Rhodes - A delightful surprise!

From Kusadasi we sailed to Rhodes, the most easterly island of the Aegean Sea. The most glorious episode in its history began in 1309 when the Knights of St John took control. The Knights were zealous about the rebuilding of Rhodes Town and the fortifications they built are still standing.

The Old Town is now a World Heritage Site and is surrounded by the Medieval walls.

This gate, the Marine Gate, with twin towers, is the main route into the Old Town from the Commercial harbour.

As we walked into Old Town it felt like we were being transported back in time. The city is built right into the old walls and everywhere you look there are reminders of bygone times.

We quickly found out that this was a great place to get some more of our shopping done....leather belts for the men in the family, jewelry, and some fun clothes for our grands.

Because of the history of the Knights, there were suits or armor everywhere! Lifesize and down....

Who knew there were so many different kinds?

I had a fascination with Clock Towers and took pictures of them in every port.

The Knights medieval citadel, dominated by the towers of the Palace of the Grand Masters, forms the centre of the Old Town.

The canons were a great place to sit down.

I had been looking forward to actually getting to a beach in Rhodes and being able to swim in the Sea. We hired  Costas, a Greek taxi driver who spoke excellent English to take us to a beach.

It was so fun to actually be at the beach(we rented an umbrella and lounge chair for Dave because it was really hot and the sand was 'burning'......). Dave documented the fact that I really did get in the water and swam...twice for about 40 minutes each time. I hated to have to get out.(that's me waving)

Costas promised to be back to pick us up in a couple of hours and even had ice cold bottles of water waiting for each of us in the taxi.

Too soon it was time to walk back to the ship.

As we sailed away we agreed that we would put Rhodes on the list of places we would like to come back to someday!

We had barely been able to start to see some of the sights of Old Town and this Island.

But we would remember the mystic of the Medieval citadel, the walls, the palace, the gates, even the moat around the town.