Day 5: Rhodes, Greece

We explore medieval Rhodes, tie for First Place in team trivia, have dinner at S.A.L.T. Kitchen and enjoy a Queen concert!

This morning, Silver Moon is docked in Rhodes, Greece. Rhodes is the fourth-largest Greek Island and is considered one of the great islands of the Mediterranean. We chose to explore this island on the Medieval Rhodes excursion offered by Silversea. The excursion was scheduled for a 9:00am departure. As we disembarked Silver Moon, The World is docked nearby.

Motor coaches lined up for today’s tours

After boarding the coach, our driver takes us up some winding roads to the Acropolis of Rhodes, which is basically just a photo op stop. Unfortunately, some serious fires from nearby Turkey have caused a layer of smoke to obstruct the view. The smell of smoke was in the air as we took our photos.

Our next destination was the Palace of the Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes. Rickee and I visited here a few years ago, but we did not tour the palace; we just admired it from the outside.

The tour inside the palace lasted about an hour, after which our tour guide offered us a choice. We could continue with her to the Archeological Museum, or, we could walk back to the ship on our own through the shopping district. We chose the latter. Whenever you are on an island, it is usually pretty easy to find your way back to the ship, as long as you know the general direction. You simply keep walking downhill! Sooner or later, you will reach sea level.

Narrow pedestrian streets are lined with shops

As we walked through the narrow streets of Rhodes, we could not help but think that you would never know there was a pandemic to look at the bustling activity here. All of the merchant shops are open, restaurant managers try to get you to come into their sidewalk cafes to have lunch. It is as if nothing has changed. We did find a couple of souvenirs to take home. The walk back to Silver Moon took about an hour, but much of that time was spent stopping and looking in the shops.

Soon, we were walking along the ocean front toward Silver Moon.

When entering the cruise port area, we are required to stop and have our temperature taken along with a quick look at our cruise key. Silversea also instructs us to always carry a photocopy of our vaccination certificates with us when off the ship, just in case they ask for them. They did ask to see our certificates before allowing us to enter the Palace of the Grand Master.

Before boarding Silver Moon, we could not resist stopping to get a photo with the ship.

Once back on board, it is time for lunch. We head to Deck 11 where we order pizza at Spaccanapoli, Silver Moon’s pizza restaurant. I ordered the sausage and mushroom pizza with extra sausage. Rickee ordered the Margherita. Honestly, the pizza was not as good as we remembered from Muse and Spirit. Maybe the dough did not rise correctly this morning, but it was lacking something. Also, both pizzas were supposed to have basil, and as you can clearly see, there is no basil on the pie.

At 4:45, it was time again for Team Trivia and Rickee and I, on our own, did very well today. We tied for First Place and racked up 10 Silversea Prize Points!

For dinner this evening we chose to try S.A.L.T. Kitchen, Silversea’s newest dining venue. S.A.L.T. Kitchen is located in the same space as Indochine on Silver Spirit and Silver Muse. S.A.L.T. (Sea And Land Taste) is a new dining concept on Silversea and is represented by the S.A.L.T. Lab and S.A.L.T. Kitchen. The “lab” is a space where guests can get hands-on cooking instruction and the Kitchen is a restaurant where guests can enjoy a menu that changes every day, with dishes that reflect the destination.

The S.A.L.T. Kitchen menu is divided into two sections. One section remains the same every day and the other section changes with the destination to reflect dishes from the region. Rickee and I both chose the Mezze platter from the “always available” menu.

The highlight of the Mezze platter was the “Hummus Three Ways”. The herb, beetroot, and pistachio hummus were all good, and served with pita bread. The tzatziki with fried keyfalotyri cheese was also excellent. More please.

For my main course, I ordered the Lamb Stifado, cumin-scented lamb chops which were quite good. I also asked the waiter if I could get a side order of creamed spinach, which is not on the menu. No problem on Silversea, I got a beautiful bowl of delicious creamed spinach!

Rickee ordered the Freshly Caught Fish of the Day which was grouper. Unfortunately, her grouper was just too fishy for her to eat and she sent it back.

After dinner, we went to the Venetian Lounge to enjoy another performance by the Voices of Silversea. Tonight, they performed Rock Rhapsody, a collection of songs by Queen. It was another excellent performance.

Tomorrow, Silver Moon will be At Sea so we will sleep a bit later and enjoy all that the ship has to offer!