Rhodes, Greece - RC Mariner Day 10

Mushroom pastry. Flaky crust with a cream of mushroom tasting inside.

Giant Shrimp. Good but lacking unique character

Savarin, Chocolate, Cheescake. The chocolate was intensely good. The savarin sponge tasted stale. The cheesecake was average.

Old Town Rhodes, Greece - Part 2

Returning to Old Town

Palace of the Grand Master

Palace

Gate of St Antoniou

Mosque

Inside the Mosque

Colossus of Rhodes, Greece

This was a must visit site. I needed to see where the Colossus of Rhodes may have stood. So we exited through a gate in Old Town and headed down a long narrow strip of land to the Deer.

Windmill

The Castle Lighthouse

Seeing this current configuration, it is impossible the Colossus straddled this spot as popularly depicted. Maybe it was possible under a different configuration.

Turning around to head back to Old Town

Old Town Rhodes, Greece - Part 1

Old Town

Aerial view of part of Old Town

Possibly the most famous of the gates: Panagais. Certainly the most scenic

Church of Virgin of Burgh

Archeological Museum

Seahorse

Temple of Athena

Kusadasi, Turkey - Royal Caribbean Mariner Day 9

Dinner - Formal Night

Duck. A beautiful presentation but slightly gamey bland with a hint of tin.

Fried Shrimp. A welcome comforting appetizer but ordinary.

Veal Shank. The photograph does nothing to show how huge the shank was. Royal Caribbean has done a much better job on other ships with fork tender shank. This was moderately tender and then the salt failed to permeate deep into the shank.

Strawberry Napoleon. The crust and topping were flaky. The filling was tepid.

Irish Cheesecake. I believe it was supposed to contain Bailey's but I didn't taste it. This was airier than a standard cheesecake and would have preferred it over the Irish.

Kusadasi, Turkey

I had a preconceived notion of what Turkey was like and this was not it, being more modern than expected.

Pigeon Islands. There were no pigeons.

Pirate Castle on Pigeon Island

A view of the city looking east from the walkway to Pigeon Island

Hotel near the port

Mosque

A view from the main street

Wasn't expecting this.

A feeding frenzy.  The fish swim along a shortboard walk where diners eat al fresco.

At Sea - Royal Caribbean Mariner Day 8

After two days of excursions, it was nice to relax and sleep in.

Dinner

Crab Cake. Much better than expected.

Shrimp dumpling.

Flounder

Berrimisu. I prefer tiramisu.

Holy Church of Sepulchre Old City - Jerusalem, Israel

After lunch we returned to the Old City. Not to speak for Jesus, but he would be upset by the commercialism surrounding the old city.

The Stone of Anointing, where Jesus' body was prepared for burial.

The balconey is the Adam Chapel and just inside is where Jesus was crucified

The Aedicule - houses two rooms. It houses what is believed to be the tomb and the stone that sealed the tomb.

Just across from the Stone of Anointing

This was the end of the tour. We wanted to head out to the Dead Sea but it would be too long of a drive so we were on the way back to Ashdod. At Ashdod we took a quick bus tour of the city.