Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GETTING AROUND
By bus
KTEL buses are based in Kos Town, with several
stops around a triangular park 400m back from the water,
and an information booth adjacent at Kleopátras 7
(
T
22420 22292). Buses between Kos Town and the airport
also call at Mastihári (3-6 daily; €3.20).
Cycle rental
Bicycles make an excellent way to get around
Kos; much of the island is very flat, and Kos Town has an
extensive system of cycle lanes. George's Bikes, Spetson 48
(
T
22420 24157), has a good selection.
By car and scooter
Cars can be rented at the airport and
all the resorts. Kos Town outlets include Budget at Vassiléos
Pávlou 31 (
T
22420 28882) and AutoWay at Vassiléos
Yeoryíou 22 (
T
22420 25326,
W
autowaykos.gr). For a
scooter, try Moto Harley at Kanári 42 (
T
22420 27693,
W
moto-harley.nl).
Kos Town
Home to over half of the island's population of just over 28,000,
Kos TOWN
, at the far
eastern end, radiates out from the harbour and feels remarkably uncluttered. The first
thing you see from an arriving ferry is a majestic
Knights' castle
, for once down at sea
level, but the town also holds extensive
Hellenistic
and
Roman
remains. Only revealed
by an earthquake in 1933, these were subsequently excavated by the Italians, who also
planned the “garden suburbs” that extend to either side of the central grid. Elsewhere,
sizeable expanses of open space or archeological zone alternate with a hotchpotch of
Ottoman monuments and later mock-medieval, Art Deco-ish and Rationalist
buildings, designed in two phases either side of the earthquake. As ever, they
incorporate a “Foro Italico” - the Italian administrative complex next to the castle
- and a Casa del Fascio (Fascist Headquarters).
A little square facing the castle holds the riven trunk of
Hippocrates' plane tree
, its
branches propped up by scaffolding; at seven hundred years of age, it's one of the oldest
trees in Europe, though it's far too young to have seen the great healer. Adjacent are
two
Ottoman fountains
and the eighteenth-century
Hassan Pasha mosque
, also known
as the Loggia Mosque; its ground floor - like that of the
Defterdar mosque
on central
Platía Eleftherías - is taken up by rows of shops.
Ferry travellers in transit are effectively obliged to stay in Kos Town. It's a pretty good
base, with decent hotels, the best restaurants on the island, reasonable public transport,
and several car- and bike-rental agencies.
8
The old town
The liveliest part of Kos Town is the thoroughly commercialized
old town
, which lines
the pedestrianized street between the Italian market hall on Platía Eleftherías and Platía
Dhiagóras. One of the few areas to survive the 1933 earthquake, today it's crammed
with expensive tourist boutiques, cafés and snack-bars. About the only genuinely old
thing remaining is a capped Turkish fountain with a calligraphic inscription, where
Apéllou meets Eleftheríou Venizélou.
The castle
April-Oct Mon 3.30-8pm, Tues-Sun 8am-7pm; Nov-March Tues-Sun 8.30am-2.30pm • €3
Known locally as “Nerantziás”, the
castle
in Kos Town is reached via a causeway over
its former moat, now filled in as an avenue and planted with palms. It's a splendid,
tumbledown, overgrown old ruin, where once inside the gate, which turns out to lead
to another broader moat with an inner fortress beyond, you're free to walk and stumble
at your own peril over all sorts of walls, battlements and stairways, as well as the odd
much more recent and unattractive concrete accretion. At the far end, you find yourself
looking out over the ferry quays.
Built in stages between 1450 and 1514, the double citadel replaced a fourteenth-
century fort deemed incapable of withstanding advances in medieval artillery. Few if
any of the many cannonballs lying about were ever fired in anger; the castle
surrendered without resistance after the marathon 1522 siege of Rhodes.
