October break in Rhodes

For the second part of the October break, Natalie and I took a ferry from Marmaris, Turkey to the Greek island, Rhodes.  While it is only about an hour long boat ride to get to the island, in total it ends up taking several more hours to go through customs, passport control, security, etc.  And to get through a completely chaotic line in Rhodes.

Rhodes is known for it's preserved old town with walls and buildings from medieval times.  Coming in on the ferry, there were some pretty amazing views of the walls and towers...

Perfect sunny day to be in Greece!

Getting from the ferry to our hotel turned out to be another problem...the cobblestone, windy streets of old town Rhodes don't really allow for taxis to get around.  So we took our own little walking tour of the old town, with our massive suitcases in tow and eventually found our hotel thanks to some very nice Greek people.  This proved to be a great opportunity to check out all the shops and restaurants to come back to when we didn't have a bunch of luggage.

Charming streets in the old town, with many opportunities to shop

Photo opportunity with a knight

Remains of an old Byzantine church, where we enjoyed some fantastic Greek fro-yo

Side street by our hotel

Maria, the very nice woman who ran the hotel we stayed in, was able to recommend a tour guide for us to show us around Rhodes and give us some information.  Katerina ended up being a really wonderful guide, as well as a Jane of all trades.  In addition to being a guide, she also owns property that she rents out, does cooking courses, writes apps, and is also a former principal of a school in Athens.  I could be forgetting a few of her jobs in there as well.  She took us to the Knights of St. John castle, which was renovated to become Mussolini's summer home later on during the Italian occupation.  While the castle has changed a lot since it belonged to the knights, it was still an interesting place to visit with many mosaics brought in from other Greek islands.

Natalie and I inside the Romantic room at the palace

Outside of the Palace of the Knights

One of the mosaics, of the 9 muses

From the palace, we took a walk down the Street of the Knights, where original buildings that were inns for the knights used to be.  The buildings are still intact and are used as consulates for some of the nations that sent knights to Rhodes.

Hanging out in an old medieval street

Later that day we checked out the Archaeology museum, which used to be a hospital.  We used the app that our guide created to have a handy little guide as we checked out the museum.

Main courtyard of the hospital/museum

A statue of Athena, washing her hair

The next day, we planned on meeting up with trusty Katerina again to visit the Lindos acropolis and village.  That night there were torrential rains and still looked cloudy the next morning, which didn't look promising for a day outside.  But the gods looked down on us with favor, and by noon the sun was shining and we were off to Lindos.  We were rewarded with an absolutely charming little village on the sea.  We hiked up to the acropolis, as the ancient Greeks did to worship every day.  Rumor has it that there are donkeys you can ride up there (unlike the ancient Greeks), but we were told they were sleeping so it didn't work out.

Picturesque first glance of Lindos

Natalie and I hiking up to the acropolis

Stairs up to the third level

The third level of the acropolis, where ancient Greeks left gifts for the gods

Made it up to the top, hiking just like the ancient Greeks did!

St. Paul's bay, on the other side of the acropolis.  A place where the apostle visited during his travels

The acropolis was a very beautiful ancient sight to visit.  Once we were up there, it became obvious why the ancient Greeks chose this spot to build a temple for their religious ceremonies.  We made our way back to our hotel, where Katerina had to drop us off outside the ancient walls (and then without her we immediately started taking wrong turns and getting lost!)

Natalie and I at the gate closest to our hotel

For our last dinner in Rhodes, we went to a Greek restaurant that was recommended to us by several people.  It was a very charming taverna that served traditional Greek food with really adorable Greek old man as waiters.  We learned that some of those servers used to own their own restaurants, but lost it during the economic crisis.  Even in a touristic place like Rhodes, it was evident that everyone had been affected by the crisis in some way.  

Completely overdid it on a big crazy cream puff dessert, but it was delicious!

Before taking our ferry back the next day, we paid a few euros and took a walk along the walls of the city.  Being from such a young country, it is always fascinating to see how history has unfolded in some of the early civilizations, like Greece.  Walking along the walls, you can see evidence from medieval times, the Ottoman occupation, the Italian occupation, and of course modern day Rhodes. All of it blends together to make a truly unique place.

Rhodes as seen from the walls