Our next day was full of incident. We sailed to Gemeler island, otherwise known as St. Nicholas island, the former home of various Orthodox Churches, a monastery, and a world class view. This island was a stopping off point for pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land for many centuries. It is indeed a beautiful, restful spot… but you have to be careful. There was in addition, a warning written in the sand on the beach where one lands,… Read more

We sailed away from Fethiye to have a bit of fun for a day, a bit of swimming in a pretty cove, and maybe some hiking (which this time I passed on. I had done this hike before). The morning began with some clouds There were other boats of a similar ilk in this cove as well… The bay is really quite popular and is known as Cleopatra’ Bay or Ruin Bay. There are some ruins there, but nothing much… Read more

Today we went to visit a ghost town, with a tragic story behind it. The town is called Kayakoy, and it was a thriving Greek village near the coast of Turkey until 1923…. the horrible year of repatriation, when millions of Greeks were sent packing back to Greece (never mind they had lived there for over two thousand years) while hundreds and thousands of Turks were sent from Greece back to Turkey. This village basically became a ghost town over… Read more

Fethiye has a lovely little museum of its own, and if you walk there you see yet more Lykian sarcophagi….. like this one just sitting in a public school yard…. Aslan welcomes you into this fine one floor museum. Once inside the air conditioned museum (unlike the big one in Istanbul— hint, hint), there is a useful map which shows us not only where Fethiye is but where the Lykian kingdom was…. And while you’re pondering that, here is a… Read more

We left Rhodes and headed to Fethiye to see the Lykian rock cut tombs, explore a museum, and to celebrate an anniversary and a birthday. Ann and I were celebrating our 37th anniversary on June 4th, and our guide and good friend Mel was soon thereafter celebrating a birthday. So, party first, explore later….. here are some shots from the surprise party on the boat! Here are the cakes! As Marie Antoinette once famously said… ‘let them eat cake’. A… Read more

There are two decent museums in the old city in Rhodes, one in the former palace, one in the former St. John’s Hospital. We will explore a few of the things there. What they reveal is that there was a very high level of culture on this island and considerable wealth (those two things often go together). This was no Gilligan’s island. On the way to the museums you have to run the gauntlet of the vendors, so how about… Read more

I got up early the next morning to take some shots before we headed off to Lindos, some third miles down the coast where lies the famous St. Paul’s bay, and a very impressive acropolis worth a visit. Acts 21.1 says Paul came somewhere at Rhodes, and it may have been this small ancient harbor. We do not know. In any case the chapel at the harbor commemorates his presence, and the setting is so beautiful that Yuliya declared she… Read more