Rhodes - March 31st

Up until our arrival in the port, Michael and I weren’t positive that we had been to Rhodes.  Once we saw the city wall, we knew immediately that we had visited this beautiful city about ten years ago on our trip to Greece.

Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in Greece and it is located 11 miles southwest of Turkey in the eastern Aegean Sea.  The Old City which we again visited was once the home to the Knights of St. John, and the walled city is a living settlement of some 6,000 people who live and work in the same buildings that were used by the knights over 500 years ago. 

Excursions were available to the Acropolis of Lindos and elsewhere, but we were quite happy to enjoy walking the labyrinth of streets that we encountered once we entered one of the many “gates” in the city wall. 

Before we entered the old town, we walked from the ship along the harbor and the water was crystal clear.  Coming upon the sculpture of three dolphins, Michael reminisced about seeing one of his favorite movies, “Boy on a Dolphin” starring his all-time favorite, Sophia Loren, and I’m sure he imagined the Italian beauty recreating her most famous scene from that movie -- her emergence as a scantily-clad sponge diver from the water alongside the boat in the harbor of Rhodes.  His fantasy quickly evaporated into the sea air as we came upon a vendor selling cabbage peelers - yes, the man had a mound of shredded carrots and cabbage in front of him to show everyone how easy it was to peel vegetables with his little plastic utensil.  Also quite popular was a squishy ball that looked clear with a big yellow blob in it – the man showed us what you did with them –- you threw it on the ground and it splattered like an egg.   We offered a dollar for one but the man, surprisingly, refused and insisted on 2€.  We moved on. 

We entered one of the “gates” in the wall, and entered an ancient world.  The first store we came upon on our left was one selling fabrics – beautiful silks of red, gold, white, blue, and black solids and patterns and wished I actually knew how to use my sewing machine other than to sew a straight seam.  The fabrics were gorgeous but, knowing my limitations, I easily moved on.

The city is a maze of streets but we stayed on the main road, walking upon hundreds of year old cobblestones looking in the many shops selling t-shirts, magnets, jewelry and clothing.  We even came upon a shop that for 5€ we could immerse our feet into a vat of water which contained hundreds of those little fish that eat dead skin.  I said I would do it if Michael would, but he refused.  We’d heard about this practice, but did not partake. 

We came upon a young man who allowed us to take pictures with his exotic parrot and refused the few bucks Michael offered him for the opportunity.  His only wish was for us to come back and have lunch in his café.  Sadly, we did not. 

As I said, there were lots of shops and I’m happy to report that I helped the Greek economy – much needed – by gladly purchasing a few items of clothing (we will need to buy another suitcase when we arrive in Bermuda) and, I have to say, even if I didn’t purchase anything in a particular store, all the shopkeepers were very happy to show us around and extremely friendly. 

On our way back to the ship, another man invited us into his café for lunch.  We politely refused and as we walked past him, he called us by name.  I was shocked and looked back as he motioned for us to come and sit down, again using our names.  In that split second, I had no idea how he knew our names were Michael and Leona until I realized that our friends, Rosemarie and Norm, were enjoying a lovely lunch and they told him our names!  We chatted a bit with them, not too obviously salivating over their plate of tomatoes and feta cheese with hummus and pita bread, but moved on because I had my heart set on something else.

When we entered the city, I noticed a store selling Greek yogurt and we walked back there only to find that their machine was not working.  I was totally heart-broken.  We walked a couple of stores down and came across a “Ben and Jerry’s” but soon found out that they did, in fact, sell Greek yogurt in addition to American ice cream.  I ordered a small cup of plain Greek yogurt with black cherries while Michael ordered an espresso.  The taste was nothing like frozen yogurt in the states and I thoroughly enjoyed the tartness of the yogurt combined with the sweetness of the cherries.  Absolutely yummy.  While sitting there and taking a photo of the wall which had the café’s logo painted on it, “Royo,” a lovely young woman told us that the yogurt is made right there and that we should “like” it on Facebook.  When I got back to the ship, I, of course, “liked” Royo’s page and wrote a raving review of the yogurt and within an hour, my review was replied to thanking me for stopping in.  How nice was that? 

We walked back along the harbor, passing once again, the sculpture of three dolphins (Sophia nowhere to be seen) and embarked our home away from home thinking about the lovely day, the magnificent weather we enjoyed, the taste of Greek yogurt still on my lips, and looking forward to our next port, Chania. 

Michael’s Observations:   Don’t bother me now, I’m watching “Boy on a Dolphin.”  Directed to me:  “Did I tell you that you mind me of Sophia Loren’s sister?”