Wednesday 10th September
Woke up to the sound of the thrusters, so knew we were just arriving in Rhodes. Opened the curtains to find a glorious view of the walled city, and full shade on the balcony... Hurrah! It was 25degrees at 8am and we knew that by afternoon, when the sun had moved across the sky, it would be too hot to sit out, so we spent the morning reading and watching the crew do a full emergency drill. All the lifeboats were launched and formed an orderly procession around the harbour.
By the time we headed off the ship, many passengers were returning, looking sweaty and absolutely exhausted. Rhodes old town was pretty crowded as there was another cruise ship here today, Celebrity Reflection. I'm not sure how many passengers are on that ship, but it was big and ugly, and I counted seven decks of balcony cabins. There were also two much smaller cruise ships, Orient Queen II and Louis Olympia.
Anyway, I'd done some pre-cruise research and we headed straight to the Palace of the Grand Masters, which in WW2 had been restored by Mussolini who intended to use it as a holiday home. He'd pilfered Roman mosaics from the neighbouring island of Kos and laid them on the floors of the palace. It's all very impressive. A few rooms also contained an excellent exhibition of ancient 'stuff' from Rhodes - pottery, jewellery, lamps, etc. these were the best rooms as they were air-conditioned.
After leaving the Palace, we were very brave considering the temperature and paid €2 each to walk round the city walls. The sun was blazing down, but the views were amazing, though Greece obviously doesn't have the same regard for Elf'n'Safety that we do in the UK. We'd thought it might be a bit like walking round the York or Chester walls, if a little hotter, but stairs up to the wall had no handrails and the wall itself was extremely rough underfoot, with huge unguarded drops all along one edge. Anyway, we survived, and had a little wander round the town and the harbour before returning to the ship in time for afternoon tea.
What a perfect day.
Thursday 11th September
Kusadasi - 32degrees. Three other cruise ships in port, but our view was wonderful all day. Those on the port side were not so lucky, as Cunard's Queen Elizabeth towered over that side of the ship. Two smaller ships were also in port - Ocean Princess, which looks very attractive (I may have to reconsider my 'never again' verdict of Princess), and one of the Star clippers which has sails controlled by computers.
After our trip to Ephesus, which Dave may blog about, we had a little walk along the sea front at Kusadasi and tried to ignore the hassle you get as you walk along the compulsory route through the bazaar. A couple of children on the promenade had bathroom scales and were offering to weigh passers-by for 50cents. I don't know if they got any customers, but I certainly don't want to know my weight at the moment! Kusadasi is very low on my list of favourite ports of call. If you like shopping for jewellery, carpets or fake designer t-shirts, it's great. We don't, so we'll probably stay on board if we ever come here again.
Struggled to find anything we fancied doing after dinner tonight - there was another violin concert, the Deadliners were performing 'Blame it on the Boogie', karaoke in the sports bar, and the film sounded soppy and long, so we went outside for a while and watched the stars and the ship's wake before heading for an early night.
Janet
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