Tue 04.Oct.2016
Rhodes, Greece
Island!
Some travel words hypnotize me beyond the real merits of what they refer to.
Vienna, and Danube spin that name-magic for me. So does "island".
In fantasy, an island "ought" to be tropical. In reality, this magical island of Rhodes
is far from the tropics. Our climate is (duh!) Mediterranean. That is why we have date palms
here, not coco palms.
The classic vista through the Virgin Gate, named for they nearby Church of the Virgin
of the Burg cf. below
Recep Pasha's once-crumbling mosque is actually being restored, for use as a museum and
exhibit venue. (The Old City already has one functioning mosque, and
that is probably plenty for something the (Orthodox) Greeks consider "Turkish".)
This photo shows the corner of the porch that collapsed a few years ago, waking me at about 3 am
with one hellacious noise. Apparentlly the collapse stimulated somebody (EU?) to allocate some
money to repair the once-famous, long-neglected old structure. They hope to have an exhibition
in it in November. I wish the project well.
Night on a square whose name I don't know near the Harbor Gate.
The church of the Virgin of the Burg. Even for Rhodes, this is a picturesque ruin.
Being near the cruise ship pier makes it a popular photo subject. I am no exception.
I take plenty of photos of it.
The bridge over the moat at the Red Gate.
For the rest of the page, we are walking down in the moat.
A tower of the Grandmaster's Palace. Privately, I call this the Tower of the Crows,
because flocks of them roost and swoop around up there on stormy days in the Winter.
I recently learned that its real name is
Pagnac Tower,
named for a French Grandmaster of
the Knights of St John, who held office in the 1300's during
Pope John XXII's time.
A Greek dance class in Melina Mercouri amphitheater in the medieval moat.
Pampas grass.
Some random bush.
At the San Francisco Gate.