![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/files\/2013\/08\/DSC01051.jpg\")
<\/a>foot on it, and the monks have decided no woman can top her\u2014despite some EU efforts to open it up.\u00a0\u00a0After all, the Byzantine emperor ruled in 1050 or thereabouts that only men would be allowed on Mount Athos, and his writ still stands.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed, the monks follow the Julian calendar, the last holdouts anywhere in the world.\u00a0\u00a0Byzantium is still reasonably alive on Mount Athos.\u00a0\u00a0For another, the community accepts only 100 Orthodox visitors and 10 non-Orthodox a day, in a process of selection that can take months.\u00a0\u00a0You can stay for three nights, if chosen.<\/p>\nThe alternative for us was a boat trip that skirted one side of the peninsula, from which we could see I think it was nine of the monasteries. Some clung to the sides of the cliffs (Mount Athos itself is almost 6500 feet, rising abruptly from sea level!) and look like the hanging temple I saw in China I would be remiss if I did not point out that the seafood has been especially good in Greece.\u00a0\u00a0We had a wonderful meal courtesy of George Kambroulogou and his wife; IWU gave me his name when I asked for alums in Europe, and though George (class of 93) only knew me by reputation (he was kind), he generously welcomed us to Brussels, where he works for the EU.\u00a0\u00a0When he heard I was going to be in Thessaloniki, his home town, he told me he\u2019d take us out to dinner since he was going to be there when he was on vacation.\u00a0\u00a0George might have taken a Chinese philosophy class at IWU, since he embraced the Confucius saying, \u201cIt is a pleasure to welcome guests who come from afar.\u201d<\/p>\n Because our plane was at 2 this afternoon, I had a free morning, and with a free bike, I resolved to either revisit some places, or go to see sights we could not get near because of parking problems or lack of time.\u00a0\u00a0Sunday morning seems to be an excellent time to explore cities, and bikes are a great way to cover a lot of distance reasonably quickly.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, the churches had services, so the churches were used as churches should be.\u00a0\u00a0I spent some time at the palace of Galerius, the Roman agora (marketplace), the great walls constructed initially by Theodosius, Hagia Sophia and Five hours later, we were in Rhodes, in the old town, which between 1309 until 1522 was a possession of the Knights of St. John, who having been driven out of Jerusalem, held the island against the Turks.\u00a0\u00a0The fortifications\u2014as you might imagine\u2014will be first on my tour\u2014since they\u2019re close by, and a museum.\u00a0\u00a0Double treat!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" August 11, 2013 The road to Rhodes We\u2019re at the last stop on our vacation, the Island of Rhodes.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll have more to say about it tomorrow (we arrived late this afternoon, and are staying in a boutique hotel in the \u201cold town\u201d), but I wanted to say a few more words about Thessaloniki. Yesterday (seems … Continue reading “The Road to Rhodes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-eastern-mediterranean-2013"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3018"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8369,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3018\/revisions\/8369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/factrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>last year; others have elaborate layouts that look like they ought to be in Russia, with the onion domes (actually, that was the Russian monastery).\u00a0\u00a0The monasteries, built as early as the 9th<\/sup> century, possess some incredible relics that were on display in a special exhibit in the Thessaloniki museum<\/p>\n<\/a> another church that still bore an inscription boasting that the Sultan had taken it from infidels\u2014along with a nice ride along the Thermatic Gulf.<\/p>\n