Continued from yesterday”¦ From the museum we headed over to the palace, and on the way we passed the living quarters for the knights. The Knights were grouped together according to the language they spoke, and each group resided in the same house. The houses are lined up one after another on a long street. The houses were built at different times, ranging from the early 1400’s to the early 1500’s. All have a similar exterior façade, though if you look carefully you can see nuances that make each a little different. All of the houses are now government administrative offices. We don’t know if you are allowed to go inside. We didn’t try. One door was open and we peeked in and saw a courtyard with a beautiful garden surrounded by a rectangular building, very similar in layout to the hospital. There are also some floor plans on the informational signs, and they are definitely bigger inside than they look outside.

The palace is Continue reading →

Continued from yesterday”¦ We headed a few blocks north to the ancient stadium, which is now an empty field with no overt markers to indicate what it once was. As we strolled along, we enjoyed the sweet smell of figs in the air. Figs smell good.

Once we had passed the stadium, we were back in the heart of the old town. We continued one more block north we got to the bay, then followed the bay around to the fort/castle. To enter the fort, you go up a slope to the Plateia Platanou, a cobblestone courtyard with an 18th century mosque (now home to tourist shops) and one of the oldest trees in Europe.

From the Platiea Platanou, you cross a bridge over what was once a mote into the fort/castle built by the Knights Hospitalier in the 14th century. From the outside, the castle looks like it is intact, so we were disappointed when we paid the entrance fee and walked in to see that the outside looked a lot better than the inside. There are remains of a building in the center, but for the most part, the majority of the interior is dead grass with bits of broken bits of sculpture and other marble pieces strewn about. Here are some shots from various spots around the fort.

Like at the Western Excavation site, there are no signs. You can walk around the perimeter of the exterior walls, which offer beautiful views from the top.

There are little Continue reading →

Kos is a small island located just 5 kilometers from the Bodrum Peninsula on mainland Turkey. Kos was originally settled by the Carian people, who lived in the southeast corner of what is present day Turkey (including Bodrum). The people of Kos played a role in the War of Troy, the Greek mythological story now believed to be about Continue reading →