The

Kalispera (good evening) from the beautiful town of Chania on the west of Crete.

I'm blogging from a smoky internet cafe at 1 euro per half hour so I'll try and be brief, keep, it short and succinct without any extra redundancy.

So where was I? Oh yes, we were on the terrace at Homero's pension, talking about Gallipoli and the terrible military failure of 1915, which the Aussies and Kiwis still comemorate every April. I had to ask Ron, an australian who's wife is turkish, if that caused any friction in their house on ANZAC day. He said not really since the Australia and New Zealand Army Corp received such a horrible whooping, what they're really commemorating is the terrible tragedy and failure, and keeping alive the memory that war is hell. I'll drink to that.

The next morning we got up early to catch our 7:30 bus to Bodrum but didn't get out the door without The Mama handing us a bag of food for a picnic.

We arrived in Bodrum after a three hour bus ride through very scenic mountainous country and found a hotel then took a walk down to the harbour. The boats were incredible, tall ships, pirate ships and every manner of yacht and party boat. The main reason we were there was to see the Castle of the Knights Hospitaller, or Knights of Saint John. Now, this was really news to me, but apparently these knights, who originally set out to defend the christian pilgrims to Jerusalem, after getting kicked out of Israel in 1291 went out looking for a new place to set up their knight and hospital business. They settled on the island of Rhodes and later set up a branch office here in Bodrum on the coast of Turkey.

The castle is quite impressive and now houses a museum of underwater archeology (Rory wore her swimsuit and felt that she was a victim of false advertising). They have an incredible display of riches pulled from the many ships which have sunk off the coast of Bodrum over the last 4,000 years.

The Knights incorporated into the stonework and decorations of their castle several pieces from the Mausoleum of king Mausolus of Halicarnasus (now Bodrum). This huge funerary structure was commissioned by Mausolus to commemorate himself, but had to be finished by his wife (who was also his sister), after his death in 353 B.C. It was eventually toppled by earthquakes in the middle ages, but not before making the list of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (that's number 2 for us on this trip).

Today only a few stones and the foundations remain if the Mausoleum--and of course that word has entered our language--but the hundreds of carvings and statues that adorned it are in museums throughout the world and some survive in the Knights Hospitaller castle.

The pictures are of us in front of a statue at the castle, and Rory and I looking pretty on the castle wall. Also, a mosaic floor from a chapel at the castle. And finally, Rory and Jasper getting ready to board the hydrofoil ferry for Rhodes.