Airline review: Aegean Airlines--excellent; Turkish Airlines--terrible!

view of Santorini's caldera

Blue Mosque, Istanbul

We’re in Istanbul at the end of a trip to Greece, Albania and Istanbul.  We’ve flown Aegean Airlines, which we’ve never flown before, and Turkish, which we’ve flown many times, all over Turkey and Central Asia, for many years.  I’ve had great experiences and always recommended Turkish to other travelers.  Until now.  Never again will I recommend them nor will I fly Turkish unless I have no other choice.

Booking logistics:

I booked our flights to Athens and home from Istanbul on United because both Aegean and Turkish are Star Alliance partners, so booking on United was easier and cheaper than booking 3 different itineraries. Plus, when United changed our flight from Denver to London by 3 hours, it also automatically changed our flight from London to Athens on Aegean.  United gave me locator numbers for both Aegean and Turkish flight segments in addition to United’s locator number.  

We flew Aegean 6 times, from London to Athens, Athens to Santorini and back, Athens to Rhodes and back, and Athens to Tirana, Albania.  I booked the London to Athens flight on United and the rest on Aegean’s website.

I booked Tirana to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines’ website and Istanbul to London, as part of our round trip, on United’s website.

Why I'll never recommend or fly Turkish again:

First, the bad news.  Turkish canceled its flight from Tirana to Istanbul and moved us to Air Albania, which it said was a partner and code share airline.  When I tried to book seats using my Turkish reservation, Turkish told me they couldn’t book the seats because it was a code share flight, not a Turkish Airlines flight.  Air Albania said they couldn’t reserve the seats because it was a Turkish reservation.  I was not able to check in on either Turkish or Air Albania websites, so had to wait in line at the airport in Tirana to get seats and boarding passes.

I tried tor 2 months to reserve seats on our flight from Istanbul to London, the one I booked as part of our round trip on United’s website.  Turkish customer service, if you can call it that, insisted they could not reserve seats because it was a United reservation.  United said they couldn’t see a seat map for Turkish—and the Turkish website told me that I could not access my reservation on their website even with their locator code.

I even went to 2 Turkish customer service agents at the Istanbul airport and both told me I could not reserve seats or check in online, despite having the Turkish locator number, because I’d booked via United.  This, of course, is ridiculous as every other partner airline I’ve used can let you reserve seats and check-in online or by calling their customer service representative.  Consequently, we had bad seats at the back of the plane on a seriously overbooked flight from Istanbul to London (at least we had seats).

Contrary to all our past experiences, Turkish customer agents and flight attendants were surly and rude.  Not an experience I want to repeat when there are much better choices for flying.

Why I'll recommend and fly Aegean from now on:

Now, to the good news.  Aegean Airlines was terrific to fly.  We flew a total of 6 flights on Aegean and had a great experience on every one of them, from booking to selecting seats online to checking in online to actual flying.  Their website is easy to use and, if you have to call them, their customer service agents are helpful.

I always book seats in advance because, if you don’t do, you can get to the airport and find that your flight is oversold and you don’t have a seat.  Booking seats in advance on Aegean was very easy.  For the flight I booked via United, I simply used the Aegean locator number United provided and my reservation came up with all the options I needed for the flight.  Check in was very simple, as well.  I added the Aegean app to my phone and the boarding passes popped up as soon as I checked in.  No fuss.

For the flights I booked on Aegean, I booked seats on their website and checked in easily on their app on my phone.  The airport staff were helpful and pleasant and the flight attendants, likewise.

Our plane from Rhodes to Athens had a mechanical problem and couldn't fly.  Rather than cancelling the flight, as most airlines would do, Aegean flew in another plane, so, amazingly, we landed in Athens only an hour late.  I’ve never seen that kind of operations readiness and customer service before on any airline.

Whenever I travel in this region again, I will avoid Turkish and fly Aegean.  The former is unprepared and unprofessional while Aegean provided excellent service.

 

Snapshots of Istanbul

 

                                                                              

the impressive church of Aya Sofia

We love Istanbul.  We’ve been there many times and have good friends there, so we decided to end our trip to Greece and Albania with a 2-day visit to Istanbul and some time there with our friends, who own a carpet shop in the Grand Bazaar, Adnan & Hasan.  We have bought carpets from them for 22 years, in their shop, online, and when they’ve stayed with us in Colorado and turned our house into a Turkish carpet shop for our friends to see (and buy).

Don and friends at Adnan and Hasan

During the worst of Covid, the Grand Bazaar was closed for 5 months.  Even after, it was mostly empty, so many businesses closed and Adnan & Hasan downsized sharply and hung on, mostly with sales to people like us who know and trust them and occasionally bought rugs from them online (https://www.adnanandhasan.com/). 

We spent time in the Bazaar over the last 3 days and found it packed with people once again.  Almost all the shops are open and sales are pretty good.  We talked to one friend, now selling leather and fur jackets in the Bazaar instead of carpets, who told us he can support his family once again and send his son and daughter to university.    

server and Fuego

We found a very small hotel, the Fuego Design Suites, in a perfect location a few minutes from Sultanahmet Square, the Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque.  It’s a bit funky, down a hard-to-find narrow corridor on one of Sultanahmet’s many stone alleys full of small restaurants and coffee shops.  Our room was wonderful, very spacious, with big windows on 2 sides and a balcony, all of which looked out directly on the Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque.  The hotel has a really good restaurant where you get breakfast, and a sweet little kitty named Fuego who thrives on all the attention he gets from servers and customers alike.

Four cruise ships were docked in the Golden Horn, so the lines to get into the major tourist attractions were long.  We decided to walk around the beautiful historic sites of Sultanahmet rather than get stuck in hour-long lines to actually get inside the sites.  But a walk around the old parts of the city is also wonderful because you get to see old Ottoman wooden houses tucked away in cobblestoned alleys, people going about their lives, hawkers trying to entice you into their shops and the massive architecture of Byzantine and Ottoman Istanbul.  

row of old wooden houses

women washing outside mosque

We did visit one of our favorite museums, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, right on Sultanahmet Square.  It has Turkish carpets from as far back as the 12^th century and gorgeous illustrated Korans.  There are ceramics and beautifully etched vessels of various metals.

huge carpet at Museum of Turkish
and Islamic Art

illustrated Koran

The streets were packed with people and cars.  Lots of vendors sell food and trinkets from colorful carts.  There are too many vacant stores as you get away from the main squares.  Turkey is having a tough time economically—and also politically, with an elected president who acts more like a dictator, eliminating free speech and jailing his perceived enemies, from military leaders to journalists to professors. 

corn vendor outside library

Istanbul has grown tremendously since our first visit in 2000.  We drove through the Asian side of the city to have dinner with our friends, through miles of giant skyscraper office and residential buildings and countless buildings under construction.  There aren’t enough green spaces for Istanbul’s huge population of somewhere between 18 and 22 million to be able to get away from all the concrete.  Public transportation is good, but very crowded, and the narrow streets are choked with cars, buses and trucks.  Istanbul has a grand new airport about 25 miles outside the city, an hour and 15 minutes away by car. 

dinner with our friends

                                                             

Skanderbeg Square, the center of Tirana and Albania

You can find some architectural gems in Tirana, but you have to look hard.  Mostly, it is a city of Soviet style buildings and lots of new construction of dubious architectural merit.  There are new buildings going up all over the city (and the country, for that matter) often replacing the old villas that gave the city some character.  Lots of the new buildings are for offices, but it’s uncertain what businesses will fill them as Albania does not have a large economy, nor a commercial base.  

one of Tirana's charming buildings

Our guide said the city is about 70% Muslim and 30% Christian, but that 60% of the people don’t follow any religion.  There aren’t a lot of churches or mosques, though Turkey is paying to build a large new mosque in the city center. 

Skanderbeg Square is a massive square that is the center of the city and the nation.  An Italian designed the square originally to be the meeting point of the roads to the far parts of Albania.  Because Italy is so close to Albania (the heel of its boot is only 45 miles from Albania), and because Italy occupied Albania during World War II, there is a lot of cultural influence from Italy. 

old mosque in Tirana center

After World War II, Albania was ruled by a brutal Communist Party.  Enver Hoxha was the dictator for 44 years, until his death in 1985.  He became increasingly paranoid after he broke relations with China in 1979 (because Hoxha believed they had moved too far away from real communism).  Both the United States and the Soviet Union were enemies so feared that he ordered bunkers to be built across the country to protect from an attack from one or both nations.  He built well over 200,000 bunkers, from tiny to huge, including 2 enormous nuclear bunkers in case of nuclear war.  You can see bunkers everywhere as you drive around Albania.  Creative Albanians now use some of them for such varied activities as bars, mushroom growing facilities and even crude homes.  

president's office

fresco of Istanbul on old mosque

We visited the BunkArt I nuclear bunker today.  It is very large, and now a museum of sorts with photos of the Albanian resistance during World War II and the transition to Communist rule led by Hoxha.  Several rooms are decorated in the style of the era and are the rooms where Hoxha would have resided during a nuclear attack.  It’s a dark and depressing place, with photos of Hoxha securing his power in part by creating a cult around himself and brutally torturing and murdering any dissidents. 

old ministry building with new construction behind

Once he’d cut off all communication with China, Hoxha turned Albania into the most isolated country in the world.  China had provided aid and investment to Albania, but that stopped in 1979 and a time of great privation and hunger followed until 1992.  Since then, people live much better and freer lives, though the reformed Communist Party, now the Socialist Party, has won most of the elections since 1992.

Today, Albania is a member of NATO and has applied for membership in the European Union.  It has lost population as young people depart for Europe and North America in search of a better future.  The country has valuable natural resources, but primarily exports the raw materials rather than converting them into marketable products that                                                                                          would generate jobs.

dried fruit and nut shop in bazaar

Tirana has a small, but busy, bazaar and a thriving night life in several parts of the city.  The restaurants are varied, lively and plentiful, offering good food and Albanian (and other) wines and beers for very reasonable prices.  Albanians we’ve talked to have been very helpful.  Many, but not all, are proud of their close relationship with the United States.

The beautiful Accursed Mountains--driving to Theth

mountains and trees above Theth

                 

The drive to Theth, an extremely tiny and remote village in the Albanian Alps, named the Accursed Mountains, is daunting.  The road is very narrow, maybe 1 ½ lanes wide, but definitely not 2 lanes, very steep, with cliffs dropping off below your car on the outside edges of the road.  I think these hairpin turns define the meaning of “hairpin”, doubling back on one another in nearly figure 8 patterns with barely enough room to make your turn, much less share the turn with an oncoming vehicle. 

view of mountains from town

We drove to Theth 2 days ago, returning yesterday.  Fortunately for us, the road was paved 2 years ago because, before, it was a rough track of dirt and rock.  The narrow, paved road follows the old road with all its twists and turns, but is a good surface, even if frighteningly narrow, and has barriers along the most exposed parts. 

guest house above Theth

There was a lot of traffic coming out of Theth National Park as we drove in, making the drive a bit harrowing.  I couldn’t believe how many cars were on the road and how many people were in the village of Theth.  This is a hiking haven, but has only some very basic guesthouses, mostly on the mountainsides above the village.  People come in for day trips to see the magnificent mountains surrounding this deep valley and to hike one of the steep trails.  Right now, the trees are beautiful with their fall colors.  This is an area of deciduous trees, not conifers, so is massed with the red colors of fall.

The supermarket in Theth had some bottled water, a few cleaning necessities and only snack food available.  There is one restaurant that I saw, so most of the guest houses offer breakfast and dinner.  The rebuilt church is the center of the town and its most-photographed site.  The road turns rocky and rough as soon as you cross the river into the town, which is strung along the valley for about half a mile.  There is no “center”, just homes and guest houses.  

Theth woman outside her guest house

Life in these remote mountain valleys is still quite traditional and hard.  The older women are stooped and weathered, but the younger women seem to have an easier life now.  Outside every guesthouse are clotheslines loaded with sheets and towels that need to dry before the next guests arrive.  The women cook and clean for all the guests and manage the family cow and chickens.  We saw the men repairing the buildings and equipment and herding sheep and goats.  It is a patriarchal society that still, according to our guides, has ongoing blood feuds, some dating back generations.  I don't know if that is true, but Theth has an old tower where men accused of murdering a neighbor were imprisoned until the aggrieved family either forgave them or killed one of the murderer's family members to get even.

Theth church

The mountains are impressive.  Huge rocky peaks loom above the deep, narrow valleys.  There are trails all over the mountains.  One of the most popular is the 12 mile hike from Theth to Valbona, another remote mountain village.  We saw several groups of hikers, with guides, heading for the mountainsides on a beautiful fall day.  I would have loved to have joined them. 

Theth resident with his puppy

Driving in Albania, let alone on the road to Theth, is an adventure.  Albanian drivers are not really worse than drivers in most countries we’ve driven in, but they can be intimidating.  The roads are clogged with cars and trucks around every town.  There are dozens of police stops along every road, with some officer aiming his radar at oncoming traffic and another waving over hapless speedsters.  I drove the speed limit in order to avoid this particular hazard.  Our guide in Tirana said you pay your fine at the bank, but he didn’t know if the police at the traffic stops also get a share.  They were certainly diligent about pulling cars over.  The popular cars are older Audis, BMW’s and Mercedes, and the ones to watch out for are the black or white Audis as they seem to be the cars of choice for particularly aggressive drivers.

village of Theth

We drove a large Jeep on the advice of our travel agent, but didn’t really need a vehicle that big.  It was hard to maneuver through the narrow streets, but did seem to encourage oncoming drivers on the mountain roads to give us our share of the road.  It is actually easy to drive in Albania with Google Maps and a lot of patience.

Berat--the Ottoman city of 1000 windows

Ottoman houses in Berat

We left Gjirokastra yesterday morning to drive to Berat, another town with whitewashed Ottoman houses built on steep mountainsides on either side of the River Osum.  On one side of the river, where we stayed, the city is renovating the cobblestone alleyways and putting water pipes underground.  The hope is that the water tanks on everyone’s roof and the coils of electrical wires strung between houses will go underground also and clear out the messiness of this area of beautiful, old buildings.  No vehicles can get up the alleyways, so donkeys haul materials up the mountainside for the restoration work and haul down the debris left over from all the digging. 

Ottoman construction with wood layers

We took a back road to get to Berat.  The main roads are mostly very good, though often a little narrow, but the back road was in bad condition.  Still not a problem to drive.  We had to watch for potholes which could swallow a car and lots of bumps, but all that was very worth it because the drive was so beautiful.  We drove over mountains and across valleys with vineyards and olive orchards.  One large area obviously produced oil many years ago.  I saw only one oil well still pumping, but the landscape is littered with rusted drilling towers from the early part of the 20^th century.  We saw a large pool of oil that badly needs to be cleaned up.  We could smell it and the gas leaking from uncapped wells throughout our drive through the area.   A rusted oil refinery sits useless in one valley, also smelling of gas and decay. 

church at castle with Ottoman cloisenne design

Like Gjirokastra, the old sections of Berat have running water only a couple of hours a day.  Hence the water tanks on every roof in the historic part of the town.  We climbed the very steep cobblestone alleys to the large castle on top of the mountain.  The Greeks built the first castle, followed by the Byzantines and, later, the Ottomans.  There are 3 huge cisterns inside the 3 walls of the fortress, enough to supply the garrison and townspeople during a siege.  Today, 400 people still live inside the castle walls, but most of the former residents have moved to more comfortable homes in the town.

The old Ottoman houses were built of stone and plastered inside and out.  About every 18 inches, they put a layer of wood for earthquake protection.  Since they had nothing like cement, they mixed dirt and straw, like adobe, to use as mortar.  That seemed to work well once there was plaster coating the outside of the building. 

mountains above Berat

Berat is about 50% Muslim and 50% Christian, though our guide told us no one goes to churches or mosques a lot.  During the Communist era, religion was banished, mosques and churches were turned into hospitals, museums and other public buildings, and anyone espousing religious beliefs was punished severely.  One of the old mosques right on the river still has the beautiful frescoes from the Ottoman era.  Despite the Muslim prohibition on painting images, the Ottomans often painted scenes, animals and flowers on their mosques and public buildings.

fresco on mosque

 

Gjirokastra, an old Ottoman city in the south of Albania

Gjirokastra's castle at night

Mountains and sea define the borders of Albania.  It’s a small, beautiful country about the size of Sicily, with a contorted history that includes Greeks, Romans and Turks.  Consequently, it has a substantial Muslim population among its 2 ½ million people.  Young people are leaving in large numbers because of the poverty and lack of good jobs, seeking their fortunes in the rest of Europe. 

Gjirokastra in the rain

The Communist era is a dominant part of the recent history of Albania, and a terrible one.  Albania was the North Korea of Europe until 1992, with an unbearably repressive regime that preferred complete isolation from the rest of the world.  One person told us that, as a child, she and her siblings would stand in the long food lines with her parents, each taking a line for a different commodity, such as oil, sugar, milk or bread.  When she reached the front of a line, she would quickly change places with one of her parents so that the parent could buy the food.  She said her father would often get in the milk line at 2 a.m., only to find that by the time he reached the front of the line many hours later, all the milk was gone.  Parts of the city do not have running water 24 hours a day, so most homes have cisterns or water tanks on their roofs.  In Romania, we drove through villages where no one had any running water at all and women lined up at the town fountain with 5 gallon jugs to get their water for the day.

One of our guides told us the Communist regime took everything from his parents and grandparents—home, gold, household goods, clothes—because they were too well-educated and elite.  Shades of what China did under Mao.  He said they could never accumulate any assets now because their family has had nothing since 1946 and jobs are too scarce and wages too low.  His father was forced to leave school in the 4^th grade because the “elites” were denied an education, so became a truck driver.  But, he said, his father is very wise and politically astute and understands how politics work locally, nationally and globally.  

rooftops with mountains in back

Yesterday, we drove from Tirana, the capital, to Gjirokastra, a city in the south of Albania.  One Turkish pasha controlled the area for decades and built a fortress on top of one of the surrounding hills.  He killed one of his fathers-in-law, who had previously saved his life and given him his daughter in marriage, but met a similar fate at the age of 81 when a newer rogue beheaded him.

Ottoman house needing repair

The area below the castle has old Turkish houses, built of stone with slate roofs.  Most are falling down, but some have been renovated into hotels like ours.  If tourism continues to grow, this area of very steep cobblestone streets and dilapidated buildings will become the chic place to be in Gjiroskastra.  The city is even building a parking garage on one of the slopes because the tiny streets and difficult terrain don’t permit parking.  We are driving a Jeep which is way too large for these alleys, but have managed to navigate the sharp turns and steep slopes.  

our hotel, an Ottoman house after restoratioin

We visited one of the former Turkish palaces, which has two large living rooms where the extended family would gather and where important ceremonies, such as marriages, were held.  When the Communists took power in 1946, all the wealthy families were removed from their homes.  Sometimes, they were given a room in their house for their entire family and other families were given other rooms, all sharing the common spaces.  Often, the entire family was murdered instead.

family living room before 1946

Some families have renovated these old homes, turning them into small hotels like the one we stayed in.  But, most of them need someone to buy and restore them.  It’s very expensive, obviously, to do that, particularly in a country with very limited resources.  On Friday nights, the old Ottoman area restaurants thump with music, which made my head thump as well, long into the night.  It has become an enticing area for younger people who have stayed in Gjirokastra.  The city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yes, Athens' Acropolis is wonderful

 

The Acropolis

We just flew our 6^th flight with Aegean Airlines—and we’re impressed.  Every flight until today has been smooth and on time.  Today, the incoming plane had mechanical problems and had to be taken out of service.  Most airlines would have canceled the flight, which was from Rhodes to Athens, but Aegean brought in another plane from Athens, loaded us aboard, and delivered us to Athens only an hour late.  Throughout the delay, I received texts from Aegean telling me what was going on.  I’ve never had such a rapid and informative response from any other airline. 

The Parthenon

I keep reading that Athens’ Acropolis isn’t really all that great, that too many of the artifacts have been removed to other locations.  Well, we went to the Acropolis late in the afternoon and thought it was exceptional.  It is a magnificent site, high above Athens, which had clean air that day, so the views were beautiful.  Everything on the Acropolis is under constant renovation and reconstruction, in part because earlier restorations were done so badly that the structures and stones need to be stabilized.  So the Parthenon has scaffolding covering the front and heavy equipment inside, which I think it also had all those years ago when I first visited.  I still loved it. 

women of ancient Athens

The next morning, before our flight to Tirana, Albania, we went to see the Ancient Agora, the site where Athens’ democracy began and flourished.  There is one temple there today, but lots of eroding statues, stones and columns and one beautiful Corinthian capital.  It is all in a garden, so it’s easy to stroll around imagining what it was like when the men of Athens debated the great issues of the day right in this place.

The Tholos, a round platform that was the foundation of an unusual, round meeting hall, is particularly interesting.  The leaders of Athens would meet there to make decisions.  Some of the men would spend the night in the Tholos in case an important decision needed to be made in the middle of the night.  Each group of leaders would use the Tholos for 35 or 36 days, after which another of the 10 tribes of Athens would send their leaders for 35 or 36 days.  That way, each of the 10 tribes had an equal amount of time to rule Athens. 

the Tholos with schoolchildren

Our hotel is in a very upscale neighborhood, with lots of high end shops, but also a lot of crumbling buildings.  Everywhere you can see empty stores and partially constructed buildings that look like they’ve been partial for a long time.   At the same time, the restaurants are busy.  Our hotel is on one of a series of pedestrian streets, which are filled with people.

Temple of Hephaestus and cat

But, it’s clear the economy is not thriving.  One business owner we talked to said she was a resident of the UAE, even though she’s Greek and owns a business in Greece, because she doesn’t want to pay Greek taxes.  Her attitude, which is common, is one of the reasons Greece has such big economic problems—people don’t pay taxes, so the government doesn’t have enough money to provide basic services and resorts to borrowing.  Only now it can’t borrow like it used to.  There are a lot of people living in poverty and looking for jobs.  And a lot of young people leaving Greece for other EU countries where their opportunities are better. 

Athens on a clear day

Out and about on Rhodes--driving to Lindos and around the island

 

Aegean and temple, Lindos

Rhodes is the largest island among the 12 eastern Greek Islands (the Dodecanese), but you can drive around it in a day.  We drove to Lindos to visit its ancient Acropolis and temples this morning and continued across the mountains to a small town high up in the mountains that is home to several wineries.  It’s not a very exciting town unless you want to go wine tasting, but has a pretty location overlooking the mountains and valleys of central Rhodes. 

yachts in the bay below Lindos

The drive to Lindos began in too much unkempt development and traffic and ended at the brilliant turquoise and blue bay beneath what remains of Lindos.  Finding parking in Lindos in the midst of dozens of tour buses, hundreds of cars, thousands of tourists and tiny streets was a bit daunting, but we succeeded. 

Tenple of Athena

You have to climb to the Acropolis, up a long series of steps to the top of the cliff, or take a donkey ride to the ticket kiosk near the top.  Don declined both options, so I joined the bevy of tourists on the steps.  While the site itself has been poorly restored, and not even a lot of that, the views are spectacular up and down the Aegean.  The water is clear and brilliant blue, shading to turquoise in the shallower bays filled with yachts.

Lindos has carved reliefs from the 3^rd century BC and gates from the 4^th century AD in addition to its temples to Athena and 14^th century castle built by the Knights of St. John.  The swarm of tourists detracts from the charm of the site, but nothing can spoil the location and views. 

view of the Aegean Coast from atop Lindos

Fortunately, by the time we left about 2:00 pm, the crowds had returned to their buses and cruise ship, so we could actually get our little purple car out of the parking lot and up a narrow street to the main road.  The drive into the mountains was peaceful, with no traffic, lots of hairpin turns, a good road and pretty scenery.  It looks like the islanders have replanted trees because the trees tend to be similar in size.  But, there is some variety of species, including lots light green pine trees that I have not seen before.

Olive orchards are everywhere and, higher up, there are bushy vineyards.  No vines strung along wires to form tidy rows.  The soil is so rocky that it can’t always sustain the vines.  We saw a lot of abandoned vineyards.  But, the olive trees seem to thrive.  As do the orange trees that produce delicious juice on every corner and in dozens of shops. 

ancient Greek boat carved into cliff

As we drove back to Rhodes (the city) along the Aegean Coast, we saw many abandoned and rotting greenhouses plus a few new ones.  Agriculture is difficult in this rocky, windy, salty environment.  Tourism is the big industry, but is a 7 month business.   The owner of our hotel told me that by November 1, when hotels and restaurants close, there will be no traffic and few people wandering the streets.  That makes for a precarious existence during times of recession and war. 

Rhodes is just 8 miles from the mainland of Turkey.  The day we flew into Rhodes, it felt like you could reach out and touch the clear coastal mountains of Turkey.  Since then, though, it’s been too hazy to see much.  Relations between Turkey and Greece are good enough right now that you can take boats between Rhodes and the coastal cities of Turkey.

temple at Lindos

Tomorrow, we fly to Athens for a day before continuing on to Tirana, Albania.

 

A day wandering in Rhodes Old City

mosaic from Cos now inside the Palace

The city of Rhodes is one of the top tourist destinations for European vacationers and Mediterranean cruises, for good reason.  The weather is beautiful, the history, absorbing, and the Old City, fascinating to stroll.  The commercial section is like the old bazaars that can be found all over the Muslim world, with tiny shops lining narrow cobblestoned alleyways.  Lots of people live in the Old City as well, so it is a busy place.  The island’s history is a yo-yo, bouncing between Christian and Muslim, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman (for 400 years), Italian and, now Greek. 

The Palace

My ancient history books pictured the Colossus of Rhodes, built by Charles of Lindos in 280 BC, but gone this last 1700 years.  The Colossus reportedly dominated the harbor, at a height of 108’, but no one seems to be sure exactly how big or where it was.  Still standing because it was rebuilt and restored by the Italian conquerors in the 1930’s is the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes.  Our favorite site in the city, the Palace today houses magnificent mosaics pilfered by the Italians from Roman ruins on Cos after a massive earthquake destroyed much of that island and its beautiful Roman structures.  The Italians meticulously reconstructed the mosaics to grace their renovated palace, before archaeological standards dictated that relics remain in place at their original sites.  I’m grateful we could see these. 

drawings of mosaics

There is an amazing exhibition at the Palace of an Italian artist’s detailed paintings of the mosaics.  He drew and colored each tiny stone so that the preservationists could reconstruct the mosaics exactly as they were found on Cos.

The Knights of Rhodes built the Palace when the Ottomans kicked them out of Palestine in the early 14^th century.  They also built massive walls to protect themselves against sieges, mostly launched by the Ottomans.  The walls lasted until the Turks finally won in 1522.  Most of the churches were converted to mosques.  Today, Rhodes has minarets and Orthodox domes poking skyward amidst the buildings below. 

clock tower, dome of mosque and minaret

We walked the medieval walls of the Old City.  There are 3 walls, with 2 moats in between.  They are massive, built to withstand sieges, which they had to do often.  Ultimately, however, the Turks built huge assault weapons and towers that enabled them to breach the walls and take over Rhodes.

the cats of the Old City

Cats are here in abundance, looking quite well fed, probably from the leftovers outside the many restaurants.  I’ve only seen a couple of dogs, on leashes, so not roaming the streets.  Otherwise, there’s not much wildlife, not even the hordes of seagulls you usually see around ports.  There are, however, enormous yachts filling the slips in the port.

The Aegean is a gorgeous sapphire blue.  Unlike Santorini, which has only a few tiny beaches, Rhodes is surrounded by beaches, generally very rocky and completely full of lounge chairs and umbrellas.  This is the end of the tourist season, so not so many bodies on the beaches, but cruise ships sailed in and out of the ports several times a day. 

cruise ship in Rhodes' port