes of varying sizes made such an interesting pattern. 

The tower Courtyard had a quiet little bar where we had our free drink - it was full of interesting bits and pieces including some nice lumps of stone and the old bell mechanism from the old Tower.

Back in the bustle of the street we looked for the less travelled back lanes, mainly to find the oldest bits of the town.. the bits dating from the Hellinistic and Byzantine era - how I wish I'd been this interested in history when I was at school. Its fascinating to imagine these spaces teeming with life completely oblivious to what/who and why might be wanderiing there 2000 years on!

When we walked away from the main drag we found ourselves in the labyrinth of little streets. Many ofthem with these beautiful arches and great big stone walls and hardly any other tourists and definitely no shops. Here there is a real sense of history.

The stonework and the buildings are just beautiful. Theres some really ornate doors with fabulos rusted grills, and I couldn't help noticing hardly any litter or rubbish... however, the place is rampant with cats and in places smelled quite nasty..... 

I took so many pictures of alleyways. I was just loved the diverse shapes in the stone work, the decorative carvings, and the arches across the alleyways made. It was all so incredibly tactile and there was an air of mystery as to where these little snickets might lead to.

So most of Rhodes town was a lesson in history - we had another beer to get over the information overload and then decided we probably needed to lie down🤣🤣. Back to base for a nana nap.

We were overnighting in port so it was just another pleasant balmy night sat with a glass of wine in my favourite spot in the stern..( not sure of grammar here)

The ship has its own colony of cicadas.. to be honest I wondered if the constant chirupping was a recording- out at sea it seemed unlikley to have noisy insects but then I spotted one sat on the stairwell.... so even cicadas like cruising.