April 21, Rhodes: How the other half lives!

What a luxurious day!  No ferries to catch, no appointments to keep, nothing we need that we can’t live without.  At breakfast, we made arrangements for dinner at our boutique hotel.  Since we were the only guests to do so, we have a private award winning chef who is going to make us an authentic Greek meal.  We met a couple from Britain, Averil and Nick, who have spent some time in Rhodes before, and gave us many helpful hints about how to spend our day.  If ever a day were well spent, this was it!  We walked completely around the city walls in the dry moat; saw the Grandmaster’s Palace, which might more accurately be called “The Kos Mosaic Museum”; strolled the city streets and did everything touristy, from having mezedes on a street corner to following tiny ancient passageways “just because” and even eating ice cream; to exploring the archaeological museum; to soaking in the huge double Jacuzzi, each with a good book, and letting the dust from four weeks of travel wash away.  Soon we will return to the vaulted breakfast room for our anticipated gourmet dinner.  This afternoon we listened to a street performer singing the ubiquitous "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end," and I was thinking how much less stressed I am at this point in my life than when I was young and callow.  

Our boutique hotel continues to amaze us.  There is a lovely garden out front, and the entire complex is nestled into the part of the Street of Knights where the Knights of the Spanish tongue once lived.  (If you have been to Rhodes before, we turn down an entrance just where the first building bridge is over the road.)  We arrived quite late last evening, and did not know we had to fill out a breakfast request, so we had to make do with what they had – which included an absolutely perfect boiled egg, delicious brown bread, and thick yogurt with muesli.  The couple at the next table advised us to walk around the walls, as they had done so before, and the walls are only open on Tuesdays and Saturdays.  We ordered dinner, and we were off.

The entrance to our hotel is just beyond the car.

Down the street where we live!  Ian took a picture of me from where he is standing in the picture above.

Because of its location between several continents and seas and its fabulous climate, Rhodes has been inhabited for thousands of years, first by the Minoans, the Phoenicians, the Carians in early history; the Hellenic Greeks and Romans in the classical era; and famously, the Knights of Rhodes built their fortified city here in 1309, after “overcoming the inhabitants’ heroic resistance”, according to our guidebook.  This was a base for the Knights of St. John for 213 years.  As in Bodrum, each separate language group had its own “mini-castle” run by a master within the city walls: Italian, German, Spanish (split into Aragon and Castille), French, Provence, Auvergne, and English.  Over all of these, the Grand Master ruled, and the official language for all was Latin.  Like the other castles we visited in Kos and in Bodrum, also built by and for the Knights of St. John, the City of Rhodes was built on the ruins of other cultures and civilizations, and the massive city fortifications incorporate a great deal of spoilia (stone blocks and other items recycled from other buildings).  The well preserved castles and walls make up for the other civilizations the Knights obscure.

The vaulted stone hall at the top of the Street of Knights

A tower of the Grand Master's Palace

The outside wall of the Grand Master's Palace

We couldn’t find the wall walk, or the tourist office (the tourist offices are closed), but we found the Grand Master’s Palace, and as neither of us had been before, we went in.  The building is magnificent – so massive that it is hard to get a photo that shows the scale from within the courtyard.  When the island, and indeed much of Greece, was under Turkish control, the Palace was used as a prison, and then allowed to crumble, until the Italians rebuilt it, as faithfully as possible, finishing their work in 1940.  Under the palace they found the temple of Helios, the patron God of Rhodes, but were not able to restore any of it.  If you remember, the Island of Kos was levelled by an earthquake in 1933, and many amazing mosaics were found.  The majority of these were lifted and transported to the Grand Master’s  Palace, to preserve them. The building is certainly a fitting setting for these jewels.

The seats in the Master's Meeting Room.

The seats in the Chapter Room.  Notice the mosaic on the floor in front.  Each armrest has a little face on it, and each one is different.

I think Ian might have been the model for this little guy, or at least for his hair.

The ceilings and the chandeliers were equally magnificent.

I am limiting myself to one picture of a mosaic.  The pictures don't really do them justice!

We next went and stood on the bridge just outside of the Grand Master's Gate.  I took a photo from here my first time in Rhodes, and used it to paint a watercolour that no one will ever see, but that gave me a lot of pleasure to do.  A few minutes later we had slipped back inside the inner wall, through a tunnel underneath, and were out in the dry moat.  I felt like I'd stepped into my own painting, like in Mary Poppins.  We spent a morning circumnavigating the walls of Rhodes.  We took much longer than anyone else would have, as the area between the outer defensive walls and the inner city walls was not only amazingly photogenic on its own, but filled with lizards, birds, wild flowers, and fabulous warm spring weather.

Virtually the same view as my painting, although without the poppies and daisies, as the grass is freshly mowed.

The path around the walled city.

Poppies, Marguerite daisies, malva, lavender, and many flowers I can't name grew in perfusion, even on the castle walls themselves.

At first we wondered why there were so many tunnels and other entrances through the walls, and then we realized that the walls were built over an ancient city, which occasionally intrudes into the modern world, as this piece does.  The Knights made use of vaults that already existed to make passageways.

A green lizard.  To the lady that worried about all the lizards I've mentioned, I assure you that they are actually hard to see, unless you are traveling with someone who LOVES to see them in the wild, as Ian does.  If you aren't looking for them, you won't see them, and they will run away from you in any case.

The city walls.

Following our walk , which we ended at the cruise ship terminal temporarily, we wandered about the town, seeing the many ruined churches, Byzantine structures, streets of café’s and shops, and even bought a couple of cooler shirts.  Rhodes, which had been dull and closed the evening before, really came to life with the two cruise ships in town.  We went back to our hotel to drop off our sweaters and pick up Ian’s hat, and then completed our circuit before we headed to the Archeology museum, arriving just an hour before closing.

The ruined church of St. Catherine.  Some local children rode bikes there and were playing a card game in the nave.

Two parrots.  I have a picture of two of my students with a parrot made out of fruit, taken at this same spot, don't I Amy?

This looked like a fun street to duck down, so we did!

The first time I went to Europe as an adult, I spent a long time in the museum with one of the curators.  I was so excited and even awed to see anything, I was afraid I would start to cry right in front of the poor man.  In some ways, this museum experience was like a museum of me!  I understand so much of what I see better now, and can place it in context, order of time, and even name its style and function, but I still have this sense of amazement when I see the art and architecture of another age.  It is incredible that so much has come down to us!  I also appreciated having Ian to share it with me.

The Archeology Museum is housed in the Knight's Hospitaler, where Knights in transit to and from the Crusades would stay. This big room was the actual hospital area, where medical treatment was provided.  Grave markers and carvings of Coats of Arms are displayed along the sides of the room.

A gravestone for a knight.  There were many of these in the hospital, and I was sorry that the knights now lie in unmarked graves, and even more sorry that the faces on the grave markers were almost always defaced.

A small statue of Hygeia, goddess of health.

The Venus of Rhodes

Stepping out onto an ancient mosaic.