Tuesday we woke up in Greece, arriving into the harbour of Rhodos, the main city of the island of Rhodos. We joined a Silversea bus and walking tour of the old city, visiting the Palace of the Grand Masters and the Archaeological Museum. The palace was built by the Knights of St. John when they conquered the island in 1309. It was the highest building in the town and the administrative headquarters for the Knights. It was mostly destroyed by a gunpowder explosion caused by a lightning strike in the mid 1800s, and was subsequently rebuilt by the Italians when they occupied Rhodes from 1912 to 1942. Based on historic paintings, it was an extremely beautiful building in its time.
Historic city of Rhodos
The Archaeological Museum was formerly the hospital in the era of the Knights, and has many artifacts from the Hellenistic civilizations who occupied Rhodes until the Roman conquest in 42 BC (BCE). Most notable are two well known representations of Aphrodite, goddess of love. Our guide was very informative and also very opinionated. He claimed that all good things in Turkey were of Greek origin and he did not in general hold the Turks in high regard. We thought if there were a tea party in Rhodos he would be a member. Nonetheless we enjoyed him for his knowledge and his wit.
After the tour, we enjoyed wandering the streets of the old town. The mostly narrow streets are full of shops and the quality of what was offered is quite high. We now have a replica of one of the two representations of the goddess Aphrodite, that was on display at the museum. The old town is also full of restaurants and cafes and we very much enjoyed some mezes and retsina in one and retsina in another, both great people watching spots.
Dinner Tuesday night was in the main dining room. We were at a shared table and were joined by guests from Britain and New York, and we enjoyed some lively conversation. Greek specialties were the dinner feature and we sampled many. While they were OK, it was clear that Greek cooking was not the forte of the chefs onboard as we had much better Greek food in the small restaurants in the ports.