Mediterranean Iconic Shores Ocean Cruise

Day 9: Friday, November 07, 2025 - Rhodes, Greece

The day's statistics:
-  Weather: upper 50s, overcast
-  Steps: Linda: 13,936; Steve: 16,526

During the night, we transitioned time zones.
On our river cruises, we left the phone on auto-update and there was no issue - because we were close enough to cell towers and we never put the phone on airplane mode.
We were told that while we were on the ship, we were supposed to leave the phone on airplane mode and connect to the ship's wi-fi.
Somewhere, some how, between this, that, and the other thing, our phones did NOT automatically update...

As our excursion - Rhodes Town Walk & Palace of the Grand Masters - started at 8:45, we did get up fifteen minutes early just so we wouldn't be rushed. Or so we thought... due to the time change issue, we actually wound up awaking at 5:45 instead of 6:45. Greeeat...
As we were getting ready for and during breakfast, the ship was arriving at port (you don't just pull a ship of this size to the curb, throw on the parking brake, and call it a day).






Due to the weather or the port clearance (don't remember and didn't specifically note it) the excursion started an hour late too. So the morning was already getting off to a rough start.
Before we left the cabin, a storm rolled through. It was - fortunately - very brief. But we still had to depart for our excursion. So we made sure we had our umbrella too.

Across the inlet were three windmills.

We began our foot tour with our guide Lucia.
We headed out of the secure area of the port and toward the city.


We passed through the closest gate - one of four - in the 5 km (3 mile) wall.

At the top of a short incline after the gate were the ruins of an old church.




After the church, we exited the area and headed left toward the center of town.





Near the fountain - in the corner behind it - was a sweet shop called Hans & Gretel that had this in the window.

Hippocrates square - where the fountain is - was a reference point for where we were going next, how to get out of the city.

We passed the fountain and continued on. Our route took us down a more-narrow street that also had some embassies on it.


























Then we arrived at our target location: the Palace of the Grand Masters.
Fortunately, the rain was starting to let up.



We waited outside for a couple minutes while the guide secured our entry tickets. Then we all went through the gate, and into the courtyard.



A number of years ago, the church "across the street" was storing a large quantity of gunpowder. And it exploded. And took out most of the palace with it. It was rebuilt, but the only part of the of the original structure was the section of discolored wall here.

After a brief history lesson about the palace and family, we headed inside, and upstairs passing by this engraving.

There were arrows on the floor indicating the direction of travel. The only drawback of this is that the up-side of the stairs... has no railing. If you're OK with heights, no problem. If you can walk real well, also, no problem.



We entered the first room - a large gathering room.
On the floor were some mosaics, there were a couple statues along the walls too, and an open window in the corner with a view that overlooks some of the town.









We moved on to a couple other rooms.








One of the mosaics was Madusa.

Within the various rooms, there was some ceramics, chandeliers, more mosaics, statues, figurines, and furniture.








































Our tour inside was complete and we headed out whence we came.

To the side - on the left on the way out - was a path with some statues.

We proceeded under the archway across the street, and found ourselves in front of the ruins of the church that exploded years ago, destroying the palace.
On a wall nearby was an interesting mosaic.

This kitty needs help finding the starter button.

The church was rather large - at least for its time.




After our guided tour, Lucia told the group we were free to explore on our own, or return to the ship with her.
Less then half the group chose to return with her - we did as we had an afternoon excursion.

With Lucia, we headed back to the fountain, but rather than take the same route we got here, we deviated slightly and passed through one of the other gates, though eventually our paths overlapped.
We had a leisurely stroll back to the ship, chatted with Lucia a little, and then boarded.

There is a chance that at some time during this excursion I may have updated the time on the camera. Or something else is going on because after the second stop on the excursion, I found more pictures from the first stop. But that doesn't completely make sense either because I would think the image names would still be in order, just not the times...
About an hour after getting back from our first excursion, we departed for our second excursion.
Today was the first of three straight days where we had two excursions in a day.
This excursion was Rhodes Culture & Traditions, and our guide was Lefty.
We started out with a bus ride, seeing some more sights of the town.
Gas in Greece is about $6.10 per US gallon.

We passed a currently unoccupied beach, and drove along the waterfront.



We arrived in the small town of Koskinou and began a walking tour, weaving through the small town on our way to a local's home for a snack.














We arrived at the house of our snack host. She was a woman in her 80s, and enjoyed welcoming guests into her home. She had some light snacks - cheese and homemade bread - and beverages for us to enjoy, while she told us about her life in Greece.


She had a large quantity of plates - a lot of home owners have them - as well as a collection of carpets and a small shrine to her late husband and her family.





She also had a nice chandelier.

Linda gave our host a hug before we departed.

There was a lemon tree on the property right outside the door, adjacent to the kitchen area. That was also outside. When you have 300 days of sunshine in a year, it is easy to see why the kitchen would be outside.

We took a different route to get to the bus, which took us through a different area of the town.












We boarded the bus and headed back toward the coast.

The next stop on our excursion was at Bonis Ceramics.

As this stop was part of an excursion as part of the cruise (as opposed to being part of an extension), I cannot and will not hold it against Viking that we went to two pottery / ceramic manufacturers on the same trip.
We went inside and had a pottery demonstration where the master potter made a tapered vase in about five minutes. Not quite the detail of the Turkish potter - not that there is anything wrong with it - but still nice and fast.

There were a couple workers working on various stages of the pottery.






After the demo, we were given fifteen miutes and let loose on the showroom to make any purchases we wanted. We may or may not have purchased a couple small inexpensive bowls...

We headed outside and went around to the deck at the back of the facility for a selfie.

And on the way back to the bus was an opening that gave us a nice view of the sea.

There was a partial rainbow too.

Our driver took us on a route that was closer to the port, and closer to the old city ruins - and across the inlet from the ship - circled around, and returned to the ship as the sun was setting.

Tonight was our dinner with our acquaintance Nan, so we had to sit at a different table - though we stuck with Station 1 so we were still with Alyssa.
We perused the menu.

Linda had the Traditional Tuna Ceviche Tostada, Baba Ghanoush (not pictured), and Vanilla Ice Cream.


I had the a double order ot the Tiger Prawns, Grilled Spiny Lobster (not pictured), and Milk Chocolate Choux.


I think we were so engrossed in our conversation that I just completely forgot to get a shot of the entree.
Also, when we started to exchange contact info, I discovered that I already had Nan's contact info in my phone for some reason. Then she told us we were supposed to contact her when we went to visit Arches NP.

After dinner, we returned to the cabin.
I told Linda that I wanted to head up to the pool area on Deck 7 to see what was going on because it was supposed to be "BBQ Night" with line dancing.
When I arrived, the music was blasting, lights were going, and lines were being danced.


I also stopped by the pool grill area to see what was being served: burger sliders, beef brisket, chicken wings, salads, and more. And lobster tails. Did I mention the lobster tails?!!? Mmmmmm.... lobster tails.

After just a few minutes I returned to the cabin and informed Linda what I found.
We relaxed a little, washed up, and went to sleep.

 <    Summary    1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8     9     10     11     12     13     14     15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     27     28     29     30     31     32     33     34     35     >