All Rhodes lead to shops

According to Frédéric, our tri-lingual, charismatic, 6’ 2”, Belgian cruise director, who looks like Jude Law’s older, but better looking brother and has the personality of a veteran game show host, can sing, dance, tell jokes (in several languages) and generally make the women on board want to ‘do him’ and the men want to ‘do him in’, the new city of Rhodes is not worth seeing.

“It’s boring” he told us as we prepared to leave our little ship and enter the heads of the tiny harbour that was once the pedestal for a big stone bloke called Colossus. Apparently he did nothing all day but stand around letting ships pass precariously between his legs.

Frederick was right of course – cruise directors are always right; the new city has nothing much to offer apart from the fact it sits in the middle of the impossibly blue Aegean, has a warm wind sweeping through its streets, is lined with genuflecting palms and sits beside the original medieval city which is contained within the high stone walls.

In comparison to the charm of the old city of Rhodes, the modern one has its shortcomings. But it’s not Rhodes’ fault. Every tourist city around the world is starting to look like the next one. The shops are the same and labels like Hermes, Prada, Valentino and D&G sit beside the food chains of Starbucks and Burger King.

The shops that don’t make it onto the international retail rich-list sell made-in-China rubbish that could be easily found in half the shops in Swanston St.

Shopping for that souvenir which has at least some genuine quality has lost its appeal. Why bother travelling to Peru to pick up a quality Aztec alpaca pashmina when you can pick one up at the stalls of any market (and listen to the live performance of the flutes of the Andes from the resident Peruvian buskers while you’re at it. Who needs South America?)

Back to the medieval city on the island of Rhodes. It is so authentic and well preserved (although my suspicion is that it has been rebuilt by the Greeks who seem intent on totally rebuilding every ruins across the entire country), it looks like a Disney theme park in a Movieworld-meets-Westfield-Shopping-Centre sort of way. Walking from the ship along the esplanade which separates the city from the Aegean, the walls look formidable, the moat looks impossible and the retail outlets look implausible.

The city was built to repel invaders. It’s battlements, moats, walls and sentry posts however, were no protection against the threat of a 21st century invasion- an invasion so fierce and destructive, not even the city’s founders could have imagined. Retail.

Inside the walls which are supposed to offer protection, cheap Asian imports have infiltrated every street, lane and building. It’s a hideous display of current day commercialism dressed in a stone-walled city that is more a theme park than a medieval city.

The city’s walls and the streets within them spread over a couple of square kilometres. Without exception, every street is lined with rows and rows of look-alike shops which sell virtually all the same merchandise. And most of it, if you look hard enough, is made in China. The acrylic clothing is draped over the stone walls. The tacky, plastic Colossi (please allow me that one) are lined up on every piece of brickwork and the paving stones are littered with Grecian looking object d’aft (I coined that phrase as most of it is targeted to the British tourist)

It is impossible to gain an appreciation of the ancient city, it’s hard to imagine how its founders lived- how they ate, communicated and travelled. If there’s a lane or street that doesn’t have a row of souvenir shops, it’s become a parking bay for at least 30 motor bikes, scooters and mopeds.

Rhodes was always a beautiful island. Its history and grandeur is ‘in your face’ – There was once a colossus and although he only stood around for 80 years until an earthquake decided to topple him, the other buildings on the island were built to last. It’s just that you can’t see them anymore – they’re all buried under a rainbow of cheap merchandise.

It’s all on sale on Rhodes but Rhodes has totally sold out.

A report on location in Rhodes for TravelMole by Kevin Moloney 

©Kevin Moloney 2007