Rhodes, Greece -- Where the colossos used to be

Concetta and I just got back to the Ship after spending the afternoon strolling the narrow lanes and alleys of the ancient city of Rhodes. While most of the passengers elected to return to the ship after our half-day tour of the various "culturally important" areas of the city, we decided to stay and try to get off the beaten path and explore the places where few tourists go. It was fun, though you immediately become aware that where the tourist don't go the buildings don't get maintained very well and to look a little run down. Still, it was fun. About sunset we stumbled across the "Romeo" cafe and the proprietor coaxed us to take a seat in his charming outdoor restaurant where he proceeded to dazzel us with both his charm and his food preparation. I was hoping for a gyro (lamb, tomatoes, onions, and cucumber-yoghurt sauce wrapped in a pita) but ended up sharing a Greek Salad and plate of Cod and vegetables with Concetta washed down with my usual Mythos beer. Yum yum. Everything was really tasty. At home I always have to laugh when a restaurant advertises Greek salad. Usually, they have no idea what to acutally serve. Greek salad is comprised of tomotes, onions, Greek olives, feta cheese, and cucumbers. Ours tonight also had green bell peppers sliced very thin and a sprinkling of cabbage, though the latter two ingredients cannot be counted on. Over all this one always has a very light dressing of olive oil and vinegar. And there you have it. The next time you order Greek salad and it arrives looking like mostly lettuce, send it back.

This morning, our destination by tour bus was the tiny ancient city of Lindos, which hugs the coast about an hour east of Rhodes. Lindos is the place in Greece, our guide told us, that the fighting men of Rhodes sailed for the Trojan war in 1300 B.C. or so. Let me tell you, Lindos was a trip and a half. Our plan as a group was to climb the mountain that fills the skyline in Lindos all the way to the top to see the fort constructed by the Knights of St. John the Baptist. These knights, not to be confused with the Knights Templar, were the Crusaders whose job it was to serve as Doctors and hospitalers to both crusaders and pilgrims. This fort was constructed at the top of a natural (most likely volcanic) outcrop above the city known as an Acropolis. As our guide has been fond of telling us, Virtually every city in Greece of any import has its own acropolis. The one in Athens is just the most famous. Anyway, starting in Lindos, Concetta and I set off on foot to climb the stone path to the top. Nowadays, Greece is customarily inundated by tourists during the high season. And, since September is still considered the high season, we found a veritable sea of buses already parked when we arrived at 10:30 a.m. and a small (make that large) army of tourists climbing right along with us. Since there were also people coming down the stone path, the width of which measured about four feet when it wasn't even narrower, it turned out to be a fairly harrowing experience. Greeks don't believe, it would seem, in hand rails of any kind, even though the drop-off is considerable in some places. Still, we made it to the fortress and had a very nice time taking pictures and exploring the grounds.

One of the things I've been noticing since we arrived in Greece is the incredible transformation that is taking place in the look of Greek houses. I'm not sure when it happened, but according to one of our guides the Greek government passed a law that said Greeks had to begin building more earthquake proof houses and commercial spaces, this because the people were fond of building with rubble stone (with or without mortar) and absolutely no structural steel of any kind. So, the first earthquake that comes along, the whole village ends up reverting to a pile of stones in the street.

In the past, Greece had some of the most picturesque housing anywhere, most often looking more or less like our Sante Fe, New Mexico style of Spanish housing with stucco exterior and red tile roofs. Usually the doors and window trim would be painted a bright green or blue and the whole effect was quite charming. Now, with the new earthquake regulations in place, Greeks are building (and when I say building, I mean EVERYWHERE you look) structures that are a mixture of Hollywood, California "modern" in 1955, and a Soviet Union tenement apartment from the same time period. It's bizzare! They start construction by erecting something that looks a lot like a parking garage with its concrete posts and horizontal concrete floors. Their houses may have two or three of these floors. Then, they fill in the spaces between the concrete upright pillars with red brick, done in a sort of "I don't have to be neat since I'm covering this with stucco anyway" technique. The effect is to have the masonry look rather haphazard and sloppy. THEN, they may only finish one of the two or three floors with actual walls and they may leave the second and third floor with just the bare parking garage look to it. You can tell that they have been living in the bottom floor for some time since the whole place looks very lived in. So it's not like they halted construction temporarily so they could go on vacation or something. All of this is pretty sad, at least to me, when you consider that the Greeks pretty much invented classic architecture.

Rhodes looks very different than the last time I saw it in 1974. According to our guide today, the population of Rhodes was about 20,000 people back when I was here. now the population has jumped to around 60,000. Like Nevada, the island of Rhodes enjoys around 300 days of sun a year. They also get 20 days of rain. He didn't tell us what happened for the other 45 days, but whatever it is, folks are flocking here to take advantage of the good weather. Our two waiters tonight were both from out of town. One was from Thesalonika in Macedonia, quite a trek from here. Both told us they came here to take advantage of the tourism trade. They, and everyone else we talked to, puts in seven day weeks for seven to nine months in a row. No days off, and very long hours. They must do this, most of them, because there is no work in their home towns. All the wait staff here on the ship work that same three quarters of a year, then they go home and spend one quarter with their wifes and children. Very tough way to make a living, I'd say, but they all seem very upbeat about it.

Well, I'm headed up topside because they're moving the ship to a new slip tonight and I thought I'd try to capture some part of it on film. So, I'll say goodnight. We're headed for Mykonos and Delos tomorrow and those are two places I'm really looking forward to showing Concetta. Ciao, tutti.