Everyone we spoke to about Greece offers the following advice, "Leave Athens as soon as possible." So after only a few days on the mainland, we began our Greek Island adventure in Rhodes. We chose it because it was warm(er) than the mainland, it was open (many islands shut down when it's out of season), and it had enough diversions to keep us busy for a full week.
The town town is divided into two appropriately named sections, Old Town and New Town.
The older section of the city, Old Town, is a medieval walled city complete with a moat and castle. En route to home from the crusades, the Knights of Saint John landed in Rhodes around 1306 and began construction of the walled fortress that was later added on by the Turks and Italians and thankfully exists to this day.
It is now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as is a maze of winding alleys, large shopping promenades and narrow side streets.
Here it is at night, empty since all the cruise ships left.
As you can tell from the photos, other than the cruise ships that docked during the day, we were some of the only tourists, which was awesome. Besides the thousands of feral cats that inhabit old town, we really got the entire place to ourselves to explore and take in what daily life is like for the locals.
In addition the walled City, Rhodes also boasts it's own Acropolis and Olympic style gymnasium built in the 2nd century BC.
During one of our days we rented a scooter and cruised around the island, taking in the beautiful coast line and wild flowers along the crystal clear Mediterranean.
Outside the walled city, exists the modern center of the city, New Town. It is a port city complete with shopping streets, markets, modern buildings mixed seamlessly in with old ones and a plethora of hotels to handle all the tourists that flock here in the summer months.
Below is the Ancient Harbor, that still stands today and in the 2nd century BC would have displayed the 120 foot Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, straddling the harbor during the height of her maritime power. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by an earthquake 60 years after it was built.
Nowadays the harbor plays host to local fisherman, although we guessed they don't catch many fish. While sitting port side for a few hours, the man fishing at the end hooked something. Within seconds, 30 people went running over to help him reel it in the beast of a whale but instead all they got was a small bait fish.
No review on our trip could be complete with how our time was really spent, reading, lounging, eating and drinking.
Similar to Athens and Delphi before, the food was great and our daily routine looked like this: coffee in the morning, Greek salad for lunch and pork gyro platters for dinner.
The town town is divided into two appropriately named sections, Old Town and New Town.
The older section of the city, Old Town, is a medieval walled city complete with a moat and castle. En route to home from the crusades, the Knights of Saint John landed in Rhodes around 1306 and began construction of the walled fortress that was later added on by the Turks and Italians and thankfully exists to this day.
It is now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as is a maze of winding alleys, large shopping promenades and narrow side streets.
Here it is at night, empty since all the cruise ships left.
As you can tell from the photos, other than the cruise ships that docked during the day, we were some of the only tourists, which was awesome. Besides the thousands of feral cats that inhabit old town, we really got the entire place to ourselves to explore and take in what daily life is like for the locals.
In addition the walled City, Rhodes also boasts it's own Acropolis and Olympic style gymnasium built in the 2nd century BC.
During one of our days we rented a scooter and cruised around the island, taking in the beautiful coast line and wild flowers along the crystal clear Mediterranean.
Outside the walled city, exists the modern center of the city, New Town. It is a port city complete with shopping streets, markets, modern buildings mixed seamlessly in with old ones and a plethora of hotels to handle all the tourists that flock here in the summer months.
Below is the Ancient Harbor, that still stands today and in the 2nd century BC would have displayed the 120 foot Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, straddling the harbor during the height of her maritime power. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by an earthquake 60 years after it was built.
Nowadays the harbor plays host to local fisherman, although we guessed they don't catch many fish. While sitting port side for a few hours, the man fishing at the end hooked something. Within seconds, 30 people went running over to help him reel it in the beast of a whale but instead all they got was a small bait fish.
No review on our trip could be complete with how our time was really spent, reading, lounging, eating and drinking.
Similar to Athens and Delphi before, the food was great and our daily routine looked like this: coffee in the morning, Greek salad for lunch and pork gyro platters for dinner.
Plus, we found this cute little restaurant called Koykos that had pies, mezze and great local wine. We would get a table and spend hours there eating, drinking, playing cards, reading and people watching. This led us to ponder if there is such a thing as bad Greek food.
Beer out a of a glass boot, genius! They put ice in the toes, so the bottom of your beer stays cold.
Finally, we stopped everyday to visit our favorite Italian gelato man. His wife makes it and he sells it everyday out of the little car he made.
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