Day 10--Arrived safely on Rhodes

Wouldn't it have been wonderful if the apostle Paul could have sent that message "safely arrived on Rhodes", when he was on his travels back to Jerusalem? However, he didn't have access to the internet like we do, even though sometimes ours is a bit unpredictable.

I am sure by now you have realized that I was not able to get to an internet connection yesterday, but I post when I have the capability. You will have to scroll down to get yesterday's post.

During the night we sailed past what must have been a bevy of beautiful Greek islands, including Kos. When we woke up we were docking at Rhodes. Our tour left the ship at 7:30 AM. So much for rest-and-relax! The bus stopped at a pottery shop about 8:30…long before the normal “opening time”, but I am sure the cash tourist busses bring in trumps a later opening time. We met the master potter and watched him shape a beautiful vase in a matter of seconds. I am sure everyone in our group was thinking of the Biblical example of the potter and the clay, and we are glad that God is still working on shaping all of us since we are so far from perfection. We watched the artists carve designs in the newly-formed pieces, and paint them after they had been fired. The pieces were beautiful works of art, signed and dated by the potter. Some of the pieces featured a deer (the official symbol of Rhodes); some featured an olive branch (the official symbol of Greece).


We rode the bus about 35 miles to the town of Lindos, a picture-perfect town with white buildings all over the hillsides, which qualifies the area to be a National Historic Landmark. Once in Lindos we viewed the two harbors. One is referred to as “St. Paul’s Harbor” where some people think Paul’s ship landed on his third journey. (The city of Rhodes claims Paul actually landed in their harbor, and there are arguments to support both claims. From the Biblical record there is no way to determine which harbor was the one where Paul landed, so we photographed both of them! Unfortunately, it was a little cloudy when we were at Lindos, making the photographs not as colorful as we would have liked. We reminded ourselves that it could have been overcast the day Paul arrived, so our photographs might be more authentic than we think!


As our group walked to the top of the acropolis at Lindos for a view, there were local women selling lace and linens that Rhodes is famous for. Once we got to the bottom of the 410-ft. acropolis, the sun came out, but we did not have time to make the climb again to re-do our photos.

It was difficult, if not impossible, to stay awake on the ride back to the city of Rhodes after we had done the climbing and were tired. In the town of Rhodes we drove through the modern town and viewed the area where the Colossus of Rhodes once stood. (You may have to look that one up, or “google” it, if you don’t remember it from history.) Then we went to the fascinating area of “old town” area and did some walking before returning to the ship for lunch.


After lunch Olen and I got on a shuttle bus and went back into the harbor and old town area. We discovered an old clock tower, and for a few dollars you could climb to the top for spectacular views of the town of Rhodes and the harbor. It sounded tempting, so we bought tickets and went in. They did not tell us that the eighty-plus steps were wooden, and you could see down between each one, and they were the perfect width for someone with a size two foot! I was definitely out of my comfort zone, and the higher we climbed the more stressed I became. Finally at the top, the view was indeed spectacular, and worth the climb. By going very slowly and holding on to Olen’s shoulders very tightly I managed to make it safely to the ground level.

Before we knew it, the time had come to return to the ship. We ran into Boyd, Linda, Steve, Vicki, Sharon and Glenda, and all eight of us managed to get on one of the last shuttle buses going to the ship. The ship pulled out of the harbor at Rhodes while we did the best we could to clean up for our “formal” dinner.

Dinner was, indeed, an “event”. We were all so dressed up and cleaned up that we hardly recognized each other! We looked so different than we look in our “touring” clothes (jeans and sneakers) that Jared volunteered to take a portrait-type photo of each of us after the dinner. I am sure his pictures are much better than the ones I took sitting at the table. The dinner was special with baked Alaska as the final event of the evening.

Now it is time to rest for a few hours before we arrive at Crete early tomorrow morning.