Lee, the museum we saw is the new one. It is excellent - do not miss it, especially if they are still charging only 1 euro as an entrance fee! Start at the 3rd floor where the artifacts from the top of the Parthenon are displayed and then work your way down. You avoid most of the crowds that way, and that way you see the most important things first. If you run out of time or energy, you don't have to bew as concerned. The lower floors have artifacts from lower down on the Parthenon, and the ground floor has things that they found underneath during digs that uncovered previous buildings.
I will post my stuff about Rhodes next, so let me know if you have questions, and I will try to answer them.
We opted to do the main town of Rhodes on our own. The island has several major towns worth visiting, but with only one day, we stuck close to the ship. There are tours you can take of the main sites within the town, but everything was in walking distance, so with a map and recommendations from a website, we were able to see everything of significance. While we did see cars in the old city, most tours are done on foot. The streets are too narrow for buses and American style cars.
There are a few places where you can see Greek and Roman foundations in town, but between earthquakes and pillaging, almost everything of significance is gone. The famous Colossus of Rhodes is no more. What you can see are buildings from when the town was run by the Crusaders and also the Ottomans. We went through the Archeological Museum first. The town had been run by the Knights of St. John Hospitaliers, and this was their hospital. Later the Ottomans took over the island, and this building was partially destroyed. It was rebuilt and used as the entrance to a home for a prominent family, so we could see architecture from both periods. There was also some remnants of mosaics from pre-Christian times. The rooms are now used to house statuary, tomb covers and archeological finds from digs on the island. The main draw though is that the walls are thick, so it is a place to get away from the heat in the summer!
We also went to went to the Palace of the Grand Masters, which was nearby. This was a fortress/castle where the Grand Master of the Hospitaliers stayed, and ran the government. When the Ottomans took it over, they used it for a prison. It was destroyed in the 1800s by a lightning strike that hit an ammunition storage area. The building we see today is a restoration started by the Italians in the 1930s based on old drawings. The beautiful interiors of the rooms are the main attraction, along with mosaics on the floors that were moved from another island. (We could picture this building being used for large parties.) There are other exhibits as well. The Italians also reconstructed the Knights houses on a street that leads up to the palace. Each building was used by knights from different places in Europe, and some of them have their crests carved above the doors.
We skipped some other sites, because I wanted to see the Memorial to the Jews murdered by the Nazis, which is also in the old city. It is located in the Jewish Square, which sometimes is called Martyrs’ Square, in the center of what used to be the Jewish quarter. A very simple black column stands in the middle of a base with a black and white Jewish star. It has six sides, with a dedication to the Jews of Rhodes and Cos (a nearby island) who died during the Holocaust, each side in a different language: Greek, French, Italian, Hebrew, English and I think Ladino (but maybe Spanish - they are very close). Very simple, very peaceful, but still moving. We also went to look at the synagogue, but it looks like it is in very bad shape. It is hard to tell, because it follows the local custom of being in a courtyard behind a gate. The synagogue itself may be OK, but the outer building needs a lot of care and rework. There is supposed to be a Jewish museum on the island as well, but I can’t tell if it is in this complex or not.
Today we are in Antalya, a resort on the south side of Turkey. It is overcast, so we will have to see what that does to our plans.
Note for CLF: We used a walking tour from GreekLandscapes.com to help us decide what to see. It has directions and brief descriptions of the sites, and a decent map. I will try to find the exact link, but can't do that right now.
Today's family letter:
We spent 2 days on the southern coast of Turkey, yesterday in Antalya and today in Iskendurun. Antalya is beach resort that is also a jumping off place for several old Roman cities. Since we knew we would be on all day tours for the next three days, and because the Roman towns were not as important as the places we have already seen, we decided to make this a beach day! We went to a beach not very far from where the ship was docked, and relaxed. What a novel idea! Phil swam, while I sat on the beach and read. Most of the other people there were Germans and Russians. Although it was overcast, we were very comfortable.
Today was a different story. We went on an all day excursion to see whatever there was to see in this area. The port, Iskendurun, takes its name from Alexander the Great, who camped nearby and ordered the city to be founded and named for him. Nearby is the old city of Antakya or Antioch, which was part of the old Hittite empire (in fact the Turks call it Hatay for that reason). Antioch was the place St. Paul came and started the first Christian church. It was in a cave in the hills above the town, and that was our first stop on the tour. It was a bit of a climb, especially if you don’t walk uphill much, but people came with canes and wheelchairs to see it. You can see arched niches carved into the rock nearby, which probably had other chapels or statues, but they were all empty, probably due to the Ottomans taking over 500 years ago. The church is named for St. Peter, and there is a statue of him high on the wall inside the church along with a marble altar. In Antakya itself, we saw the remains of a Roman aqueduct, but there didn’t seem to be anything else left of the old city. We did go to the Mosaic museum there, which had many examples of mosaics from the area from both the Roman period and the early Christian period. It is an incredible collection.
After that, we went to lunch in the town of Harbiye. There is a waterfall nearby which is supposed to be where Antony and Cleopatra got married. We were able to see some of it through the trees. I just hope their wedding feast was as good as our lunch!!! Then we went for a drive to go see tunnels that the Romans built to divert water that was flooding the area. Lots of climbing here too, and since we had no idea what to expect, it was hard to get excited about finding the tunnels. I suspect that if we had more time it would have been a better experience.
Phil wanted to go to this spot because Antioch is one of the 5 important cities for early Christianity. I liked coming here because it was uncharted territory for most tourists. In fact, for the Turkish people in this area, we were the main attraction. If the ship hadn’t come into a port that was so separate from the rest of the town, I suspect we would have seen more townspeople at the pier. As it was, our buses were the focus of a lot of attention - people staring, waving etc. We also got to see modern windmills on top of the hills being used to generate electrical power. There are only 2 other places in Turkey where they are doing this, so it was interesting to me that it was being done here.
Tomorrow we will be in Israel. Israeli security has been on the ship since Athens to review all the passports, and yesterday they interviewed everyone on the ship. Our interview was less intense than the ones we have had from El Al, but we are not the people they are worried about. We received our entry cards, and are looking forward to our visit.
You are doing a wonderful job on this live report. Thank you for taking the time to answer my question and for the insider tips on the new museum in Athens. We will take your advice and go directly to the third floor, then work our way down. We will walk Rhodes. Lee
Mindy, thank you for taking the time to write this wonderful Live Report.
I am enjoying reading about your adventures and I am looking forward for your next instalment
Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers
-
Centrum Deck
-
Topics in Cruising
-
Live From
-
Live from the Rotterdam Oct. 17, 2009 Athens to Rome
#
#
Linear Mode
