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Published: July 22nd 2007
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Fit for a King
Old town Rhodes is a beautiful 3rd century castle. If you have to live somewhere, I guess it will do. “It is only 41 degrees? The real heat won’t start for a few days.” No wonder we can only be up for 2 hours and then have to have a siesta.
We had an amazing travel agent and she has planned things so that each of our experiences has been incredibly different and special - Thanks Marla (I know it’s a bit sucky but it is true).
As we mentioned, our nice little 16 passenger plane bumped and bounced its way across the Mediterranean and deposited us in Rhodes. Each time we land in a new place, there is the dilemma of whether we should venturously take the local bus or acquiesce and take a taxi. The extreme heat and uncertainty of how far the town of Rhodes was (as well as not knowing the location of our hotel) made the taxi an easy decision this time. It was a great choice with Marla bargaining and getting us the price we deserved (we don’t let Trevor the marshmallow do that sort of important task - we think he might have tipped the driver but that hasn’t been completely verified yet). It was quite amazing to be dropped off
Spot Hotel
An amazing retreat off of the square down one of Old Town Rhodes' endless narrow alleys (note: kids heads sticking out of their room). at the gates of the old town, as autos were not allowed in, and to begin this leg of the amazing race. For those not in tune with this particular American reality show, contestants are left to their own devices in foreign places to try and figure out different tasks. In 40 C heat, our task was to follow a taxi drivers uncertain gesture and find our hotel in the 5 km square castled area known as the old town. Our first 4 requests of locals gave us no clue as to where our hotel was. Putting the packs down, we pulled out our books and tried to get our bearings in the maze of the narrowest alleyways and partial streets. We have come up with our own saying, “There is no dead end in Greece.” It seems like the smallest lane will always lead you somewhere (I know that is not profound but it is true in some weird and quirky way). We have also come to realize that Trevor has an internal GPS (Marla’s words, not his) and it didn’t take long for us to find Lee and the Spot hotel, half a block off of a beautiful
Afternoon retreat
Wonderful sanctuary where we read and sipped tea (or coke) square. Our rooms weren’t ready so we grabbed a couple of cold drinks and began what would be two fantastic and memorable days of wandering an ancient castle and finding our own little treasures in unexpected places.
As has been the case in each of our stays, the hotel was a beautiful little clean 12 room pension with a peaceful garden retreat out back for drinking your coffee in the morning or reading your books in the afternoon. Rhodes is the oldest inhabited medieval town in Europe (the finest surviving example of the defensive architecture of that time). The walls of the city are 12 metres thick and form an impressive stronghold against an outside attack and there are 9 gates to enter in and out of the old town. One only need to go a block or two off the main thoroughfare to see people living their own lives in much the same way that they have for a long time, unencumbered by the celebrity status of their touristy neighbours. As Lonely Planet says, “Rhodes has attitude and spirit - in large doses.”
It was a great feeling to be out walking inside the walls of the
Avenue of the Knights
Famous walkway with 6 different languages of Knights represented all the way up the lane leading to the "Master's" residence castle and imagining the Knights of St John filling the streets with their energy as they did back between the 1300 and 1500’s. The Knights Templar, a powerful Christian group, was established in the 1100’s as a means of fighting the growing Muslim population. In the 1300’s, the Knights Templar were pushed out of Jerusalem by the rising power of Islam and fought to maintain themselves in the islands. The Knights Templar was dissolved and the land was given over to the Knights Hospitallers (also known here as the Knights of St John) who cared for the sick and poor. This group was itself pushed out in the 1500’s. Since then, the Turks (Ottomans), Italians and finally the Greeks (only since the 1940’s) have all laid claim to this strategic island. The architecture is represented today by the fact that the town is divided into three main Quarters (you do the math??): the Knights quarter, the Jewish quarter and the Hora (Turkish) quarter. What is amazing about Rhodes is that it does not have one linear history but is a twisted and torn story of conquest and deliverance. This is so evident as one walks around and soaks in the
Amazing race
Note the 3 amazing race contestants working their way through their last clue differences in each of the various sections.
We have slowly become accustomed to the Greek patterns of life with shops opening up around 9:30 or 10 am and then closing between 2 and 5pm only to be completely bustling with activity well past 10pm. The locals and tourists alike seem to head out for dinner sometime between 9 and 10 pm so we never had to jostle for seats at our early dinner hour of 8pm. The whole old town is busy all day but doesn’t reach its height of energy until 10 pm with kids and adults alike filling the streets with energy and spirit.
Lastly, our stay here took a page out of a trip we did with friends last year. We set our kids to the challenge of finding their way around the old town (you are not allowed outside the gates, okay?? (at least the first day)). Armed with a map, 5 Euros, a camera and 7 clues, they needed to fulfill each task if they wanted to earn their dinner. The 3 excited amazing racers (well, as excited as a 13 yr old can get with his two younger sisters) headed out to
Sanctuary
To get away from the heat, a McDonald's shake was an appropriate reward for the contestants (they found this after 1/2 an hour of meadering and asking for help) find the Museum of Architecture, locate a particular silver store, find out what was special about a nearby ice cream place and locate a mosque, among other things (buying ice cream and cokes along the way). The racers completed their first race in just under an hour and claimed that it was too easy. That evening, they had to find our dinner place (without a map) but managed to beat us there. The next day, lunch was on the line as the needed to find the one local McDonalds, in the New Town, which was outside the gates, leaving the hotel with no map in hand. This proved to be one of the most difficult tasks but the ladies prevailed in their ability to ask store owners for help in broken Greek and lots of sign language. Matthew proved to have inherited most of Dad’s GPS ability. The different tasks that the kids did here allowed us to tour the complete castle and surrounding areas without them realizing that we were “doing history”. Adults 1 - Kids 0. We are now off to Turkey and the town of Fethiye.
One final addition. We had on of the best meals
Bye Bye Greece
6 am departure out the old town gates onto the ferry to Turkey. we have ever had at the Mandala restaurant. Swedish owned with a French chef serving fusion Greek and/or European cuisine, we ate like kings and vowed to return (which we did the next night). The waitress and cook loved the kids and we were treated like royalty. Melted brie bruchetta (kids ultimate favourite), chicken ceasar, brie salad with the works, chicken mandala pasta (also kids fave) and a pork special (stuffed with feta cheese). Salivating as we write this, we'll leave it there.
The adventure continues.
Kids Corner and Quotes:
Courtney: “Come on Mom, you can do it. Just pretend you’re a kid.”
Sydney: "This is the best meal I have ever had. Oh, sorry Mom, your's is good too!"
Matthew: "Do they have gyros in Turkey?"
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