With nothing booked today, we enjoyed a little extra time in bed. The ship was cleared at 8:00 and we made our way ashore not long after.
Lots of tour buses seemed to head off elsewhere so we enjoyed looking around the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes which was more or less deserted.
It’s a really fascinating place, the building itself is very impressive let alone some of the artefacts housed within the rooms on the top floor. After that, we set about walking around the inside of the medieval city which is so picturesque with all its small alleyways and passages.
All the traders started to come to life as we walked around, all wanting to sell you the best meal or souvenirs of Rhodes, but if you can turn a blind eye to it all then it’s a really lovely place to visit. We like to try and find somewhere vegan for Nicole to eat when we are ashore and using the Happy Cow app on the phone found somewhere really good just off the beaten track.
After walking the food off, so we set off to visit Saint Nicholas Fortress which when we got there found it isn’t open to the public.
Just along the jetty at the entrance to the harbour are two columns each with a bronze deer (a stag and a doe) at the top. Apart from being the symbol of the island, they stand guard at the entrance to the harbour.
They are also believed to mark the location of the Colossus of Rhodes which was a statue of the Greek sun god Helios, it was said to be the same size as the Statue of Liberty but collapsed during the earthquake of 226 BC.
On our way back to the ship we stopped off at the Church of Panagia tou Kastrou (Our Lady of the Castle) for a quick investigation. The building was originally built as a Byzantine church which was subsequently converted into a mosque. Today it houses a small exhibition of icons and medieval sculptures.
After a quick gelato, we made our way back to the ship to relax for the rest of the afternoon.
It’s been another fabulous day and we have thoroughly enjoyed our first visit to Rhodes. Sailaway was at 5:00 and we are now on our way to Kusadasi.
