Our first port of call after leaving Turkey was the island of Rhodes, in Greece.
We had a short but windy crossing from Marmaris, and by the time we arrived in Rhodes harbour, it was blowing a gale. We had heard many bad reports about Rhodes harbour being so busy that it would be difficult to berth, but I guess we were lucky, as we had no problem. It was still early in the yachting season, so things were quiet.
The island of Rhodes is very fertile, with a central mountain range reaching over 4000 feet high.
For us,the main interesting thing about Rhodes is the old town. It was established first in 408 BC as a very successful harbour and trading post. As time went on it was fortified and grew in size and importance. After many years of peacefull trading with various neighbours, sometime about 304 BC, a guy by the name of Demetrius Polioketes decided to have a go at taking over the place. He built an impressive seige catapult which could throw very large rocks at the fortified city. However his efforts were in vain , and after a year of missile launching, he was forced to admit failure and signed a peace treaty with the Rhodians. The rock balls / missiles still litter the old town and fortress to this day, and are so perfectly round and in such good condition, its hard to believe that they are so old.
Next on the scene, in 1306, were the Knights of St John, who were basically a bunch of well off ( Christian) mercenaries who were very anti muslim (Turkish). Their original mandate was to provide assistance and back up to the "Crusaders" who were the guys fighting in the front line against the Muslims, and they enjoyed the full support of the entire Christian world, which at that time was mainly the Spanish Catholic Church, which was indeed a mighty empire.
They became a very influential power in their own right, mounting attacks at any opportunity against basically any Muslim target, especially trading ships.
They had a fleet of fast well equiped galleys, and were very good raiders , pirates basically.
They built up the old town of Rhodes into a formidable fortress, harbour and walled city. Their success was a thorn in the side of the Turkish Ottoman empire, and eventually in 1522, the Turks sent over an army of over 100,000 men and seige equipment. So well organised were the defences though, that the Turkish force could not gain an outright victory, but had to settle for a cease fire on honerable terms. This allowed the Knights of St John to leave the island unhindered, and head to pastures new. ( See later blog )
The island then remained under Ottoman rule until the Italian occupation of 1912, and remained so until the end of the second world war, when in 1947 it was handed over to Greece.
Islay Mist berthed stern to in Mandraki harbour. The large pillar you can see next to the boat is supposedly where one of the feet of the 'Colossus' of rhodes rested. The Colossus was one of the ancient wonders of the world a huge statue of a warrior built with his legs spanning the entrance to the old harbour through which the boats of old would have had to enter.
One other attraction to Rhodes was the fact that we could again buy and eat pork!
Turkey being an islamic, has therotically no pork, and believe it or not, a pork abstinance can kind of irritate you, especially if you start to dream about a humble bacon sandwich. Anyway, we had a bit of a pork festival ourselves, bacon breakfast, pork chops, etc, etc,
A restored windmill, externally at least.
An old mosque, dating from the Ottoman occupation.
An Ottoman mosque, but with added masonry to become a clock tower.
More Ottoman mosks.
Not a very good photo, but the writing on the stone plaque is in Arabic, and likely dates back to the Ottoman occupation.
The Knights of St John came from many different countries and families. The various knights were stationed in different quarters, and grouped according to their country of origin. The walls of the old fort and city are adorned with the "Coats of Arms" of the various Knights.
The quality of the actual masonry building is very impressive.
More examples of the different "Coats of Arms", many in remarkable condition.
The mouat or ditch surrounding the fortified city. Given the dimensions of the "ditch" surrounding the old city, its quite obvious how easy it was to defend- its massive!
Durring our short stay in Rhodes, a religious ceremony was held. This ceremony included a parade and setting off fireworks. What we did not expect was the local army artillery squadron arriving at midnight with two great big guns, and firing them for the best part of and hour, right outside our boat! The girls slept right through it!
One of the two statues of the small deer, which stand at the entrance of the harbour.
You can see the round rock seige missiles everywhere.
The tall building inside the walls is the palace of the 'Grand Master' basically head knight at the time who was elected from one of the different nationalities of knights.
A point to note is that the stone used for building the old city is a hard rock, and very good quality, which has suffered hardly any erosion over the years. Also the very dry climate means that there is no accumulation of moss and algae, such as found on the surface of building in the wetter northern countries.
One of the enterances to the fortified city.
For the girls (and us), the highlight of Rhodes was returning to the boat one day to find that the sailing yacht "Yindee Plus" was berthed along side us in the harbour. We had met up with them, Chris and Sue Bright, with twins Wilf and Sid back in Finike, Turkey. They are a similar family to ourselves, in that they are full time liveaboards, and plan to sail around for a few years and see as much of the world as possible.
This is the "gang" sitting on the 2300+ year old seige misiles!!
Rhodes is of course now mainly a summer holliday destination, very popular with the "Brits", plenty of "the full English Breakfast" and lager. Thankfully though, the restoration of the old city has been well done, and offers the visitor an alternative to burning up on the beach, and we really enjoyed its history.
Due to the fact that we have decided to get our boat to the Atlantic coast by June, then our time in Rhodes was short, and after a few days, we were on our way again, island hopping west- see next blog, "The Greek Islands in Spring"
Rhodes looks quite beautiful in your photos. Maybe someday we can visit. It's great that you were able to meet up with your friends there.
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