Kos - Dodecanese Islands

Kos Island, Greece is a one hour ride on the ferry from Bodrum, Turkey. Of course that doesn’t include the 75 minutes it takes to go through four passport inspections (3 in Turkey and 1 more in Greece). But it’s still a lot easier than flying back to Istanbul, and transferring to another airline.

Kos is one of the larger islands of the Dodecanese chain. Rhodes is the most famous of the Dodecanese, but Kos gets is share of tourists, especially German families (as we found out). This island was once known as Nymphaion for it’s nymphs, but these days the only reference to Nymphaion is the 3rd century Vespassiani (public urinal) outside the old bathhouse in the old town. We looked but never found it. As for the Nymphs, as I said, it’s pretty much an island of German tourists.

If you’re looking for one of those cute little Greek islands with white washed Greek churches and simple island houses, this is not one of them. Like many other places in the Aegean, Kos was knocked down by earthquakes a bunch of times. The Crusading Knights of St John fortified the island from 1315 to 1522, but a massive quake in 1933 destroyed most of it. What we’ve been looking at is a charming collection of 20th century Italian Art Deco buildings along the central squares of Kos Town and a lot 1950’s, two story Greek boxy-style apartments and houses.

We’re staying at one of the newer hotels in Psiladi, about 4km from Kos Town. It’s close enough yet too far to walk in the 100°F heat. The internet photos of the Kos Imperial Hotel show a contemporary, relaxing and romantic hotel along a beautiful beach. And although they did offer family services, we had no idea what we were in for.
The lobby has the quiet appearance of an asian beach resort. When we arrived around 11am, the beautiful hotel staff smiled and told us they would be able to upgrade us to a much nicer room. How nice. Yes, our room overlooks the beautiful Psiladi beach with hundreds of umbrellas, beach chairs and a volleyball court. On the other side of us are 4 swimming pools filled with screaming German children. We’ve arrived to Kamp Kos, Greece’s version of a luxury cruise ship that never goes anywhere.
In the morning there is the breakfast buffet, followed by all day snacks buffet lunch served by the pool.  And at night the “all you can eat” dinner buffet. All meals are extra, of course.
I think we’re the only Americans here. There are a few Brits and Russians, and some languages we can’t quite make out, but most of the families here are German. If I didn’t know we were in Greece, I’d swear we were in Germany.
The pool takes up most of the time for the kids. The older people go to the beach. There are supervised nature walks every morning, organized exercise groups, wind surfing lessons at 10am, Volleyball starts at 4pm and then every night a new musical romp through the worst songs from the 80’s. Family disco is every night from 8pm-9pm, followed by the evening entertainment, usually more disco, only louder. Our room is about 500 meters from the disco stage. Yes, we traded the moaning Imam of Turkey for the gay disco of Greece. More Ambien please.

The sun is hot and although we hadn’t planned to be in the midst of a family holiday, the people watching is fantastic (especially the kids). The morning buffet is a good selection of breakfast foods and lots of delicious thick greek yogurt. But a short 10 minutes walk down the road is a really great Greek Taverna, and instead of force feeding everything from the dinner buffet we were able to relax and enjoy a really good meal of greek salad, keftedes (meatballs), mousaka and garlic bread. The waiters danced to greek music, the electricity failed three times and the beer was really cold. On our second night to the Taverna we asked for the octopus. The owner of the restaurant looked down for a minute and then said, “They scrape the octopus along the concrete, then they pick it up and smash it again to the ground and then let it sit in the hot sun for a whole day before it is grilled. Maybe you would prefer the kalamaria?”  And so we ordered the calamari.

We’ve rented a couple of 80cc motorbikes and headed out to the Asklepeion. Asklepios is the god of medicine and healing and the symbol of the cult of Asklepios  is a snake wrapped around a staff, the same symbol still used today by the medical profession. The cult of Asklepios recommended fresh air, clean water, herbs, hallucinogens and the power of suggestion to cure ailments. I guess things haven’t really changed that much.
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, and the founder of the first school of medicine, was born in Kos and set up his school and hospital at the Asklepeion of Kos. He was also the first physician to separate medicine from religion, claiming illnesses were not caused by supernatural beliefs or punishment from the gods, but instead as a result of bad diets and bad living habits. After his death in 357 BC (some say he lived to be over 100), his followers enlarged the Asklepeion. At it’s height, the Asklepeion was administering medical aid to thousands of people from all parts of the Mediterranean.

Hippocrates’ school was primarily based on passive treatments. He believed illness was the result of an imbalance in the body of the four fluids; blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm. When they were out of balance a person would get sick.
It’s interesting that Hippocrates measured a persons pulse while taking their case history to see if the patient was lying. Even in those days a lot of people used the hospital as an excuse to take off from work.
Hippocrates was also the first known surgeon of western medicine. There was no study of anatomy during his life. Dissection was forbidden by the Greeks.

Anther great physician born on Kos was Stertinius Xenophon, the personal physician to Roman emperor Claudius. In 54 AD, Xenophon murdered the emperor by sticking a poison feather down his throat. So much for the Hippocratic oath.

The five rings of the Olympic games supposedly symbolize the Hippocratic philosophy; life is short, science is long, opportunity is elusive, experiment is dangerous, judgement is difficult.
In 1315, the Knights of St John of Rhodes bought Kos from the Venetians, built the Harbor castle and rebuilt the earthquake damaged city. Building materials were lying all over the island from ancient agoras, Roman villas, an old cities; even the Asklepeion was dismantled and used to build the fortress. They even built another fortress further inland (near the airport) now called the Castle of Antmácheia. This one was used as a prison for the bad Knights of St John from the mid 1300’s till 1523. Based on the facts that these Knights were known for pillaging, murder, and a list of other crimes, we’re wondering what they had to do to be locked up into the Castle of Antmácheia.
There isn’t much left of either fortress. The 1933 earthquake was pretty devastating. But the walls have been repaired and it’s a nice walk. The harbor fortress is enormous.

In 1523, the Turks conquered the island. This was the same time they took possession of Rhodes and Bodrum. It was a good year for Suleiman and a bad year for the Knights of St John.
The Turks held control of Kos till 1912. There are still a number of old mosques and minarets in the city and quite a few Muslim residents. Kos didn’t become fully Greek again till 1948.