20th December – Rhodes

So Friday and we are berthed at Rhodes. A small island off the Turkish coast but actually part of Greece. It is an ancient part of numerous sea routes as well as the Silk Road and in the 1500s under the control of the Knights of St John/Templars.

We started with a hop-on & hop-off bus tour but none of the stops tempted us to hop-off so we got off at the last stop – the gate into the old town. The old town is like exploring a labyrinth with cobbled lanes winding around in no straight lines. Overhead were lots of arches appearing to hold the buildings apart and the following day the guest lecturer explained that was exactly what they were for – built in the 16th century to reinforce the buildings from damage sustained during assaults from Suleyman trying to claim the island from the Templars for the Ottoman Empire. He did succeed after a yearlong campaign.

One advantage while docked in Rhodes was I could turn Mobile Roaming on and try to put pictures up to Facebook and What’s Ap but although I collected emails and messages the signal would not upload photos. So I am writing the blog in Apple Pages and hope I can upload them to WordPress when we return to Cyprus at the end of the week. 😥