We went to Rhodes one winter and it was closed

Rhodes is a Greek Island, largest of the Dodecanese, a group of twelve islands very close to Turkey. Rhodes’ largest source of income by far is tourism. In fact, 45% of the population profits directly from tourism and 85% in total profit at least indirectly. Tourists mostly come in the summer time. Rhodes has beaches both on the Aegean Sea and on the Mediterranean. It also has beautiful walking areas, mountain views, and quaint shops. Cruise ships stop there and a visit even of several hours in the Old Town can be a delightful experience.

Most of the tourists come in the warm seasons, from April through October. In the winter, shops in the Old Town generally open only when a cruise ship arrives– and they don’t come often in the winter. We arrived on the 9th of January and the next one is arriving on the 18th. So, when we were there, things were very very quiet– which we didn’t mind since we had been there in the summer several times and knew what the Old Town looked like when it was buzzing with people. Since we had gone just as a getaway, for a break in routine and to have some quiet, it was perfect. The town was ours.

We wandered through lovely streets and alleys.

On our previous visits to Rhodes we had not had the opportunity to see the inside of the Grand Masters Palace. This time, we not only saw it, but we were its only visitors.

The palace was originally built in the 14th century, but an ammunition explosion destroyed it in 1856. It was rebuilt in the early 20th century by the Italians who then ruled Rhodes. It was rebuilt according to the external plans of the palace. The interior is not the same as the destroyed palace.

This is the street that leads to the palace. On either side are offices of the bureau of antiquities or foreign consuls.

Here is the staircase

Once upstairs, we walked from room to room in this rectangular building with a courtyard.

The scale of the rooms is enormous. Unlike the palaces we have seen elsewhere in Europe, there is no wallpaper or stuffed furniture, in fact, no color at all.

We liked this hallway. There were no explanations of anything, but we like to think that these were the rooms where the knights lived.

I like the stone design around these doors

In the palace, there are mosaics that were taken from the Greek island of Kos. They date from the Roman and Byzantine periods. Here are the Nine Muses.

And finally, we walked into a room where there was a delightful young woman, an archaeology student, the only other person we saw in the palace. She was sitting on a modern chair. We spoke to her and she told us that her job is watching the vase in the room. It stands about 6 feet tall and it was a gift of Hirohito to Mussolini. Of course, if someone wanted to harm it, I doubt whether her presence would really make a difference. Physically, it was separated from us only by a rope. So here is the famous vase.