2025_0919 Rhodes, Greece...

Friday, September 19th, I was up at 6:45am. This allowed me seeing my first sunrise of the cruise.

I think it was the motion of the ship as the wind was still causing it to rock pretty big time. I hurled. Not good when you are headed out for your last shore excursion. I settled down and we ate breakfast at Surfside Cafe. Then to the Viva Theater for our 8:45 time to head out for our shore excursion. 

Today we would take the "Traditions of Rhodes and Home Visit" tour. This was the easiest of all our shore excursions. Our guide was Nectaria and the coach driver was Kostas. Rhodes is the name of the Island and also the name of the city. The Viva would dock in the city of Rhodes (underlined in blue at the tip of the island). Our first stop would be Koskinou (underlined in blue) just south of the city of Rhodes. Then further south to Bonis Ceramics (underlined in blue) and back up to Kastri Beach (blue underline but no city name). 

First, the village of Koskinou to see a Rhodian House. I took a picture of a cemetery as we drove to Koskinou. 

As we drove, Nectaria shared lots of insights about traditions and life in Rhodes. For instance, Greeks are very superstitious. 

1. They believe in the 'evil eye'. Someone can send bad energy your way by giving you the 'evil eye'. The evil eye is black. We saw several of these in souvenier places and they all had a blue eye around the black center. The gods had blue eyes. This means that blue wards off the evil eyes effect. 
2. If you say something bad about someone, you are to bite tongue and spit three times.

A tradition example would be houses. These are passed to the girls in the south of Greece. If you further north in Greece, the boys would inherit the house. Families take care of families. As the parents age, they are taken care of by the daughters. If a couple decides to immigrate to another country, they leave their children to be cared for by the grandmother until they have a home and and jobs. Then they come back and get their children. 

These pictures are walking from the coach to the Rhodian House.

The Rhodian House was an great experience. Nectaria grew up in one of these homes and could share first-hand experiences of living in one. This particular home was owned by a woman who, on her passing, gave the home to her daughter. The daughter used it as a summer home. Eventually she rented it to the government and set it up as a museum for them. 

As you enter, the walk in the tiny front courtyard has a floor made of little rocks that are placed and set in a pattern. 

The home itself consists of two rooms. One is the main room which served as a living room and the bedroom for everyone. There were chairs all around the edges of the room for us to sit on. 

There was a bed in the room which typically would not have taken up that corner of the room. The table in the middle of this room would have really been in that corner leaving as much space in the middle as possible for all the people to be in. Nectaria lived in a house just like this with her parents and brother and five cousins. Their parents were in the process of immigrating. On the back wall in this picture is a huge hutch fixture with storage. In that storage would have been the hand made items that would make up the dowry of the daughter. It also contained their clothing. One top of this hutch and placed in the center was a huge vase. A vase like this was given to the daughter when she married. She would display it in her home just as this one is displayed. These were very precious items to them. The right wall of this room had the beds. 

Lots of plates and hand crochets lace decorations. 

This view is from the hutch looking to the front door. Gives you and idea of the size of this one room. The left side of this picture is where the beds were built into the wall. To the right was the door to the tiny kitchen. 

 The floor was made with a pattern of stones. It looked like carpeting! 

On one wall were the beds. Behind that white curtain was a mattress bed. The curtain was the only privacy. Under the lamp in the second picture is a second set of beds. Nectaria said that as children, when it was bedtime, you climbed up into these beds, grabbed a pillow picked your spot for the night with all the other children. 

The other room is the kitchen. There was a small stove but no running water. 

After the kitchen, we were back in the tiny courtyard with the rock floor. 

This is the door to the tiny courtyard. 

This home had no electricity and no running water. You went outside and down a bit to where the toilet for the area was located. Baths were done Wednesday and Saturday. A very simply way of life. My mother grew up in a home that was much larger but also had no electricity or running water. I could relate to living that way.  

We walked back to the coach, passing a rock picture of the Collosus of Rhodes, a pepper plant growing in a pot on someone's front step, and grape vines. 

The coach took us further south along the coastline.

We would be treated to a demonstration of pottery making. This area has a tradition of pottery making. Bonis Ceramics is a family owned business. Dimitris Bonis inherited it from his father. He has two sons. One will pursue a different career. The other is a trained architect and uses his skills to work in the ceramic business. He will inherit this business from his father. 

We watched as the potter made a vase. The son told us all the steps he was taking and about their pottery business as the vase was being made. 

We turned our attention to another table and the father, Dimitris, talked to us about what happens to that vase after the potter creates it. The son showed us how he carefully and free-hand, draws and intricate pattern all over the vase. 

Then the vase is fired in the kiln and, when removed, it will be the terra cotta color.

A young lady was sitting at the table with paints and, by hand, was painting in all the colors in all the detail the son and drawn. 

The vase, or plate, or whatever they are making, will go back to the kiln after it is painted. Dimitris showed us two examples of how the color changes after it is baked in the kiln with the paint on it. 

There was a display on the wall of the patterns they like to use. Each has special meaning. 

Then Dimitris showed us a two cups. They are made with a stub coming up the middle of the cup. There is a line in the cup and you are to fill it no further that below that line. The purpose was to keep guest from being greedy with the wine and getting drunk. Archimedes invented a syphon which is a part of these cups. The bottom picture shows what happens if you over fill the cup. It will drain completely. 

Claude and I would purchase a small plate with a place to put a ribbon to hang on our wall of pictures from our travels. We also purchase one of the cups. It will pair nicely with our pee pee bear from China!

We had a few minutes to enjoy the views from Bonis Ceramics. 

Our coach then drove north to Kastri Beach. We enjoyed fresh squeezed lemonade and a slice of cake while enjoyed a beautiful Rhodes beach view. So very nice.

As we rode back to the Viva, I was able to get a few more pictures out the coach window.

The story is that the Colossus of Rhodes stood at the entry to the harbor with a foot planted where each of the two bronze deer are today. There has been much research and it is believed the Colossus was up on the hill where the Grand Palace is today and not standing astraddle the harbor. 

The old city walls are incorporated as part of the city. 

We were back to ship by 12:30pm. We went directly to our stateroom and dropped things all our stuff. Lunch was at Surfside Cafe. This time, I went to the dessert station to pick out our dessert. Claude loved their pound cakes in different flavors, so I got him banana pound cake. There were two other desserts that looked great to me. I picked up one of each for us to share. They were Italian cream cake and an apricot/apple/walnut torte. They were both delicious. That is one of the wonderful things about cruising, trying anything that looks good to you. 

I wanted good pictures of the old city of Rhodes from the 8th deck of the Viva on Ocean Boulevard. 

Dinner was at the Hudson. Sandi ate potato soup, Idaho potato pot pie, and coconut mango cake. Claude ate tomato salad, Alaskan pollock, and coconut mango cake. 

We enjoyed the view from the stern of the ship to see that beautiful wake one last time. 

We had the pack and label our suitcases and put outside by door by 9pm. Disembarking was being a reality.