Destination: Greece & Turkey
Duration: 18 Days 17 Nights (Aug 06~Aug 23, 2012)
Day 11: Rhodes
Waking up in the morning with a stunning view of Rhodes Medieval Fortress – definitely a pleasant surprise and differentiation from the other islands that we’d visited. Rhodes is one of the Dodecanese islands in Greece and it was very famous and popular for its Medieval Old Town.
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| View from our Cabin Balcony |
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| Jacuzzi and Swimming Pool in Costa Atlantica |
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| Panoramic View of Rhodes from Costa Atlantica in the morning |
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| Look at all the Fortress! |
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| Windmills and Lighthouse from afar |
Costa Atlantica would be docking here from 8am to 9pm giving us ample time to explore the island. We booked an excursion to Lindos (A village in Rhodes) with Costa but the tour was cancelled due to lukewarm reception. Thus we had to take the matter in our hand to get to Lindos by ourselves. Our plan was to visit Lindos in the morning and continued with the Medieval Old Town in the afternoon until on board timing. |
| Our Rhodes Map with 3 bus stations *facepalm* |
After breakfast, we walked along the shoreline (which happened to be along the city wall) to get to their local bus station. There were 3 bus stations in Rhodes city in our map, we got it correct at our 2nd try – it was the one labeled as 14b. Bus Station KTEL (East Side). Basically you walk right from the Cruise Port along the shore (do not walk into the city wall) until the last entrance of the city wall, walk in, turn right to walk out of the city wall again and keep left to walk straight. The bus station should be at your right.
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| Breakfast - Pastry was great!!!!! |
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| More Omelet! |
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| Leaving Costa Atlantica for our Excursion! |
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| Walk along the Shoreline... |
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| Dolphins! |
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| Costa Atlantica from the Shore, see how far we have gone? |
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| I think this is the Marina Gate |
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| The New Market - If you reached this place, you are at the WRONG station |
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| A Big Building of Mango near the Correct Bus Station |
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| This is the Correct one!!! |
Due to our mishap, we missed the 9am bus by 3 minutes. *NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO* The guy at the bus station was extremely helpful though, giving us tips on which station to stop when we get back to town. The bus tickets cost EUR5/pax (one way). So rather than paying Costa EUR56/pax for the excursion, we simply paid EUR10/pax (return tickets for bus) and EUR6/pax for entrance ticket to Lindos Acropolis Site. Great deal huh? |
| Our Bus!!! |
The downside of taking a public bus was there were lots of stops during the journey thus making it around 1 hour+ to reach Lindos which was only around 30miles away from Rhodes city. We knew that we had to catch the 1pm bus back to Rhodes city else we would have to wait for a 2.30pm bus – which would leave us little time to explore the city.
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| Random Churches during our Ride |
Once the bus reached Lindos Bus station, we were actually quite lost. We did not have any maps for Lindos at all since our initial plan was to engage Costa Excursion Tour. So what did we do? In this kind of situation – always follow the crowd!
The road to Lindos Village was right opposite Lindos bus station when you reached from Rhodes town, just follow the steep slope and walked all the way down. You would see a monument there as well. Another option was to wait for a free shuttle bus (EUR0.50 optional) at the bus station to get you to the village – we didn’t know it at the time so we just walked with everyone. Luckily it was going down rather than going up. My poor heart couldn’t take another hike after Fira yesterday!
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| View of Lindos during start of our walk down the slope.... |
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| The Monument of Lindos |
Lindos was really out of my expectation – it was such a small but gorgeous village with stunning shoreline! We took a look at the shoreline from the village square before proceeding into the village. The village was exquisite and quaint with beautiful floor mosaic decorating doorway of some shops. There was donkey ride to reach the Acropolis as well but we chose to walk and explore the village. The way to Acropolis was clearly labelled so you couldn't get lost even without a map. |
| A View of the bay from Village Square |
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| Lindos Village from Village Square |
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| Donkeys!!! |
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| In the Village... |
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| The Byzantine Church and Bell Tower in the middle of Village |
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| Mosaic on the Floor... |
There were more stairs involved and I must say the stone stairs were very slippery. We finally reached the top and got our entrance tickets. First thing that greeted us was the Votive Semicircular Exedra which served as the base of statue and as seats where pilgrims could rest. It was from 2nd century BC. |
| Stairs Stairs Stairs!!! |
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| View of Lindos Village from the Stairs to Acropolis |
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| The Beach... |
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| Getting into Acropolis |
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| Going in... |
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| The Exedra... |
We then walked up more stairs (!!!) to get into the Acropolis – the view from the stairs was spectacular and we hadn’t even reached the top yet. We finally reached the gatehouse built by the knights and walked among the ruins before reaching Temple of Athena Lindia looking south to St Paul’s Bay. Oh mine, St Paul’s bay was magnificent from here! It was such a shame that we did not have more time in Lindos to explore all of that! =( |
| Stairs Stairs Stairs AGAIN! |
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| A View from the Top |
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| See how high it was? |
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| Heading towards the Main Area... |
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| It's Huge!!! |
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| The Stunning St Paul's Bay from the Top |
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| Another View |
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| More View from the Top |
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| A Panoramic View with Acropolis and St Paul's Bay |
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| Temple of Athena Lindia |
We took a picture of the monumental staircase with stoa which leads us to the main area overlooking the sea. We left the main area by going through a vault which lead us directly near the stairs to get down to the entrance. |
| Staircase with Stoa |
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| Hiding from the Sun |
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| The Main Area of Acropolis |
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| Sammy was there! |
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| A View from Acropolis |
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| Another View of Acropolis |
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| The Vault |
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| Stairs to get down |
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| Last Picture before leaving Acropolis |
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| Still Amazed by the Beautiful Bay Area |
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| Goodbye Acropolis |
We ended up taking the shuttle bus to go up the slope and dropped us at the Lindos bus station and managed to catch the 1pm bus back to Rhodes town. Lindos was definitely a must-visit if you were in Rhodes – simply breathtaking! Our only regret was we did not have enough time to truly explore the village and the bay. |
| A Church in Lindos |
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| Street in Lindos |
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| Farewell |
We reached Rhodes old town bus station safely at around 2pm++ and had a late lunch at a random restaurant nearby the bus station. We ordered their gyros and a big bottle of cold mineral water which we proceeded to finish the whole bottle in one go (HOT HOT HOT!). The gyros were not as good as Lucky’s in Santorini though. Unlike Lucky’s meat which was shredded, the meat here was in bigger chunk and you could clearly see the layer of FAT on which piece – kind of like the Chinese roasted pork fat layer. Hmm…. Give me Lucky’s anyday over this!!! |
| The Random Restaurant |
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| Gyros! Not as good as Lucky's though... |
Our Rhodes city tour had just begun and we’d decided to get into the old town by entering the d’Amboise Gate which looked amazing during our bus ride back from Lindos. Everything about this city was just so medieval and so impressive. The Palace of the Grand Master was at our left and we walked pass another gate – Tilevolon Gate before reaching the main area of the Palace. |
| Sammy at the d'Amboise Gate |
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| Another View of d'Amboise Gate |
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| Going through the Gate |
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| More Gate |
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| Palace of the Grand Master from the Side |
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| The Top of Palace of the Grand Master |
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| A Random Tree! |
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| Going through Tilevolon Gate |
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| A Closed Gate outside the Palace |
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| A View of the Palace |
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| Look how huge it is! |
Basically the Palace was built as a fortress at the end of 7th century and the Byzantine citadel was modified and repaired by the knights to convert it into a residence of the Grand Master and administrative center of their state. I almost thought that I was in ‘Da Vinci Code” trying to decipher some mysterious historical code once I stepped into the Palace. The floors of most of the rooms were decorated by mosaic from Kos and mostly had beautiful chandeliers – definitely a place worthy for knight of old times. |
| Going in! |
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| Are we trying to find secret code in this place? |
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| A Chapel inside the Palace |
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| Look at the Ceiling |
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| Beautiful mosaic from Kos |
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| A Room in the Palace |
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| More Mosaic |
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| A View outside the window... |
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| Yet Another Room |
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| Going through a dark narrow corridor |
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| The Grand Master Chairs |
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| KILL KILL KILL! |
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| Beautiful! |
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| Leaving the Palace |
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| The Palace's Courtyard |
After Palace of the Grand Master, we walked pass the famous Knight Street (the most important street of the old town) – the street had many inns back from medieval period. We also managed to find the Mustafa Mosque and clock tower. We also went for St George tower but it was basically a garbage dump site for locals! *shocked* There was nothing much left for temple of Aphrodite as well. |
| At Knight's Street |
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| An Inn in Knight's Street |
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| More Inns |
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| A Mosque |
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| The Clock Tower |
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| St George Tower... See the Garbage there? |
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| Random Kitties near St George Tower |
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| More buildings! |
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| Giant Doggie! |
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| Going through the Knight Street again! |
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| What is this? |
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| Water! |
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| Temple of Aphrodite |
We continued to walk towards the windmills and St Nicholas Lighthouse outside the old town – the lighthouse was closed for entrance though. We also got to Mandraki Harbor where the Colossus of Rhodes used to be – instead of the giant colossus, there were modern bronze deer statues on each wide of the harbor. |
| Getting out from the Old Town - see the C? That's Costa Atlantica! |
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| Windmill at Rhodes |
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| Windmill, Costa Atlantica and me.. =) |
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| Getting to the Lighthouse |
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| Let's take a picture! |
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| This was how the Colossus of Rhodes should've been |
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| This is how it looks today with the deer |
One thing about our visit was we kept hearing cruise farewell horning and we kept thinking – did we mess up the departure timing? Thankfully those horns were from other cruises! We also walked into the Naillac tower through St Paul’s Gate. After this we simply walked back into the old town and went along the flow. |
| Another Cruise leaving... |
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| The Gate of St Paul |
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| Inside the Gate |
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| Another View |
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| Getting Up |
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| Another View at Upper Part |
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| Sammy was there |
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| Arsenal Gate |
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| Boat selling stuffs |
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| Marina Gate |
We did manage to stumble upon Cathedral of “Our Lady of the Burgh” completely by accident. It was basically a church was part of it was destroyed with a street built right in its middle thus hance the name “split church”. |
| Walking around the town.. |
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| One side of the Split Church |
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| Another Part of the Split Church |
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| That's the deer! |
Feeling exhausted, we got back to the ship at around 8pm and had our dinner at self service restaurant since we missed out the timing of the fine dining at Tiziano Restaurant. There was nothing much there so we simply feasted on pizza and desserts. We were so tired that we skipped the theatre show as well. Rhodes was definitely a place worth visiting – it just surprised me so much on how beautiful and unique the island was. In fact, we did miss out a lot of places during our visit since the island was quite huge itself. So next time if you have the chance to visit Rhodes – sign up and stay for a few more days! You will never regret that! |
| Destroyer at the Port |
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| Rhodes from the Cruise in Evening |
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| Evening View of the Windmills and Lighthouse from Costa Atlantica |
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| Desserts! |
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| More Desserts! |
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| Night View of Rhodes when Costa Atlantica Leaving the Dock |
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| Another Zoom in of the Old Town at Night |
Next Day (Crete)
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