After having breakfast at the hotel, we boarded our bus and drove 10 minutes to the port where our ship, the Celestyal Discovery, was berthed. Upon seeing the ship, we realized that it wasn’t the sailing ship that was one of the options, but a small cruise ship After we boarded, we took part in a mandatory Lifeboat Drill.
As we left the harbor at about 1:30pm, we saw the Kusadasi Castle , and sailed down the Turkish coast and out into the Aegean Sea, headed for the Island of Patmos, made famous in the Bible for being the place where the Apostle John was exiled and where he wrote the last book of the New Testament, Revelation.
We sat on the deck for a while, enjoying the view. And anyone who really knows me knows that when I get on a boat bigger than a canoe, I tend to fall asleep. And I did, and got a little more sun than I planned on. At about 4:30 the ship anchored in the Patmos harbor and small tenders, essentially water taxis, took almost 800 people (out of the 1200 people on the ship) from the ship to the shore.
Patmos
Patmos is a relatively small island not far from Turkey but belongs to Greece. There are about 3000 inhabitants, a single port, and the Monastery of St. John on the highest peak of the island. we boarded a bus and arrived at our first destination of the day, the Cave of the Apocalypse, where some believe John wrote the book of Revelation, even though there is no Biblical support for that.
The young lady who was our guide was Ariadne (in the Odyssey, Ariadne was a Cretan princess, the daughter of King Minos of Crete). She is Greek Orthodox and knew her stuff.
After the Cave of the Apocalypse, the bus took us to the Monastery of St. John, a Greek Orthodox monastery founded in 1088. It is named after the Apostle John, the author of the last book of the New Testament, Revelation. According to Revelation, John lived on the island when visions of the apocalypse came to him. Since its founding, the monastery has been a pilgrimage site and a place of Greek Orthodox learning and worship.
On the way in, from the boat, and from several places around the island, three windmills are visible to the north of the monastery, with the setting sun casting a warm light on them. I was able to get a shot of it on our way down from the monastery.
And then, looking down at the port, the late afternoon sun painting a different picture of the harbor. We capped off the visit with a little shopping, and then back to the ship where we had a light dinner and went to bed, tired, but happy to be on this adventure together.
