Patmos, Greece
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2007
1
27
52
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
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Patmos,
Greece
Thursday, August 2, 2007
From Lisa:
This was a busy day! Patmos in the morning, then the anchor was pulled and we were on the way to Mykonos for the evening. We arrived early on Patmos and got a ride up to the top of the island where the monastery of St. John awaited. Thankfully, we'd been clued in to go up first, while it was still cool, then walk down through the forest to the cave where St. John was exiled and wrote the book of Revelations.
When we arrived at the monastery -- in our typical shorts outfits -- we were pleasantly handed skirts to put on over our shorts, because this was, after all a holy place. Ladies were given skirts and gentlemen were handed long robes or long pants to put on. Then we were allowed in. The view from the monastery was breathtaking and inside was filled with incense and more gold than I imagined being on the tiny island.
Then we headed down the mountain to the Cave of St. John. This was an incredible place. The actual cave where he was to have written the book of revelation. The priests were there and the site was hard to describe...primitive, holy, dark, cool, and it left you with a feeling you had seen something very special.
All that walking had worked up a thirst, so we had a chance to see some of Patmos pass by on the mopeds that are all over the island. One picture is a family of 4 -- all on 1 moped, zooming through the streets. A true Patmos mini-van!!! :-)
Onward to Mykonos...
From Cheryl:
For me, the most interesting experience here was the Cave of St. John. I really do wish I could have spent more time in that cave. It is hard to imagine how John must have felt.. First he was exiled to Patmos for preaching Christianity. Then while in exile, he has dreams and visions from God that prompted him to dictate the story of Revelations to his disciple. In the cave it was small, and cool. He slept with his head on a rock (more like a little hole in the wall near the ground where his head fit..) Certainly not a comfort, but I guess that is the point of exile..
It was moving for many reasons..
