Four Stars

Rhodes is a mere 11 miles from the western side of Turkey but still is part of Greece. Rhodes, the old city, is a World Heritage Site for its' MASSIVE fortified city. The Knights of St. Johns made there way to Rhodes during the 1300's to the 1500's in part because of strategic position for trade routes, but also to protect Christians from Muslim traders. The result is the construction of a gorgeous fairy tale city, larger the fortified city we saw in Malta, and is amazingly well-preserved, yet still buzzing with locals and tourists.



One of the first signs we saw read, "Voted Top Destination In Europe, 5th in World." At first, I was skeptical and was not sure how this island would unveil itself. The day began with a walking tour of the fortified city. The sidewalks on the streets have detail that goes down to the pebbles laid on the ground in the form of decorate designs. The labyrinth of walls seemed endless and just kept going and going from tourist hot spots to spots to locals hanging their laundry from the windows. How neat to have a home imbedded in such a treasure. I felt like I was on the game board as a piece in the game of chess! Check out the picture when I about to take rook ;)



The old fortified city was easily one of the most spectacular sights I have seen on this trip and would recommend this destination to ANYONE. All ages/interests keep easily have a beautiful vacation and explore this island.



Four Stars **** Loved Rhodes!!!

Rhodes

If there is a destination that I would recommend from the cruise, Rhodes would be it! Rhodes is a larger island in Mediterrenean belonging to Greece. As soon as we stepped foot off the boat, the spectactular turquoise water was at our feet. This was the first time a swim in the ocean seemed possible! The day ended with a bit of suprise so I may start there and work backwards to the beginning.

Rhodes is home to the one of the Ancient Wonders of The World (as was Cyrpus, but the spot was too far in Cyprus to get to). Anyways, Rhodes built a spectaular statue called, Colossus of Rhodes, to commerate an Ancient Greece naval vicotry in 280 BC. The statue of a Greek God stood over 100 foot tall and straddled a harbor entrance where the battle was won. Historians are unsure how the statue was destroyed (possibly an earthquake), but they do know where it stood.

Kacy and took off to find the entrance to the harbor and take a picture. After the photo and finding the spot, we rounded the corner and saw a diving board in the middle of the ocean! Two men were swimming out there and jumped off and swam back. Now, this diving board seemed like it was 5 stories, Ron that was you ;). Kacy and I decided to make the swim and headed out for the diving board. There was no turning back, we climbed the ladder (One story, Ron!) and made the jump into the water. What a rush, this was must do and so glad the plunge was made!

The pictures show the diving board, an entrance to the castle (which I will talk about in the next blog entry), Kacy at the site of where Colossus of Rhodes was (how funny is the guy in the background!), and some love to home. I miss you Mom and Ron :)

Cyprus

Cyprus was cut short by three hours because there was some additional traffic and convoys going through Suez Canal. It was a public holiday in Cyprus and felt like it when we arrived off the boat. Cyprus had the most disappointing ports of all the stops because it was very isolated from any sort of place (via beach, town, mountain, etc). We decided to make the most of the day and opted to find a beach! Cyprus is known for their alternative water sports such as wind surfing and kite surfing. There was a light breeze as we started the hike for the beach and certainly could see why the sports were so popular :)

The small bit we hiked, which turned out to be near 8 miles total, was beautiful. Cyprus seems like a place where you could easily spend a week. Mountains are visible while looking for sea shells on the beach front and it has a lot of natural geography that looks like could easily be explored!

The hike ended at a restaurant along the water with some white wine, which Cyprus is known for, and tzatziki. Tzitki is a yogurt based spread flavored with garlic and cucumbers flavored with mint and this was the fuel needed to reenergize for the walk home in the heat!

Port Said, Egypt

After our very long tour going through Cairo, we decided to explore Port Said independently. Port Said is a coastal city that is near the Suez Canal. As we left the boat we were bombarded by Egyptian peddlers selling their knick-knacks. Egypt has a reputation for the sellers being quite aggressive, but we were lucky not to really experience that the day before in the Greater Cairo area. We were definitely NOT spared the first 10 minutes leaving the ship. Apparently, "No" can have different meanings.

Minus the above experience the rest of our day rolled along quite smoothly. We began the day with a walk along the boardwalk and the beachfront. The beach was not a such where you would want to throw down a towel and lounge for hours. Large barges pass by as we were walking along and the beach itself has more of an industrial feel than a pedestrian feel. Nonetheless, it is still the ocean and the waves were crashing. We were courted by several younger Egyptian boys and girls who were so pleasant saying countless times, "Welcome to Egypt." We met some friends, Kiro and Hillay, who toured us around at the end of the day and showed us some of their favorite spots.

The experience was very eye-opening and I learned more about myself. The past two days in Egypt were some of my favorite of spots of the year.

Here is a picture of Kacy and the boys and just as I was getting off the boat. See the peddlers behind me getting ready to attack!