Tuesday, September 29, 2015

SJ15 - The Island of Rhodes

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We absolutely loved our day at Rhodes, even though the rains caught up with us again in the afternoon.

The medieval influence of the Crusaders is more evident on Rhodes than anywhere we have seen so far. In 1309  the Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem took control of the island. They maintained control, and the island greatly prospered under their leadership, until 1522 when the Turks conquered the island and the Ottoman Empire held sway. 

The fortified walls and architecture of the Knights era are still largely intact and set the atmosphere of this beautiful island.  We walked for hours around the city, admiring the ancient marble paths and the solid stone walls.  The shields and emblems that were built into the walls at regular intervals all around the city fascinated me.  The craftsmanship and sheer imposing nature of these protective walls is incredibly impressive.

 









 










 


Later that afternoon, Tami and I decided to take the twenty minute walk from our ship to a beautiful beach. We couldn't hardly wait to put our feet in the sea.  On the way, without much notice, the clouds rolled in and it started absolutely pouring
rain!  We got thoroughly and completely soaked, despite the fancy
 blue plastic ponchos we had bought the day before.  We stopped under the protection of a canopy at a roadside cafe until the worst of the rain passed by.  Then, undaunted we continued on to the beach. Once there, we found that it wasn't sandy at all, but covered with little rocks. They were all pretty smooth and easy to walk on. After I went into the surf, just to say I had put my toes in the Aegean, we noticed that a high percentage of the gravel below us looked like marble.  There is so much natural marble on the Greek Isles that even the curbs in Athens are made of marble. I guess you make use of what you have easiest on hand! That's just one more example of the amazing surprises we have so often found along every leg of this trip. Tomorrow it is on to Crete!










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