Rhodes Town

Fortress gateway to old Rhodes

Monday 18 March: It's off-season but, even so, my spacious double-balcony twin-aspect apartment with lounge and kitchen in the Panorama Hotel, just southwest of the Medieval city walls, is exceptional value (€13 per night). I'm ravenous but the lady in the local Taverna speaks no English so I simply give her a €10 note and indicate that I want food. Soon she brings me a feast of mixed starters: deep fried sardines, various beans, potatoes, stuffed vine leaves, bread and a bottle of Retsina. She offers to bring more but I'm full.
Tuesday 19: The old city of Rhodes is a Medieval Crusader fortress full of narrow wandering lanes, restaurants, shops, mosques, an archaeological museum, a clock tower and a grand palace. Now a World Heritage Site, the town's moat is dry and grassed over which makes it a fantastic walk around the great bastions.
Tuesday 19: Walking inland I reach Rhodes' acropolis with a few surviving columns of the Temple of Apollonas.There are good views over the old port with a lighthouse and several old French windmills.
Thursday 21: The Archaeological Museum, in the former Knights of St John hospital, is interesting enough but if I see another Greek urn I think I'll scream.
Friday 22: The Grand Masters Palace is an impressive castle-like building with fine mosaics on the floors. Restored during the Italian occupation it was intended as a holiday home for Mussolini, but never used. 
Slideshow of Rhodes Town.