Rhodes Greece

Athens to Rome  Cruise 2026

Rhodes Greece

January 31, 2026

As we set sail from Crete last night the profile of Zeus was clearly visible over looking the city of Heraklion.  It was a smooth crossing last night unlike the crossing to Crete the night before.

The island of Rhodes has a population of around 125,000 residents of which around 56,000 live in the city of Rhodes.  The island of Rhodes is at the center of the eastern Mediterranean with the Mediterranean sea on one side and the Adriatic sea on the other.  This made it a popular stop over point for pirates, Egyptians, Ottomans, Persians, Crusaders, Italians, Nazis, and the English.   The city it's self is a Medieval city which is surrounded by walls built by the Knights of St John who built the wall in 1250 AD.  They were kicked out by the Persians who were kicked out by the Ottomans.  The Italians took over in 1922 after WW1 and they did a lot of rebuilding.  The main citadel had been destroyed in an accidental explosion was rebuilt by the Italians.  The Nazis took over from the Italians and the English took over from them after WW2.  Finally in 1948 Rhodes was finally reunited with Greece.  All of this has made for a real mixed architecture.  

The ship is docked right downtown so we walked straight off the ship and through the town.  It is a very charming place.  There are a lot of stray cats which are every where. They are feed by the locals and the local SPCA tries to catch and spay them but it is a losing battle.  The climate never gets below 7 C( 45F)  so they have a pretty good life.  Our tour took us through the old town which is a huge collection of tiny tourist trap shops.  As the tourist season is April through November most of the shops were closed.  This little town with narrow streets sees 3.5 million tourists every year.  I can't imagine being here.  

I took this photo of our ship the Viking Star to high light that even though it is considered a small cruise ship with only 930 guests and at 47,000 tonnes it is still 745 feet long.  This compares to the Icon of the Seas which is currently the largest cruise ship at 7600 passengers, 248.663 tonnes and 1197 feet long.  

It was a very nice day for a very nice walk through a very charming place. 

Terry