Blogs from Rhodes, South Aegean, Greece, Europe - page 14

Hello to all the Canucks back at home and abroad! It sounds like Vancouver Island had a fantastic long weekend, with great weather to match a great celebration…not a bad way to kick off the summer! Well, even though we’ve been enjoying summer weather for the last 6 months, we still showed our “true north strong and free” pride yesterday and educated the Greeks in Canadiana. No we did not have a war of independence with the British or the French; No we are not American; No we do not all speak French; No we do not sound like Australians; and Yes we do love our country and on July 1st we celebrate it loud and proud!!! Canada Day, for Kelsey and I, started off by singing “Oh Canada” while we were still in bed. (Seriously!) ... read more

Island hopping through the Greek islands, it's a dirty job but someone has to do it! We are struggling through this task with our first stop in Rhodes. It remains pretty much the same from visit to visit. This stop was most pleasant with lovely spring weather and reduced tourist crowds. The Old Town is charming and the New Town seems to be growing. We did all of the standard tourist stops to the Avenue of the Knights, the Palace of the Grand Master, the Square for the Jewish Martyrs, and the main Plaka. We ate lots of Greek Salads, Moussaka, and Gyros and loved every mouthful. One memorable sight, near the harbor, was the large dog riding on a motor bike with his owner along the main harbor drive. The dog didn't seem to have ... read more

I thought I'd detail another aspect of Rhodes. The old town of Rhodes is encircled by these tall, thick stone walls built to repel any kind of siege. The old town is like a fortress. Kathleena and I were walking and I happened to see a short row of square holes through the wall. I could see vegetation through the holes and they were big enough for me to crawl through without any squirming or fuss. So I did, and found myself in an arched little space close to the ground. I stuck my head out and, seeing no video cameras, crept out. I was in the space between a tower and the wall surrounding it. There were grass and flowers growing wild everywhere, just as if no-one ever went back there. I walked along that ... read more

Rhodes was definately a little different than I expected. In Athens we were two tourists surrounded by Athenians, in Rhodes we were two Canadian tourists surrounded by tons of German and British tourists. I was expecting this island to be less touristy than Athens but it is actually more so. We have been busy since we last wrote. On Friday we explored the Old Town of Rhodes. The town is surrounded by medieval fortress walls that are still pretty intact. The center of town contains the Palace of the Grand Masters, the clock tower, bridges, many gates (entrances to the town), and many narrow cobblestone alleyways. It was fun to walk around the old town and picture what it was like to live there all those years ago. The most interesting part is that people still ... read more

Yesterday we arrived in Kusadasi Turkey. We had a guided tour of the ancient city of Ephesus, which was the first city to have a running water system. The tour was all walking downhill, we have taken many pictures of everything! Our driver dropped us off at the top, and picked us up some two hours later, the design of the city was very cool. We also visited the temple of Artemis, which is one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, now just one standing column and a big pile of marble pieces. Now onto another day, after a slow (14 knot cruise) through the Greek archipelago we have docked on the island of Rhodes, a small but beautiful island, as the ship docked this morning the rain started to fall, heavy at times, ... read more