Road to Rhodes, Our last Greek Isle

One more stop takes us to the Island of Rhodes. Its claim to fame in the ancient world was the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The statue represented the sun god Helios, which stood 107 feet tall at the harbor entrance. Ships would sail into the harbor through its legs. You can still envision where the statue stood, but nothing is left of it. After it was destroyed in an earthquake in 226 BC the bronze was sold for scrap.

What makes Rhodes unique in the world today is it’s medieval town that still thrives inside the fortress of the stone walls built in the 14th century by the Knights of St John. With twelve feet thick walls and a mote surrounding it, the city was protected for centuries while other islands were conquered. At its zenith it had a population of over 40,000 residents. Maybe what is more amazing is there are still 10,000 permanent residents that are living in the exact same apartments built centuries ago. The old town is not a museum that you wander through and wonder how life might have been. It is a living, breathing city where it doesn’t take much of an imagination of how it must have existed 8 centuries ago. The horses and armor are gone, but travelers pass through as they have for thousands of years buying trinkets and memorabilia to remind them of their time on this ancient island.

We spent almost a week there climbing through the stone-paved streets and visiting the museums that document the centuries of history. It rained a couple of days while we were there but when the sun came out; it was still warm enough to head to the beach in the afternoons. One of the days we took the local bus to the town of Lyndos about an hour south along the coast. There perched on the top of a sheer cliffs that plunge into the ocean are the ruins of a once thriving Greek acropolis.

We were wandering around the markets and ended up meeting George, a gay store owner. He gave us suggestions of what to do. We went to the local Hamam and had a great time with the guys there. In the evening we met up with George and had some drinks with him. He ended up inviting us back to his apartment for the night that was originally built in the 13th century. It is quite amazing to be in a place that has been in continuous use for that many centuries.

Sometimes I feel so connected to these people that lived on this earth thousands of years ago. When you visit a city like Rhodes, you realize that not much has changed over the centuries. The signs have gone from hand carved wooden ones to neon lit plastic but shop owners are still hocking their wares, couples are sipping drinks and eating in the sidewalk cafes, children are playing in the fountains and chasing the pigeons, adolescents are checking each other out, old women are kneading bread and birds are still eating the scraps that fall from the tables.