Rhodes, Greece 1

 

We were very fortunate to visit Rhodes, the largest island of the Dodecanese of Greece this October. It was the world famous detective Hercule Poirot who introduced me to the island through a short story and an episode of the Agatha Christie's Poirot series, "Triangle at Rhodes." Visiting some filming locations of the 1989 TV episode was a highlight of the trip. 

We stayed at a hotel in the Old Town. They served breakfast at the outdoor terrace with a relaxed island atmosphere. 

The breakfast was simple and ok. We didn't have it everyday anyway. We were offered two choices of the Greek yogurt toppings: candied bergamots or rose jam. I selected the former at that time.

The island was full of cats. You can find one or more on every street. The hotel wasn't an exception. In fact, we were told that we should close the windows when we leave the room, or cats come in and sleep on the bed.  

It was a day to drive to the south of the island along the west coast. The beautiful water color stopped me frequently on our way to the public parking lot near the harbor outside of the Old Town. I hadn't seen the Aegean Sea before. Hundreds of photos of the sea are in my phone right now.  

We stopped by a lovely panoramic viewpoint after about one and a half hour drive. 

 

Then, we also made a brief stop at an entrance to the Jacob's Canyon. A 3.3 mile loop hiking trail starts there. Although we didn't have time to go into the canyon this time, it was nice to glance at the beauty of the geological formations.

Our destination was the Castle of Monolithos. It was built in around 1476-1489 by the Knights of St. John on the ruins of an older Byzantine fortification on a cliff in order to control the southern coastline of Rhodes and protect it from pirates and enemies. Today it's ruins except a restored chapel, one of the two chapels of the 15th century castle. We found a great view spot overlooking the castle as well as the west coastline. There was a kiosk selling local products. The kiosk lady was very friendly and we bought pine honey and thyme honey after tasting both.

We parked a car at the foot of the cliff. About 100 stone steps led us to the top!

The restored chapel, the Chapel of Hagios Panteleimonas (Saint Panteleimon) stood at the highest point of the cliff.

The view from the ruined castle was truly worth visiting! The place was a filming location of the Poirot's TV episode. 

I wondered what the castle looked like in the 15th century...

The back side of the chapel was like this.

The castle was the furthest south point we wanted to go. It was time to return to north. The mountain we drove around was Attavyros, the highest mountain of the island, I think. J kindly pulled over for me so that I could take a photo although it was too far to see ruins of Temple of Zeus that is supposed to be located on the summit. 

Our next destination was another ruined medieval castle. Located on a hill above the village of Kritinia, the Kritinia Castle was built in 1472 by the Knights of St. John to protect the village from Ottoman fleets. 

The castle was much closer to the sea than the Monolithos Castle. I couldn't take my eyes off from the tranquil water. 

It was time for lunch. We tried Amythita a family-run restaurant near the castle. Their outdoor seating with the amazing sea view was phenomenal. 

J was refreshed with a glass of Greek white wine. It was a very warm and sunny day.

We ordered Dolmades, a Greek stuffed vine leaves filled with lemony rice and herbs, but our waiter told us that they didn't have the dish but stuffed onions with the same filling. We tried the alternative with curiosity. When it came to us, we found out the onions were shallots. The shallots were very tender and sweet and the filling was tasty. I was so glad to have the onion version by chance!

We both had a grilled whole sea bream. It was absolutely delicious. It was my best meal of the trip!

We saw a small table-top smoker on another table and learned that it was to keep bees away from foods. The smoke smelled so strong. We thought that we could manage a few bees. However, once we started eating the fish, several bees jumped on our dishes. I didn't want to be smoked but we couldn't keep eating peacefully. After all J asked our waiter to bring us a smoker. It worked. 

Our next destination after the lovely lunch was the ruins of the ancient city of Kamiros that was founded around the 7th century BC and reached its peak in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. It was one of the three major Dorian city-states of Rhodes, along with Lindos and Ialyssos, during the Ancient Greek period. While Kamiros began to decline after the three united to form the city of Rhodes on the northeastern tip of the island in 408 BC, it continued to be inhabited until the Byzantine era. It was enjoyable to explore the well-preserved archaeological site of Kamiros. 

The ancient city of Kamiros was laid out on three levels: the Acropolis at the top with the Temple of Athena; the main settlement in the middle which contains a grid of streets and private residences; and the lowest level including public spaces such as the Agora (the place where political issues were discussed), a Doric temple of Apollo, multiple altars dedicated to various deities, and public baths. The site was huge and I guess there were still more under the ground to be discovered.

Rosemary bushes were growing crazy at the site. So olive trees were. They were everywhere on the island. Some looked like growing naturally and the other being farmed.  

The last but not least destination was the Filerimos Monastery, located on the top of the Filerimos Hill. Many peacocks were walking around there, which I don't know why.

The Filerimos Monastery was built in the 15th century by the Knights of Saint John (again) on the site of an older Byzantine monastery. During the Ottoman rule, the monastery was abandoned after the Knights left the island. The monastery was later restored by the Italians in the 1920s.  

Going back even further in time, the Filerimos Hill was where the Acropolis of Ialyssos, one of the three ancient city-states of Rhodes was built. Unlike Kamiros, there wasn’t much to see. Only the remains of the Temple of Athena Polias were seen next to the Church of our Lady of Filerimos. 

By the way, it seemed that a wedding ceremony was being held in the church at that time. We didn't have a chance to see the inside.

We captured a nice view of the northwest of the island a couple of hours before sunset.

There was ruins of the 13th century Byzantine fortress, which wasn't much left or found either.

We drove back to the Old Town and wrapped up the day with a big slice of Portokalopita, traditional Greek orange cake. Soaked in syrup, the cake was super sweet! J had Greek coffee, which he enjoyed a couple of times during the trip.

To be continued…