Trip to Rhodes

Well, one of the last things I did while I was in Bodrum was take a day-trip to Rhodes.  See the big white ship in this photo?  Well, that wasn't our boat.  We traveled for 2.5 hours along the coast of Turkey and then across the straight between Turkey and Rhodes in the little teeny tiny boat in front of the big one!  YIKES!

The cool thing about this little trip is that the boat left from the harbor in Bodrum and dropped us in the main harbor of Rhodes just in front of the old medieval walled part of Rhodes.  Here are a few pictures of the walls from the harbor:

Looking Across the Harbor to the Sea Walls

The Harbor Gate

Looking Back at the Sea Walls & Harbor Gate

Looking from inside the Sea Wall to the Commercial Harbor.

Rhodes is a very cool place because it has a history that goes back the Greek pre-history period.  It has a few Geek ruins still, but not many in the city of Rhodes (more around the island of Rhodes.)  It was famous in the Roman period, too - it was a rich free port.  But there aren't many ruins from this period, either.  Too much has happened in Rhodes since those days!

Most of the fantastic ruins and sites are from the period when Rhodes was owned by the Knights of St John, also called the Hospitallers.  It was a great power in the region - the castle at Bodrum was actually fortified and expanded to its current size by the Hospitallers.  

This is from one of the land gates up toward the castle of the Grand Master of the Order.

The Plaza & Entrance Gate in front of the Grand Master's Palace

Rhodes was captured from the Hospitallers in about 1520 by the Ottoman Turks - I think under Suleyiman the Magnificent.  So there are quite a few mosques in the city.  One is still actively used - I sat outside and listened to the prayer calls because I just happened to be walking by. Some are in ruins.  A few are restored and used by different archaeological organizations.   

The Mosque of Suleyiman.

Here's one of the main shopping streets in Rhodes.  Most of the streets in Rhodes inside the old walls seem to be pedestrian only. 

Here's another small plaza just inside the Sea Wall.

The old Hospital of the Hospitallers (hence the name!) was very cool.  I like this view from the ground floor looking up at the stairs that go to the first floor.

This is the arcade on the ground floor of the Hospital.  I like this because it really reminds me of a similar arcade at the church in the Garden of Gethsemane.  I should scan that photo and post it - I'd forgotten about it until I took this one!

Here's a view of a side street in Rhodes.

I liked this picture - I'm using it as a desktop photo.  It was just a view down a side street, too.

I definitely suggest a trip to Rhodes!  Maybe Mom and Dad will add a few thoughts from their trip there.  I seem to remember that they really enjoyed it!  I would like to go back and do some trips around the island to see other sites - some of the old Greek cities as well as the medieval sites (and sights...)

After this trip I went back to Bodrum (of course.)  I ended up being the only person at my hotel for the last 5 days, so I had the pool and the terrace all to myself.  I laid out by the pool, I slept in, I wandered around Bodrum.  I even rented a scooter and went out to see the building site where Kelly and Paul's Bodrum house is being built.  That was an adventure because for a while I was thinking, "I hope I can stop this thing!  I hope I can turn this thing!  I hope those big tour buses see me!"  It was cool.

That's it!  I'm back in the UK now.  After this trip I went to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for a bar mitzvah.  It was very fun.  I'll put some pictures up from that trip next.