Patmos, Greece

Today, May 2, we’re anchored off the island of Patmos, another of the Dodecanese islands.  When I looked out this morning it was drizzling and chilly. It has dripped on and off all day and it’s still cold.

I love the Greek myths about various places in this country.  The story goes that Artemis, the goddess,  hunter of deer and daughter of Leto, used to visit the nearby mainland where she met the moon goddess Selene.  Selene would cast her light on the ocean revealing the sunken island of Patmos. She persuaded Artemis to bring the island to the surface and thus to life. Artemis enlisted her brother Apollo’s help to convince Zeus to raise the island.  He did so, the island dried out and eventually became inhabited and was named Patmos.

The island has a year-round population of about 3,500 which swells to 20,000 in the summertime. The ship’s tours all went to the same places and all involved walking up a lot of steep steps to see the Monastery of St. John.  Steps were not to my liking, especially when wet and slippery, so I took a tender ashore and hired a taxi to take me around the island.  It was delightful!  I sat up front with my driver Katerina, a native of Patmos. We drove up to the cave of St. John, the author of the Book of Revelation.  The story goes that John was on Patmos when he was given a vision from Jesus.  There was an easy walkway to the cave which now is a chapel.  Unfortunately no photos may be taken there.  There are some chairs in the little place and I sat for a few moments.  I have to say that as with some spots in Israel, I do get a feeling of something spiritual in these places.

                  This is as close as I could come to a photo of St. John's cave

                          Looking back from the entrance to the cave

Katerina then drove me to as high and as near as we could get to the monastery.  I could get a little glimpse of the medieval building and that had to suffice.   In the distance on another hill there were some very intact looking windmillsWe then did a drive around the island stopping at a little fishing village and then at a beautiful but deserted beach.  I can imagine that in August, the height of the vacation season in Europe, the beach would be packed.  It was a shame that it wasn’t sunny because even with the clouds and rain the sea was a beautiful blue and I could see that the water is crystal clear.

                     Monastery of St. John - so near and yet so far

                                                               Patmos Town

                                                              The Fishing Village

                                              I liked this brightly colored boat

                                        three of the windmills of Patmos

I spent a couple of hours with Katerina and learned about life on Patmos.  There is no agriculture because it’s too hilly.  The residents fish (they export fish to the mainland) and work in tourism. As we drove around she knew everyone and honked at passing friends and stopped to have a conversation with her father-in-law about something.  Since I like getting to see ordinary people’s lives, I had a marvelous time.

On the tender ride back I met some people who had been on the ship’s tour and I think I saw more than they did; in fact, a couple of them said they wished they had hired a taxi.  Bad news was that the weather forecast is calling for more of the same for the next couple of days.  I’m hoping the weatherman here is as wrong as the one at home often is.  Oh, well.  I’ve lucked out in the weather department so far.