Rhodes - but not the Colossus

Seeing that the many tourist busese were lined up on the wharf to disgorge toursis onto a willing town is quite a sight. We opted to walk into the Old Town and found a really beautiful old Orthodox church being minded by two little old ladies who urged us "you come in" so we did. There were gorgeous chandeliers and icons all immaculately clean and shining bright. It was an oasis of peace.At 2.00pm we were booked onto a train ride around the town of Rhodes - one of those little ones that goes on the road with a rather keen driver who tooted at everyone we met or so it seemed.We went all around the island: past the new tourist hotels and lines of empty deck charis on the beaches;up to the height of the islane where the temple to Apollo had been.What a great site and being there looking out to Turkey you could see the strategic importance of this island - from about 200BC we were told. When we reached the Street of the Knights we walked right up to the palace which had been built in the 18th century style as a suck up to Mussolini(who never came there anyway) - using Roman mosaics and tapestries and church stalls from French churches. Honestly some people have no scruples! The guide was not sure why all of this had not simply been returned to the owners!
We were really impressed by this guide - she had a good balance of imformation and interest in her talk. At one point, just as she was getting to an interesting bit one of the group, known from here on as Restroom Man, broke in with "Restroom?" as though she was not speaking English (she was). She was really gutted and so were we as she led us off to the museum and the loo! After a really informative tour we were free to return through the ships - straight through the major market place of course1It was this guide who told us about the Colossus and that noone knows where it was originally. Ah well!
Another feature of these tours is the beggars - on the train even; everywhere we went as tourists there were women bent over with begging bowls; children singing or tunelessly playing an accordion; I even saw a little girl with a baby warpped up begging but when I looked more closely the baby was a doll!