DAY 136- DAY 130 CRYSTAL SERENITY

4/30/2019

WELCOME TO RHODES, GREECE

Last evening we attended the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle Party. This was one of the smaller parties in terms of attendance with eight people attending out of thirteen who signed up. Including us three of the four couples attended the party from the previous cruise. The other couple came on-board for this voyage and this is their second Crystal Cruise. Hotel Director Hubert, Cruise Director Scott, Executive Housekeeper Mara, Concierge Anella were on-hand as was Bar Manager Florent to check on things at the start of the party. We enjoyed a nice conversation and appreciate how much Crystal supports these parties in terms of dedicating a lounge and having several members of the food and beverage team on hand serving drinks and canapes and having senior officers and senior staff at these parties.

We had friend Barbara to our room last evening for dinner. We have known Barbara for several years and have sailed with her from time-to-time. Barbara sails with Crystal Cruises often and was recognized at the Sunday evening Crystal Society Party for her 81st Crystal Society Milestone. Congratulations Barbara.

Before dinner we enjoyed some appetizers.

This is the dinner menu from Waterside.

We enjoyed dinner from two venues. We decided to go with two courses instead of three.

From Prego we each began with Caesar salad.

Anne Marie had Veal from Prego while Keith had the Whole Roasted (white and dark meat) Turkey from Waterside.

Keith and Barbara also had a fruit plate.

We enjoyed another nice sleep as we sailed to our next port of call stop at Rhodes, Greece. We kept to our same routine of an early morning workout for Keith and coffee and breakfast in our room. We then got ready to visit Rhodes.

Our first and only visit to Rhodes was on World Cruise 2017.  We remember this city very well.

Rhodes has a population of 120,000 residents.

Rhodes was famous for the Colossus of Rhodes, which is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  The old town city is a World Heritage Site.  It is one of the  most popular destinations in Rhodes.

When we walked the old town we visited the Jewish Synagogue. The Jewish Community  goes back to the first century AD.  At its  high point the Jewish population represented one-third of the town’s population. During  the holocaust, the Nazis deported  and killed most of the community.

Major attractions include:

Palace of the Ground Masters which was built during the 14th century. It was damaged and demolished in 1856 by an explosion of gunpowder and restored in 1939 during the Italian occupation.

Archaeology Museum which is hosted in the Hospital of the Kings ands a rich collection of statues, sarcophagus, vases, mosaics, vessels, ceramics and other artifacts.

Suleyman Mosque which is the largest mosque on the island.

Jewish Quarter which was establishes in 1557 and is the oldest synagogue in Greece.

St. Nicholas Fort which is the fortification which is built around the medieval town.

We had to revise some of our plans for today:

Anne Marie woke up with severe pain on her side. We thought it most likely was a muscle strain. However, a few years ago she had pain which turned out to be pneumonia and with her illnesses we didn't want to take any chances.

Our original plan was for the two of us to walk the walled city and revisit places such as the Jewish Quarter and Kahal Shalom.

We also had lunch plans to take two members of the crew to lunch; Natasha who works at the Reception Desk and Dennis who is a bartender. They are married and a delightful couple. We had planned to go to lunch at Kotor where Natasha is from but they needed to reschedule when Dennis needed to see the dentist.

We decided it would be best to have Anne Marie see the ship's doctor so we tabled the plans for lunch as we didn't want to have to cancel at the last minute. We will take them for lunch another time.

Keith went out by himself as soon as the ship was cleared and walked the walled city and got back in time so that when Anne Marie saw Doctor Soto that he was there. The good news is that an x-ray confirmed her lungs were clear and it is likely she strained her ribs/muscles. As they say better to be safe than sorry. Other than blood tests that Anne Marie had to take for her blood disorder this was the first time she had to go to the medical center and see the doctor.

Back to the walled city.

Keith covered a lot of ground since it was very early in the morning when he went out and he can move quickly from the ship and to and from the walled city. Once inside the city he did take the time to "smell" the roses. In other words he stopped to take in the sites.

He had forgotten how narrow the streets were and didn't remember vehicles inside. The vehicles were primarily delivering items for the restaurants and the stores. He tried to focus more about the walls and the various structures in the city and not on the commercial side although we did include a few photos of restaurants and shops. As we saw in Kotor, there were many cats walking around the city.

He also made it to the Jewish Quarter. It was too early to go inside so we are including some photos from inside the Synagogue from 2007. He took a moment to think of all of the Jewish people who were removed from the city during Nazi terror as were so many Jews from across Europe. He thought about the six million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust. To put this into perspective there were around 9.5 million Jews living in Europe before the Holocaust and only 3.5 million following the atrocities committed on them. He said a prayer before leaving the Jewish Quarter for those who perished in the Holocaust and for the brave men and women who fought on the side of the Allies. As Tom Brokaw wrote, they were part of the Greatest Generation who sacrificed of themselves to make the World a much safer place.

As he returned to Serenity he was reminded that in spite of the challenges of today they pale in comparison to those of our parent's generation who dealt with both the economic depression and a world at war in both the Atlantic and Pacific Regions.

Back on the ship he met Anne Marie at the medical center.