Rhodes, Greece

I think we are finally starting our adjustment to the nine hour time difference, this morning I was awake at 3:oo AM performing emergency surgery on the mouse, unfortunately, the surgery was not a success. I continued my search for a replacement in the old town of Rhodes but apparently computer mice are not considered tourist souvenirs. Either that, or the 10,000 feral cats living here have eliminated the mice population. More of the stores were open today since a small cruise ship was in port. Most of the vendors are busy fixing up the stores for the expected arrival of tourists when the season starts in late April. At times there are six or seven big cruise ships in port with thousands of passengers, so now is a really good time to be here. We bought a couple of items today and received discounts due to the season and lack of tourists, the restaurants are not busy and have touts calling out to the passers by to entice them.

Yesterday we toured the Street of Knights, Palace of the Masters and the Knights of St. John which is now a museum housing old Greek stuff, some thousands of years old. Rhodes is an island with 6000 years history of occupation, conquest, exploitation, and now tourism. It has one of the best preserved walled medieval cities in Europe, the walls are approximately 2 miles in diameter and were built by the Knights of St. John in the 1300's. The knights protected the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and pilgrims to the Holy Land, they were eventually defeated by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522 After this defeat they ended up on the island of Malta; today they are still a recognized religious order of the Catholic church.

Our hotel is located about 100 meters from the Palace of the Masters and was constructed in 2007 inside one of the old stone buildings. The palace of Masters was rebuilt by the Italians in 1920 for Mussolini, it is a grand palace and has many ancient works of art plus mosaic floors from the Island of Kos dating back several thousand years. Attached is a link for more information http://www.greeka.com/dodecanese/rhodes/rhodes-history/rhodes-palace-grand-masters.htm

Rhodes is also known as the site of the Colossus of Rhodes (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world) a 130' tall statue built in 293 BC, it was destroyed by an earthquake in 227 BC. According to some legends, the statue was at the entrance to the harbor, today the harbor is known for the stag and dear statues located on either side of the harbor entrance.

One more day in Rhodes, then we are back to Athens and then to Istanbul.