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124 |
125 | 126 | 127 |
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In the afternoon, we visited the medieval town of Rhodes which truly seems like a town of the middle ages, surrounded by 2 miles of stone walls and moats (126). Eleven gates like #125 give access into the town. Date palms were in evidence (124) here and many other places on the trip. |
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128 |
129 |
130 |
131 |
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132 |
133 |
134 |
135 |
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Inside the town walls, the Palace of the Grand Masters was a fortress within a fortress and the last refuge in times of danger. The palace was restored in the 1930s for Mussolini but he never stayed there because of the intervention of World War II. The palace contains priceless mosaics (130-136). |
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| 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 |
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Our last stop was the Street of the Knights (137-139). This is a medieval street which contained Inns of the Tongues or nationalities. German knights would meet in one inn, Italians in another and so on. Today, the street contains several foreign consulates. After arriving back at the ship around 5 PM, we were informed that terrorists had attacked America (seven hours time difference). Security on the ship was considerably increased in the days to follow and passengers learned of each new development by watching CNN on the TVs in their cabins. A few days later at an on-ship religious service, the priest announced that two of the congregation were on the cruise as a wedding anniversary present from their children. He said that had they not been there, the husband would have been at his office in the World Trade Center. As of that time, seventeen of the husband's office colleagues were missing. |
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