Inscription from 600 BC. About two inches high. At Delos, statue platform.

Rhodes: May 26, 2012: Sub- sub- page

This follows on from a "higher" page, giving how our day at Rhodes began. Here's the heart of the map again...

A: Amboise Gate, Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes. A fairy tale medieval castle, if ever I visited one. Built in the 14th century. (The Knights of Rhodes ran things around here from 1309 to 1522. Also known as the Knights Hospitaller.)

B: The outer courtyard of the castle, inside the very impressive fortifications of castle and city.

C: Inner courtyard of castle.

D: (In yellow, just to make it stand out agains what is behind it.) Top of long street running down the hill. We set off down it at 10:50.

I'm working from memory here, and can't confirm my recollections online (easily). I know "this was the street". I'm a little shaky on the details, but, as I recall, along this street were the "minor" palaces of the "ambassadors", i.e. the places where contingents of the knights of the "Order of Hospitallers" lived, usually grouped by country of origin. All of this is tied in with The Crusades. One descendant of the Order of Hospitallers is the modern day British Order of St John. To quote Wikipeida, "Its best-known activities centre upon the St. John Ambulance brigade and the St. John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. The Venerable Order has had a presence on Malta since the late 19th century." The St John Ambulance is well known in the UK, providing services similar to those of the Red Cross, which, of course, is also active there. (Like the photo, I hope? Took about 2 hours to create! (Tell you the story someday, maybe.))

E: At the bottom of the street, at "e", we were still inside the city walls, and walked a little further with our guide, to "f", but were soon turned loose to explore, or go back to ship.

F: One of the several "squares" inside the old city.

(Plaque to go on wall. Covered with bubble wrap, hence weird texture.)

G: I'd tried to keep what I brought with me to a minium, and foolishly thought I could get away with one pair of trousers. Well, that wasn't going to work, so purchased an extra pair in Rhodes, near "G". It was time for lunch, so I asked the shopkeeper for a recommendation... something locals would use. I really prefer to visit a country when I travel, not spend all my time in tourophilic bubbles. His daugher worked at "Stavros' place", just a few streets away, which I've already shown you on the page this is a sub- sub page from....

H: Location of Stavros' restauruant. Very nice it was, too! At Platonos (N/S) and Deinokratous (E/W, ending at Platonos), next time you are in Rhodes.

I: Another square in the old town. I'd brought a computer with me on the trip... first time ever. (It was primarily to be used to make backups of photos on a daily basis. No more living in terror of a lost bag until home. Hmmm... I just realized that I was in danger of losing all my photos. When I packed, one complete set was in my computer, in my packed bag. A second complete set, on the memory cards, was in my backpack. At the airport, I had to take the computer out of my bag... no easy feat, as of course it was at the heart of the bag, sigh. And I took it back to the UK in the backpack. Oops. Oh well... backpack not snatched, so all well. Whew.)

Anyway... I had a computer with me. And, being a computer, it gave grief. The software for my GPS logger had not installed properly. I wanted to back up the GPS logs, too, so went to an internet cafe in the square at "I". Only cost 6 Euros, for which I also had a nice glass of good, fresh squeezed, orange juice. (In Turkey, anything goes... dollars, euros, Turkish lira. I didn't try British pounds, but have no doubt they would have been accepted.) (Never did solve that problem. Argh. Computers. Will still take little one on trips, but will be even more careful not to turn it on except to back up photos!)

This was the square where some entrepreneur had a bunch of parrots to draw the tourists. I've always found macaws magnificent. My little canine friend wasn't too sure.

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