A Visit to Rhodes

We hopped aboard a hovercraft at 8 a.m. (and 35E each) to spend the day in Rhodes. It took more than 2 hours. The boat was loaded with tourists, the seats were hot and sticky, but it functioned to get us from A to B. We travelled south along the Turkish coast and passed several islands before arriving at the busy tourist town.
.
We walked through a maze of small shops then decided to have lunch before going to the old walled city. As usual, we were greeted by a cafe owner and invited in to his outside cafe . I wanted a gyro and, after some discussion, another 'owner' said not to worry he would get us a variety and we could share it to keep costs down. It was a wonderful repast, greek salad, pork, lamb, chicken, fries, tzadziki, coffees (cold, with milk, and delicious), We felt we were wonderful treated – and then came the bill. Needless to say, we paid for a lot of 'charm'. Hah.

Maps and directions are in small supply so we wandered for an hour through Old Town trying to find entry to the palace. This is an area where the knights of the Middle Ages resided in the palace of the Grand Master. On our way up the street to the palace we saw the headquarters of each military attachment, one for the French, one for English, one for German, etc. This was so the men could visit together and use their own language. It is wonderfully preserved and we thought our grandson, Nathan, would love to see it all. At 1:30 we could enter the palace and see the grand rooms with high ceilings, massive fireplaces, mosaic floors that were designed like carpets, then inset into the marble floors that ran throughout the two floors. The 'Middle Agers' had actually removed the mosaic tiles from areas of Kos where they originally had been laid.

The museum rooms were well displayed with items from at least 6 Century BC to the middle ages. I especially liked the fine tiny glass bottles that reminded me of venetian perfume bottles we see today.

Quickly we ran out of time and rushed back to hydroplane. The 2 hour trip back to Kos took 4 hours. This was due to strong winds and heavy seas. It was actually a smooth sail in that vessel.

We are still waiting in Kos for these winds to settle and the seas to calm so that we can start on another leg of this adventure.