Thursday, November 14, 2019; Rhodes, Greece
The Sapphire Princess arrived at Rhodes under overcast and threatening skies. The ship tied up to a dock adjacent to what looked like a medieval stone structure that could have been part of a city wall or fortification across from a small harbor from a walled city with a castle at it’s highest point. This was the Acropolis of Rhodes. According to legend, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World once straddled the entrance to the harbor we were looking at- The Colossus of Rhodes. It stood 110 feet above a 50 foot pedestal. It was a huge bronze statue by the sculptor Hares. In its day (circa 300BC), Rhodes stood at the crossroads of the East and West, a major commerce hub. But a major earthquake in 226BC toppled the Colossus. Today, the entrance to the harbor is marked by a pair of deer statues- not quite as impressive.
We prepared for another day of soaking rain since the forecast called for more rain. Our tour started with a bus ride across the island to a village called Lindos, topped by the Acropolis of Lindos, which in its heyday (circa 300BC) was topped with the massive temple of Athena Lindia. Since then, it had fallen into ruin, but was partially restored by the Knights of St. John in the 14th century to defend the island from the Ottomans. This was an hour long bus ride across the island, revealing a rocky hilly landscape with plenty of limestone outcrops, orchards of olive and citrus trees, and tiny villages along the winding road. Shortly after boarding the bus, the sky opened up with a torrential rain that felt like the bus was driving through a commercial car wash scaled up to accommodate a 50 passenger bus. We could see driveways turned into streams of muddy water. We were certainly glad to have been in a tour bus, and not trying to wander around the Old Town center of Rhodes in that storm.
We made an obligatory shopping/bathroom stop halfway to Lindos at a gold jewelry shop. There was one “craftsman” working at one of the stations, but what he was doing was video chatting with someone on his iPhone, instead of creating some piece of jewelry. The rain was still pouring down, and there was lightning and thunder crashing. There must have been 200 passengers filing into the store all at once, which was a scene of pandemonium. Then to add to the chaos, the power went out in the “museum” part of the store, which was at the very back of the building. Everyone back there was plunged into total darkness because there were no windows in the building. Thank goodness for smart phone flashlights. That made the showroom even more crowded. Everyone was eager to get back into the bus and do something else rather than look at overpriced jewelry and haggle with the merchants.
During the second half of our trip across the island, the clouds seemed to have squeezed most of their moisture out because when we got out of the buses, the rain had stopped, but still looked threatening. The ground was saturated with puddles that were more like small ponds everywhere. Ben had chosen to wear his water sandals, a tactic that would prove more effective than the walking shoes he had used yesterday that were still drying out.
The buses were not allowed to go into Lindos proper, but had to park in a corral outside the town. There was a large restaurant and bar across the street, which was to be our lunch venue. We had to walk down a moderately steep but asphalt and concrete paved road about a half mile to the walls of the medieval city of Lindos.
Once inside the city, the streets were pathways no more than 8 feet wide paved with rain slicked flagstones, or worse yet, a type of paving made by embedding rounded uniformly sized river pebbles in patterns like mosaics. While artistic and functional in hot dry weather, in the presence of any moisture, one could see where scientists got the inspiration for non-stick teflon, because it was like trying to walk on greased marble. We saw some bleeding profusely from his hand, which he had used to break his fall by trying to grab at a rough limestone wall. There are no handrails along the paths in the city. The sight of his blood spattered on the paving pebbles was certainly an inspiration to take each step with extreme caution. The village is a cobweb of these narrow winding paths that converge on the village “Square”, marked by a small church tower. From there, our guide was very explicit in warning everyone that conditions were even worse for anyone wishing to continue up to the Acropolis, or fortress that sits atop the hill that forms the city. About half of our tour group said they were brave or foolish enough to venture forward. As promised, the steps leading up to the Acropolis were even steeper and more treacherous than those within the village.
Inexplicably, there are feral cats everywhere, of every shade and size. Some appear to have been neutered as they had a snipped ear, while others, particularly the kittens, weren’t. The cats didn’t seem to have any trouble with the slick walking surface conditions. Wading boots with felt soles would have been the best footwear for this excursion. We ended up climbing 370ft in elevation going about a mile from the parking lot to the top of the Acropolis.
The Acropolis is a proper fortress with defensive embattlements, turrets and towers. Much of it is in shambles, but a lot of restoration/reconstruction seems to be going on. We learned about the history of the Knights of St. John, who were a multicultural organization speaking 7 languages. This organization was unique in that you could earn the title of Knight by buying into the organization if you had enough wealth, so you didn’t have to have an “In” with someone with royal bloodlines. Kind of like mercenary knights. But they did dedicate themselves to good and Christian causes. Their primary enemy were the Ottomans. You can literally see Turkey from the Acropolis of Lindos. At the top of the Acropolis of Lindos is the remains of the once grand Temple to Athena Lindia. The views of the sheer cliffs from the backside of the Acropolis of Lindos down to the sea were quite dizzying. This would not be a good place to be taking selfies from atop the walls.
It was interesting and scenic, but the Acropolis of Lindos is really a ruin of a fortress with great views. The best thing about our tour was that the usual crowds that normally pack the place shoulder to shoulder during the peak of tourism season were absent. The second best thing was that the clouds parted and the sun came out, drying out the ultra-slippery walkway for our descent.
We had a lunch at the restaurant of a Greek salad (no surprises here), stuffed grape leaves, some sort of vegetable ratatouille (most likely eggplant), rice and chicken. The rice and chicken quite dry, and had to be washed down with plenty of Greek red wine, which fortunately was good and plentiful. The feral cats patrolling the floors of the restaurant probably get plenty of dry chicken to eat.
That left everyone pretty drowsy for the drive back to the historic Rhodes Old Town, so that hour-long drive went quickly as most people napped.
We got dropped off at one end of the Rhodes Old Town, and walked across the town touring the Palace of the Grand Masters of the Knights of St. John, used by non-other than Benitto Mussolini (who contributed to its restoration by pillaging churches and other structures throughout Greece, and stocking it with artworks and archeological treasures).
The Old Town certainly has medieval character and the grandiosity of nobility, despite being tainted with a fascist past. The paving of the streets with the polished river rocks set in mortar sets Old Town Rhodes apart from most of the other medieval cities we have seen on our journeys which are generally paved with flattened cobblestones. The appearance of blue skies and sunshine in the afternoon lifted everyone’s spirits and impressions of Greece as we reboarded the Sapphire Princess at the end of our shore call.
We skipped dessert after dinner, which featured an Ernesto Burger for Janet and Curtis Stone Beef Tri-tip stew for Ben, so that we could attend the “Where in the World Trivia. There were two “landmarks” that seemed to have been planted by the Canadians- The Edmonton Mall of Americas (which looked like some urban jumble and not any particularly recognizable architectural marvel), and the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa. Everyone had a good laugh at the Edmonton Mall. We missed both of those, as well as a futuristic new monument in Tehran, a place not many American tourists will ever likely see in person.
We saw a new show by Dan St. Paul, the comedian, who continued on the theme of the indignities of aging, but threw in a unique routine calling the Old Testament like a baseball game. The theatre was filled to capacity with standing room only, so we stood at the back. After about 10 minutes, a bunch of Chinese passengers filed out of the theater, and we took their places in seats. Comedy is so culture specific, it’s not hard to see why they left.
We finished the night watching our first movie on the On-Demand video system- The Favorite. We had recently watched the Netflix show Fleabag, which featured Olivia Coleman as one of the main supporting characters, so it was interesting to see her in her Academy Award winning role as Queen Ann.
Tomorrow is a day at sea, arriving at Port Said during the wee hours of Saturday. Then we start our transit of the Suez Canal, which will take the better part of 2 days. From what we hear, there will be a lot of sand, and more sand to see from the ship. It’s unfortunate we weren’t given the opportunity to disembark the ship and do an overland excursion to see the nearby Pyramids of Giza and then reboard the ship at Suez. We’ll have to do a Nile River cruise at some point in the future to see those.
