Rhodes

Apparently, there was a computer glitch just as I uploaded my first Athens post.  I'm composing these blog entries off-line.  When I'm done, I sign on to the ship's Internet at $.35 per minute to send the posts as quickly as I can as e-mail to my blogger account.  My guess is that the satellite connection went down briefly some time after I hit transmit but before the transaction was complete.  The result was that the blog post disappeared into cyber space.  This is why my entries are a bit odd.

My second post fared better.  The text and some of the pictures transmitted successfully.  Unfortunately, a few pictures - those from the antiquities museum - didn't transmit and some of those that did came as doubles.  This is in all probability operator error. I'll correct the blog post when I get some free Internet time.

Meanwhile, on to Rhodes.
 

I origionally wrote this post Saturday, June 18.  Since then I've had more computer problems and days of intensive sightseeing that have limited my time to write  Thursday Michael and I took our own walking tour of Rhodes Old City.  Our little ship docked by 8:00 a.m. and we were soon joined by a large Italian ship, the Costa Fortuna.   We headed for the city as soon as possible to avoid the inevitable crowds debarking from a very large ship.  The strategy worked well.  We had several hours to wander about the medieval streets and alleys before the crowds built to the point where moving about the city was unpleasant. We walked, somewhat at random, for a while until we found the main square.  It was starting to get busy so it was time to pursue Michael's mission.

 

Michael has a copy of a wood block print of a street scene in Rhodes from the sixteenth century.  He also has a photo of himself in the exact same spot taken twenty years ago.  He was on a mission to find the spot again and take updated photos of himself and of both of us on the same Street of the Knights.  A very friendly shop girl with a U.S. accent helped us with directions and sold me a leather handbag decorated with a cat face. The bag is very attractive even though a section came unglued less than 24 hours later.

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We found the street, paced off the location from the pictures on Michael's i-phone and took many photos.  A pleasant Italian couple took a picture of both of us in the right spot.  Our conversation with the Italians was entirely by gesture. We finished by saying "Grazi."

 

Michael suggested we stop for a cup of strong Greek coffee in a taverna on one of the back streets.  The place advertised free Internet but he couldn't connect the i-phone. Nevertheless we spent a pleasant half hour sipping coffee and watching the tourists.  Afterward we strolled through back alleys looking for real residential areas. It seems that most buildings have been converted to various kinds of gift shops.  According to Michael, the last time he was in Rhodes Old City there were far fewer shops.  Today they are everywhere, even in the back alleys. We did find some residential areas in the back alleys.  The little streets were all lined with motor scooters.

 

One shop, a leather store, had some very interesting arches.  As I started to take a picture of the architecture, the shop owner came running out shouting "No picture, no picture!  Everybody want picture but give no money!"  We kept walking. Other than that, everyone was friendly and pleasant. There were a few picturesque characters here and there.  However, most residents of Rhodes Old City look like anyone else in the developed Western world.  I think we saw just one old lady in a house dress and babushka.

 

We made our way back to the main square where there was free Wi-Fi.  Michael used his i-phone to check his e-mail and make a blog post while I watched a pair of parrots chasing pigeons from their perch and observed the local restaurants filling up with noontime patrons. 

 

We made a visit to the restored synagogue where we had a marvelous conversation with another young woman with a U.S. accent who seemed to be at the door in order to explain the history of the temple to visitors.  This is now the only synagogue in Rhodes.  During WWII almost 2000 Jews from Rhodes were  transported to Nazi death camps.  Now only about thirty, mostly women, remain. 

We stopped at a tiny gem of a Byzantine church on our search for a different way through the city wall.  Both the synagogue and the church had similar chandeliers. We returned to the Silver Wind in time for a late lunch.  Another large ship had docked next to us and the harbor now also held a large ferry and a freighter.  More thousands of people to tour the city and crowd the streets in the afternoon.

 

We went out again after lunch.  This time we took a long walk past the old city walls through part of the modern Rhodes Town to a nearby beach.  There were two pillars topped by statues of what looked like antelopes where the feet of the ancient Colossus of Rhodes once stood.  It was a different world from the ancient town we had visited in the morning. We passed crowds of people speaking Italian and German. The beach was filled for half a mile with bathers and people sunning themselves.Swimmers lounged on a diving platform that somehow looked out of place.

 

I really enjoyed my visit to Rhodes.  The antiquities were real and real people were living in them.