Crete and Rhodes

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Our next two stops were the islands of Crete, and then Rhodes.

In Crete, our excursion was to the Palace of Knossos, the ancient center for the Minoan civilization (and there are Neolithic ruins at the site indicating its history goes even further back.) Despite their age, the palace had plumbing for clean water and sewage. It was a quite large city at it's peak, with many buildings and twisting passages, probably the basis for the stories of the labyrinth.
The next day we sailed into Rhodes. Touring Rhodes is a little confusing, because although it has ruins dating back through the middle ages, all the way to the classic Greek era, much of it was rebuilt/reinterpreted by Benito Mussolini during his rise to fascist power. So the rebuilding was done to a larger scale, more imposing, and decorated with relics and mosaics from many different areas. We started our excursion by going to the Acropolis of Lindos, originally a Greek temple, then converted to a fortress by Crusaders and Turks. Little was left standing when Mussolini began the rebuilding, so columns, walls, etc. to the 1930's.
We then returned to Old Rhodes Town, and toured a number of the buildings that the Crusaders had built when they used Rhodes as a staging area. Again, with the occupation of the Turks and ensuing conflicts, most of these buildings were also destroyed, and only rebuilt in the 1930's.
Before sailing, Rhodes gave us our final chance for shopping in Greece (although certainly not our last chance at shopping!)