Rhodes is Greece’s third largest island, and the largest in the Dodecanese group. Famous in the ancient world for its Colossus statue that adorned the harbour entrance.
Rhodes, the town, has 120,000 inhabitants. And a fully intact old walled city.
The Knights of St. John used the island as their base of operations from 1309 to 1522. Inbetween their stay on Cypress and Malta. Suleiman the Magnificent forced their capitulation when the Sultan arrived with an overwhelming force of 400 ships and 200,000 men against the Grand Master’s 7,000. Still they did hold out for six months mainly due to their elaborate defensive fortifications.
The old town has the ubiquitous narrow alleyways, numerous small shops and cafes. And a very impressive museum in the Grand Master’s quarters. Even complete Greek sculptures. I mention this because I had read almost all Greek sculptures have been lost to us and mostly we know the nature of these pieces via their Roman copies. Many items
in the museum date back to the Archaic period (800 BC to 480 BC) – truly wonderful, free, photos allowed and we had the place to ourselves.
Dinner ashore was a small family run Taverna serving delicious meze, particularly the octopus stifadho.
Next day for $30 Euros we had a cute Fiat Panda for the day that was delivered to our dock. Zoom Zoom. A circumnavigation of the entire island with stops at the various Knights of St. John’s strongholds perched atop rocky out crops, plus a dip in the Med at Lindos’ beach.
Head for Asia Minor tomorrow – only 26 nm away. The Awesome Adriatic – Aegean Adventure is coming to a close.