 |
| Tugboat taking us into Rhodes |
 |
| Rhodes Windmills viewed from the ship |
 |
| One of the gates into Rhodes |
 |
| Medieval fountain |
 |
| See the coat of arms above the door. |
 |
| Cafe in the trees |
 |
| Ruined church inside the gate |
Rhodes
We had breakfast on deck overlooking the port of Rhodes, and I can tell you it is a lovely way to start the day - so long as the sun is shining like it was today. I've taken to bringing my camera to breakfast now, as the views over the last two days have been magical. Today I caught a glimpse of dolphins frolicking at the stern of a luxury yacht moored alongside. The sea is a glorious blue and very still. We couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions for our independent walk around the old walled town of Rhodes.
Rhodes is famous for its strategic location between Asia, Africa and Europe and has been a trading centre for centuries. More recently it was famous for the Knights of St John building and defending a fortress here for three and a half centuries during the Crusades, before famously relocating to Malta.
What struck us was the integrity of the thick walls that surround the city and their finely carved turrets and gates, and the windmills at the port.
There is a mosque occupying the higher ground in the centre of the town - and perhaps significantly, there is a ruined Christian church near one of the gates.
The Street of the Knights still has many of its buildings intact and some depict the coats of arms of the different European nationalities in the order.
We visited a museum housed at the Palace of the Grand Masters located at the upper end of the Street of the Knights, which was full of ancient archeological treasures, mosaic'd floors and medieval religious paintings.
Sokrates street runs parallel to this street and it is full of merchants selling the usual tourist fare and urging you to come buy. We resisted ... mostly. We did see some beautiful jewellery stores, but we limited ourselves to buying some t shirts and gifts for friends and family instead. We have to pace ourselves though This is only our second port and there are heaps to go.
Since we'd had a very substantial breakfast, we didn't bother having lunch ashore and kept going until around 3pm when we stopped for gelati then a coffee in a shop that was literally built around two trees. Feeling footsore, we decided it was time to return to the ship. It was lovely to have a cold drink waiting for returning guests at the gangplank. We have to carry our ID card with us at all times and they do a visual check every time we leave and return to the ship. It might seem like a pain but it meant that we were able to leave port a little earlier than scheduled since everyone was back on board ahead of time.
We realised we were just in time for the afternoon trivia contests and then tried to snaffle a washing machine before dinner. We had no luck with either unfortunately and our pile of dirty laundry grows daily.
There is a choice of dining on board. Two involve a surcharge and we don't plan to frequent them often - if at all. The other two are the a la carte restaurant on level 5 and the buffet on level 9. Each day the buffet's theme changes. Tonight it was Vietnamese while yesterday's was Turkish. Tomorrow's will be Japanese. The quality of the food is excellent in both restaurants and they prepare everything from scratch. House wine and beer are free with meals, which means you only pay for non house wine and spirits in the dining room. If we wanted anything more than soft drinks, tea coffee or juice at other times we would have to pay for it.
It's a pretty good deal actually - especially as we were allowed to bring our own duty free grog onboard (to drink in our cabin) I quite enjoy a limoncello on ice out on the balcony, or while I'm writing this.
Tomorrow we visit Paphos in Cyprus: population 1 million. It's strange to think this tiny dot in the Mediterranean has twice the population of Tasmania in a fraction of the space. More about our adventures tomorrow - and perhaps we'll get our washing done too!
We had breakfast on deck overlooking the port of Rhodes, and I can tell you it is a lovely way to start the day - so long as the sun is shining like it was today. I've taken to bringing my camera to breakfast now, as the views over the last two days have been magical. Today I caught a glimpse of dolphins frolicking at the stern of a luxury yacht moored alongside. The sea is a glorious blue and very still. We couldn't have asked for more perfect conditions for our independent walk around the old walled town of Rhodes.
Rhodes is famous for its strategic location between Asia, Africa and Europe and has been a trading centre for centuries. More recently it was famous for the Knights of St John building and defending a fortress here for three and a half centuries during the Crusades, before famously relocating to Malta.
What struck us was the integrity of the thick walls that surround the city and their finely carved turrets and gates, and the windmills at the port.
There is a mosque occupying the higher ground in the centre of the town - and perhaps significantly, there is a ruined Christian church near one of the gates.
The Street of the Knights still has many of its buildings intact and some depict the coats of arms of the different European nationalities in the order.
We visited a museum housed at the Palace of the Grand Masters located at the upper end of the Street of the Knights, which was full of ancient archeological treasures, mosaic'd floors and medieval religious paintings.
Sokrates street runs parallel to this street and it is full of merchants selling the usual tourist fare and urging you to come buy. We resisted ... mostly. We did see some beautiful jewellery stores, but we limited ourselves to buying some t shirts and gifts for friends and family instead. We have to pace ourselves though This is only our second port and there are heaps to go.
Since we'd had a very substantial breakfast, we didn't bother having lunch ashore and kept going until around 3pm when we stopped for gelati then a coffee in a shop that was literally built around two trees. Feeling footsore, we decided it was time to return to the ship. It was lovely to have a cold drink waiting for returning guests at the gangplank. We have to carry our ID card with us at all times and they do a visual check every time we leave and return to the ship. It might seem like a pain but it meant that we were able to leave port a little earlier than scheduled since everyone was back on board ahead of time.
We realised we were just in time for the afternoon trivia contests and then tried to snaffle a washing machine before dinner. We had no luck with either unfortunately and our pile of dirty laundry grows daily.
There is a choice of dining on board. Two involve a surcharge and we don't plan to frequent them often - if at all. The other two are the a la carte restaurant on level 5 and the buffet on level 9. Each day the buffet's theme changes. Tonight it was Vietnamese while yesterday's was Turkish. Tomorrow's will be Japanese. The quality of the food is excellent in both restaurants and they prepare everything from scratch. House wine and beer are free with meals, which means you only pay for non house wine and spirits in the dining room. If we wanted anything more than soft drinks, tea coffee or juice at other times we would have to pay for it.
It's a pretty good deal actually - especially as we were allowed to bring our own duty free grog onboard (to drink in our cabin) I quite enjoy a limoncello on ice out on the balcony, or while I'm writing this.
Tomorrow we visit Paphos in Cyprus: population 1 million. It's strange to think this tiny dot in the Mediterranean has twice the population of Tasmania in a fraction of the space. More about our adventures tomorrow - and perhaps we'll get our washing done too!
 |
| At the House of Dionysus |
 |
| At the House of Dionysus |
 |
| One of the lesser tombs at the Tomb of Kings |
 |
| The five domed Byzantine church. No photos allowed |
Paphos, Cyprus. 28th April
Cyprus is a divided country. The northern part is Turkish and the southern, Greek. We were at anchor off the southern coast at Paphos, which has been a UNESCO site since 1988. It is the third largest city in Cyprus and is famous for its archeological sites.
It was a late arrival- at about 10am -so we made good use of the time available and managed to put a load of washing through the ship's washing machine. We hung it out on our balcony, confident that today's hot weather would have it dry by the time we returned this afternoon.
Today's arrangements meant we had to be tendered ashore to meet our tour buses. Each tender holds about 150 people and were dropping off and picking up people every quarter hour. With only 6 hours ashore we had to make sure we were back in time to catch the last shuttle at 3:30pm.
We visited three sites: the House of Dionysus, a five domed Byzantine 11th Century church and the Tomb of the Kings. Our guide, a lovely Cypriot girl, took us through all of them. Although the Tombs were quite interesting, the highlights for me were the frescoes in the church that were as bright and vivid as the day they were painted centuries ago and the beautiful mosaic floors at the House of Dionysus, representing many Greek fables. She told us several of them, with not a happy ending among them, but it was the detail and movement in the images on the floors that took my breath away. I wished I'd gotten more pictures but I thought, wrongly, that I would be able to buy plenty of postcards as a memento.
Once back at the ship - returning on the second last tender for the day - we had a late lunch poolside with some friends, then relaxed in our cabin (after folding the now-dry washing. Woo hoo!)
Tomorrow we arrive in Ashdod, Israel- and will be going through some strenuous passport control on board ship. We've also been advised to dress conservatively. I noticed many tourists in Cyprus wore skimpy - even strapless- dresses. (Some will be seriously sunburned after today too as it was about 28 degrees and there wasn't a lot of shade.) I guess that's the kind of apparel the Israelis want to avoid. I think I'll be OK in a T-shirt and jeans even if the weather is expected to be in the thirties. Ashdod will be our southernmost port ( ie hottest) until we reach Tangiers towards the end of the cruise.
Cyprus is a divided country. The northern part is Turkish and the southern, Greek. We were at anchor off the southern coast at Paphos, which has been a UNESCO site since 1988. It is the third largest city in Cyprus and is famous for its archeological sites.
It was a late arrival- at about 10am -so we made good use of the time available and managed to put a load of washing through the ship's washing machine. We hung it out on our balcony, confident that today's hot weather would have it dry by the time we returned this afternoon.
Today's arrangements meant we had to be tendered ashore to meet our tour buses. Each tender holds about 150 people and were dropping off and picking up people every quarter hour. With only 6 hours ashore we had to make sure we were back in time to catch the last shuttle at 3:30pm.
We visited three sites: the House of Dionysus, a five domed Byzantine 11th Century church and the Tomb of the Kings. Our guide, a lovely Cypriot girl, took us through all of them. Although the Tombs were quite interesting, the highlights for me were the frescoes in the church that were as bright and vivid as the day they were painted centuries ago and the beautiful mosaic floors at the House of Dionysus, representing many Greek fables. She told us several of them, with not a happy ending among them, but it was the detail and movement in the images on the floors that took my breath away. I wished I'd gotten more pictures but I thought, wrongly, that I would be able to buy plenty of postcards as a memento.
Once back at the ship - returning on the second last tender for the day - we had a late lunch poolside with some friends, then relaxed in our cabin (after folding the now-dry washing. Woo hoo!)
Tomorrow we arrive in Ashdod, Israel- and will be going through some strenuous passport control on board ship. We've also been advised to dress conservatively. I noticed many tourists in Cyprus wore skimpy - even strapless- dresses. (Some will be seriously sunburned after today too as it was about 28 degrees and there wasn't a lot of shade.) I guess that's the kind of apparel the Israelis want to avoid. I think I'll be OK in a T-shirt and jeans even if the weather is expected to be in the thirties. Ashdod will be our southernmost port ( ie hottest) until we reach Tangiers towards the end of the cruise.
No comments:
Post a Comment