Before I move on to Istanbul, I want to talk a little about Rhodes. It is the ninth largest island in the Aegean and is famous for the Colossus of Rhodes. An enormous statue of the sun god Helios, it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The gate into the old city.

Like most of the Aegean, Rhodes has a long history, full of conquests, immigrants, and repeated changes to the governance. The island had a Minoan colony in the Bronze Age, which gave way to the Mycenaeans. In the Middle Ages, the Knights of Jerusalem, for example, were expelled from the Palestine, they went to Rhodes and governed the island for over 200 years, running the island from 1310 to 1522. The Knights were expelled from Rhodes by the Ottomans. In 1912, the island, as well as the rest of the Dodecanese, were seized by the Italians. Now, once again, it is Greek.

The old town is really old, with remnants from every one of the occupations.

Look closely at the upper part of the wall. The shields of the different nationalities of the Knights are represented.

Finally, here is a sample of what the streets in the old town look like. Not for cars, that’s for sure.

My take-away from these travels is that most of Europe has seen repeated conquests and/or floods of immigrants with their own cultures and languages. And not just in the Aegean. In Prague, for example, out tour guide’s father had the experience of having to learn three languages (Czech, German, when the Nazis came in, and Russian, at the conclusion of WWII). His name was changed as well. Putin’s attempted conquest of the Ukraine has the Czechs shaking in their shoes at the prospect of Russia expanding its reach.

This is something the United States had never had to face and it really changes one’s worldview.