Rhodes – Rhudimentary

Arrived in Rhodes around 6am. Breakfast with all the other early risers. I meant to say this before but I have noticed a lot of hearing aid wearing passengers. We should form a club. Unfortunately we have to take our hearing aids out when we use the Tour Headphones so there is a lot of “WHAT?” and “where are we going?”

We should also form the “heavily medicated” group. “Meds” would be sufficient. I say this because just about everyone coming to breakfast has a pill box. Day one and most of us were hiding the pill box, digging into bags or pockets to get the morning meds. Now, 4 days into the cruise and piles of morning medications are mounded up on the breakfast tables. Sometimes I think people search for their table based on what meds are on display. And wow! Some people take a LOT of medication.

After breakfast we headed off for a guided walking tour of the old town. Probably could have done this without a guide but it was free so….

Crystal clear water the colour of crisp turquoise. No matter how tempting it was we were advised against swimming. 2 men did jump in and swam around and, according to Glenys, they were English. She could tell by their poor rendition of the Aussie Crawl.

Rhodes is probably another tax haven for Russian Oligarchs, if this tiny motor boat is anything to go by.

It was a lovely place to visit and, as I had read many Knights Templar stories over the years, I was keen to see the fortifications and the Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights.

A side street leading to the main square. Foot traffic had started to build but it was manageable. I did notice that most people get around on motor scooters…without helmets.

Another side street leading to the main square and then the palace

Sculptures on the walls were created in Italy and brought to Rhodes in the 19thC, I think but I could be wrong.

I’m probably getting the information slightly incorrect but the tour guide was Greek and her accent, well….. anyway, I’m sure I’m mostly right.

The Church of St John which was adjacent to the Palace of the Grand Masters of Knights blew up sometime in the 1700s. A store of gunpowder was kept in the basement and the church was hit by lightning and poof! or bang actually as the explosion almost destroyed the palace.

It was re-built by Italians which explains all the statues. You can see the line where the old building ended and the reconstruction began. Amazing that something built in the 1400s is still standing.

Apparently the Palace was re-built for Mussolini. He wanted a summer holiday shack so this was it. Sadly a war happened and he was rather busy being a Fascist so he never enjoyed the palace as he had hoped. Anyway, he was executed in 1945 so missed the opportunity to experience his opulent weekender. “A fitting end…” as they say.

The palace has vast rooms and slightly over the top interior design with carvings, sculptures, mosaic floors and tapestries. The room that was eventually used by the Prime Minister for signing documents and things has an enormous desk and heavy wooden chairs, all from the 16thC.

Not sure who this woman is but she wouldn’t move so I have used her as a size reference. She was about 5’7” or so. As she wouldn’t move when I asked her to I doubt she would have told me her height.

I had FOMO so I went in here expecting it to be this amazing room. Toilet. I didn’t stay long.

Managed to capture the Greek flag unfurled. As luck would have it I had put my camera away when a Greek Airways plane flew over. It looked like striped blue and white socks. How disappointing that I didn’t get the photo

All the statues got together for a game of cards. He threw his hand in.

Everyone went “oh wow!” I figured this was important so I took a photo.

Model of the boat that carried the Knights Templar to Rhodes. My camera is amazing but it has a 14-42mm lens so sometimes I can’t get everything in.

More Italian stuff. This time a Murano glass chandelier.

No idea of age but I thought it looked lovely but uncomfortable. My mother would have said it could do with a good clean.

The rooms were really dark so it was difficult to take pictures of the tapestries and floor mosaics. They were lovely, nonetheless. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Lunch time Sunday crowds had started to build so we made our way back to the ship.

Rhodes was lovely and, despite the vast crowds, it was relatively relaxing, in a full on buzz kind of way.

There were loads of jewellery shops but it was difficult to decide if the prices were tourist prices or not. Personally I think they were but as I wasn’t planning on getting any jewellery, I didn’t mind.

For those of you interested, today’s step count was 9k. Felt like 20k but there you go.

Tomorrow we invade Crete.

Tag: Rhodes

All Rhodes lead to, well, Rhodes.