I woke to a beautiful sunny day and the sounds of the city coming alive through the balcony door. The City Centre Hotel had a free buffet breakfast, so I made my way to the dining area and was thrilled to see a really extensive spread of options. I piled up my plate with bacon, eggs, mushrooms, tomatoes, beans and toast and poured a big mug of tea and pondered how to best spend my day.
I had my nails done for a charity ball about 2 weeks before I left Australia and hadn’t been able to find anywhere to have them removed on the islands so I decided to start my day trying to book in at a nail salon, then to head over to the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights to explore the building and museums, followed by an early dinner at one of the beachfront restaurants.
By 11am I had found a nail salon, had the acrylic nails removed and enjoyed the most wonderful manicure and pedicure. Next I walked to the palace to see what treasures it would hold. The palace was built in the 13th century under the rule of the knights. During their rule, the island became the most powerful in Eastern Mediterranean and the infrastructure built during this time is largely responsible for the unique character that the city retains to this day, with its impregnable walls, gates and palaces.
The palace houses a museum with a range of interesting artefacts dating back thousands of year before Christ. I always find it fascinating looking at the progression of our modern day conveniences – in many ways I do thing we have gone backwards with our mass production of everything. There was so much beauty and attention to detail in every piece of crockery, every painting, every piece of clothing back then (or at least in those pieces that have survived the ages).
Throughout the palace a huge collection of mosaics that were recovered from the island of Cos and transported to Rhodes adorn the floors. Dating back to the 2nd and 3rd century, they were so intricate and created with such purpose and meaning – I just loved looking at them all.
I left the palace from the gates nearest to the port and walked along the water back to the beach where I found myself a nice restaurant for an early dinner and then headed back to the hotel for an early night.
