20Sep11 Patmos is one of the many small Greek islands. On a previous trip we’d stopped at Mikonos, another beach island, so we were curious to compare the two. The island is also known as place where John of Patmos received the visions that he 
recorded in the Book of Revelation.
The island has a cave where John is said to have received his visions. We opted not to stop and check out the cave as we made our way past the cave and up the mountain to checkout the castle on top, which turned out to be a monastery. Apparently the monastery 
takes a siesta from noon to 3, so we were fortunate to have shown up late. A large number of fellow cruisers signed up for tours that showed up during siesta. There were some hard feelings when the tour operators explained that they did not control the (random?) monastery hours and were thus not responsible. We find this fairly amusing as one of the major selling points of an expensive tour ($100 versus free) is that someone else worries about the details and makes sure you don’t do something silly – like show up when the site is closed. 
This was a pretty cool site, even considering it’s the 9 gazillionth stone church we’ve seen. Lots of small rooms and stairs built for people sized 5’ and under. The walls and stairs all had an uneven feel to them, as if a large group of people with limited tools 
(not including levels or tape measures) just got to work and left the details to God. Pirates appear to have been a major problem as most of the older building and cities in this area are heavily fortified. The walls of the chapel were covered in gold and gilded murals, and dimly lit – as if the monks couldn’t be bothered with earthly matters like 
light – just gold for the walls if you please. Despite the lack of lighting, and the numerous signs prohibiting photography, Niem managed to snap these awesome shots.
We spent the afternoon exploring the island on a quad. We’d tried to rent one in the morning, but couldn’t find anyone who’d rent without a driver’s license. 
Odd because we’d had no such problems in Mikonos, but that was a couple of years ago. The roads on the island wind their way atop the ridges making for some interesting and scenic driving. Niem was delighted to spot this curly-horned goat near the beach. He managed to escape and we were forced to return to the ship for dinner.
0 Responses to “Patmos”