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A visit to Rhodes, Greece
Today, Saturday June 16, we were in another Greek island, Rhodes. I loved it there! We took a bus to the acropolis at Lindos, and climbed over 250 steps to the top. It was not too hot, about 75-80, and the view from the top was spectacular. The lower part of the climb was in a little town with cobblestone streets, where the stones were all small, oval, and white or black, and arranged into beautiful patterns to look like carpets. Above us, grape vines shaded the walkways. We got some unbelievable pictures. Nearer the top, of course, there were no grape vines, just stones, and remains of extraordinary ancient engineering. The builders of early Lindos had cisterns to capture water, and even sewers. The Guns of Navaronne were filmed here, too--I have no idea how they carried camera equipment up all those stairs! Back down in the village, I visited a charming little church that had the most elegant paintings, frescoes, gold leaf--quite an art treasure. With what was left of our time in port, Foye and I explored the Old City in Rhodes, now guarded by a well preserved medieval castle, but in earlier times it was the site of the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. (The original Colossus no longer exists, but it has been memorialized in The New Colossus, a poem by Emma Lazarus, parts of which are written at the Statue of Liberty in New York.) We wandered through the castle, and then through the streets of the town inside the walls of the Old City. About 8,000 people live there in the upper floors of the buildings, but the ground floor, as is typical in Europe, is devoted to numerous colorful shops and cafes that cater to tourists. Again, as in Lindos a few miles from the port, many of the narrower streets were beautifully shaded with grape vines growing above the walkways. There is also a New City in Rhodes, built outside the Old City walls, and that is where modern commerce takes place, and where the majority of the population lives. |
