Wednesday--February 2 --Rhodes, Greece

Wednesday--February 2--Rhodes, Greece

Just stayed in town today.  Again I started my day at the Finn Cafe. 


Today I have a piece of spinach pie for breakfast today with my latte.  I hang out for a while writing then take my computer back to the hotel and walk to the old town.  It’s only about a 10 minute walk.  The hotel is in a good location; close to the water and not far from the main part of town.  

As I walk into the old town I see a group of kids down below playing soccer.  I wish I could upload video more easily but it’s just very slow and too frustrating.

Rhodes Old City entrance

When I walk into the old town I see great shadows from the tree lined street next to the castle.

First stop the museum of the Knights Castle.

The Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes is a palace in the town of Rhodes, on the island of Rhodes in Greece. The palace was built in the 14th century by the Knights of Rhodes, who occupied Rhodes from 1309 to 1522. After the island was captured by the Ottoman Empire, the palace was used as a fortress. 

The original palace was largely destroyed by an ammunition explosion in 1856. When the Kingdom of Italy occupied Rhodes in 1912, the Italians rebuilt the palace in a grandiose pseudo-medieval style as a holiday residence for Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, and later for Benito Mussolini, whose name can still be seen on a large plaque near the entrance.

On 10 February 1947, the Treaty of Peace with Italy, one of the Paris Peace Treaties, determined that the recently-established Italian Republic would transfer the Dodecanese to the Kingdom of Greece. In 1948, Rhodes and the rest of the Dodecanese were transferred as previously agreed. The Greeks converted the palace to a museum.

The Knights Castle was Gothic style and more Roman than Greek.  Lots of beautiful mosaics, mostly ones that came from Kos.  There were mosaics of what are either hearts or spades.  


Also I was drawn to a mosaic of a woman and then discovered it was Medea.  

Medea

Not suppose to look in her eyes or you’ll turn to stone.  

I also found I liked these heads that were on top of the chairs.  I’m not sure what their significance is but I really liked the detail. 

The castle was pretty big and took me a while to get through.  

After the castle I thought I would find the art gallery’s that the tourist woman had told me about.  I found the main street in the old town where one of them was suppose to be but a nice man told me nearly everything was closed.  

I continued walking through the old town, found a church and then a very interesting man in a byzantine icon workshop.  

He invited me in and I watched him do his work for a bit.  He explained how he painted and the importance of using egg yokes to set the all natural pigments that were used on the icons.  He told me that many of the old painted have survived because of the natural pigment and the use of egg yokes to set the paint.  I never knew that.  I was very fascinated by his work and realized he must have incredible patience because the large icons can take many months to complete.  

When I left the workshop I walked along the harbor.  I found a Dolphin sculpture that reminded me of Santa Barbara, it is a bit smaller than the one we have in Santa Barbara but none the less.  

I also saw the ferry that I had come to Rhodes on sitting in the harbor.  

Then as I continued walking around the wall of the harbor I found the Municipal Art Gallery of Contemporary Greek art.  

They had an interesting exhibit by a Greek artist whose name I cannot tell you.  The art was rather flat but what was interesting was the hair on many of his subjects flew out to the side of the head.  I’d never seen a style like this.

I was a bit hungry so I continued walking in the new part of town and found a nice little cafe.  I had a tuna sandwich and one of those fabulous Greek coffees.  Well the only thing left to do is go to the aquarium.  As I’m walking to the aquarium I realize I forgot to go to the Rhodes acropolis and stadium.  Oops, now I’m on the wrong side of town.  Guess I’ll have to miss it because it’s 3:30 and I think it closes at 4:00.  Not sure but not going.  

I continue walking along with water and find the aquarium.  Pretty sad not impressive at all.  I continued walking along the water and found many people on the beach. 

 Several men were playing paddle ball and lots of people were swimming.  The sun was out but the temperature was only about 11 or 12 degrees celsius maybe 55 or 60 degrees fahrenheit.   It was a lovely day and I knew that it was going to rain tomorrow so I was enjoying the sun.  

Dinner tonight was at the Italian restaurant across the street.  

I had a bruschetta that was more like a pizza it was a crusty piece of toast with melted cheese and tomatoes on top (one piece not several small pieces that I'm used to) and pasta with pesto.  All was delicious but way too much food. 

Back to my room another night of packing.