Well, I'm happy to say that after the rather hellish traveling to get here, we were well rewarded. Rhodes city was possibly my favorite city on our whole trip... definitely the coolest medieval place on the map. Living in the old town was like being in a giant open-air castle! The outer wall was three layers of the most massive ramparts I have ever seen, complete with bridges and wide moats. Inside, narrow cobbled streets squeeze under the stone buildings which arch overhead, and the facades are liberally coated with red flowers.
The unfortunate part is that this is also perhaps the touristiest city we've been in... all souvenir shops and restaurants, and predictably expensive. But I don't care! It was sprinkled with enough Ottoman mosques, crusader palaces and secret tunnels under the walls to keep me happy for weeks. Pity we only had three days.
One of 'em was spent at Kameiros, yet another ancient Greek town, this one with a commanding view of the sapphire ocean that makes me wonder why it was ever abandoned. But my favorite sight may well have been the tiny yard across from our hotel window, apparently the local watering hole for half the feline population of Rhodes Island. Spotted and striped, orange and brown, friendly and fierce... I've never seen so many cats in one place before.
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