RHODES, GREECE

April 18, 2023

Mostly sunny; high around 68 deg F.


Rhodes is a beautiful resort destination Greek island in the Aegean Sea.  It is only 12 miles from Turkey and 250 miles to Greece.   Like so many places we have visited it has a rich history, having been conquered by the Romans, Persians and Egyptians.   The old town is surrounded by a massive rock wall and a deep moat (dry now).   In one famous battle a large Macedonian force failed to breech the wall, and to celebrate, the Rhodesians built a massive statue at the entrance of the harbor, called the Colossus of Rhodes.  It was a statute of the sun god and stood 108 feet tall.   An earthquake knocked it down in 220 BC and the Rhodesians decided to leave it be. 


We had visited Rhodes in 2012 and decided to just explore on our own.   We took a Hop On-Hop Off bus around the Island and then stopped at a Greek restaurant to try their Gyros for lunch.   Excellent!   To work off the calories we started walking and soon  found we had entered the moat that surrounds the old town.   The trail is like granite gravel and easy to walk on.  Spring wildflowers were in abundance.  We walked and walked and walked and finally after about 3 miles came out near the entrance to the port where our ship was docked.   We met some folks on the walk and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.  The first were two older men (locals) who told us about the Nazi bullet holes in the stone.  Next were two young women students on holiday from Amsterdam, one was Dutch and the other was from Azerbaijan.  We took their picture on the stage in the amphitheater, then they wanted to know about us and insisted on a selfie with us.  Such delightful young people.


With an abundance of sunshine, plenty of beaches, hotels, restaurants and all of the wonderful historic structures and artifacts in the Old City, Rhodes is a very popular resort destination, particularly for Europeans as it is part of the EU. 


              Rhodes, Greece

 
                                    Part of the Massive wall surrounding the Old Town


                                     The walkway in the moat that surrounds the Old City


                           Tree just leafing out in the moat


                           Shows the relative height of the walls in the moat



                Beautiful daisies throughout the moat--see the butterfly getting some nectar

                     Close-up of a poppy which were in abundance

                   

                              The ugly side.   Bullet holes from machine guns fired by the Nazis in WWII

                       Us with two super friendlies we met on the trail.   

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