Email us at:
pej@pejnron.com
ron@pejnron.com

Click the sun to see the
weather in Buenos Aires!

We arrive at the island of Patmos at 9:00 in the morning. After enjoying breakfast on deck we board a motor coach and ride to the top of the island, where there is a cave known as the Cave of the Apocalypse, where St. John is purported to have written the Fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelations. Our guide is a veritable encyclopedia of information, and he talks most authoritatively while we sit and listen in rapt attention. Note: in the third photo below hanging from the top of the doorway, there is a small sign which you cannot read, but here it is enlarged:

Of course, that means we can go inside the cave to see where St. John did his writing, but we cannot take a photo of any of it.

The art work in the lobby entrance was quite beautiful, and of course there was a gift counter where we could purchase appropriate souvenirs. Outside, there was a cat which made Pete and I homesick for out two kitties. We always miss them when we travel.

This stone building was build at the mouth of the cave. And of course, everybody knows that if you want photographs of a sacred site that does not allow photographs, all you need to do is Google the site and a whole raft of photos pop up. There are always people in the crowds that visit such sites that do not obey the NO PHOTOS sign, and have no qualms about publishing their photos. The next eight photos were taken inside of the cave are are from the Internet.

It was a rather small and confining space, but apparently a suitable place for St. John to do his writing.

It was interesting while in this place to contemplate how the words that were put to parchment here have had such a profound effect on humanity. Many sermons have been delivered borrowing from the dire predictions contained in the Book of Revelations.

Thinking back on this experience, I marvel at how little humanity has changed over the centuries. You would think that we could learn something from past mistakes, but we just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again. Alexander the Great and his hoards conquered nations, and the Roman Empire expanded throughout much of Europe, conquering nation after nation, and war was the means of conquest. War is still the preferred means of enforcing OUR rule of law on people who live by different customs, who fight among themselves and foment a state of constant friction in the world.

Our guide continues to impart his wealth of knowledge. This is where you wish you had a tape recorder, because you can only retain a fraction of the information he is imparting. As we leave the Cave of the Apocalypse we enjoy the magnificent views of the port below.

We continue on to the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian. It sits high on a hill, and is a magnificent Greek Orthodox structure founded in 1088.

The views from the Monastery were impressive, and the stone work inside was pretty amazing as well.

This ancient fresco seemed to be very well preserved. I’m pretty sure most of the portraits were of Saint John.

We had some free time to explore the little town of Chora. It was very quiet, and there were not a lot of locals roaming around.

I thought that was kind of nice. One wonders what the night life would be like here. But then, we didn’t come to the Greek Isles for the night life. ;o)

Back on board the ship Pete took a few shots of the island. It was like most of the Greek islands, pretty barren and desolate.

And of course our chef had prepared another wonderful meal for us. I must make it a point to avoid the scale for a few days after we return home. I know that I will have put on a few extra kilos, but only temporary, hopefully!

Meals onboard were always a delightful experience, whether it was lunch . . .

. . . or a fabulous dinner, everyone enjoyed every meal. The Harmony V crew were amazing in every way.

We will be spending most of the night here at Patmos, and at 4:00 AM we sail to Kusadasi, Turkey, where we will visit the greatest archeological site in the Aegean, Ephesus.

The Harmony V ties up to the dock and we disembark to take a motor coach to the archeological site of Ephesus.

Archeologists have uncovered artifacts dating from the late 7th millennium to 334 B.C. What we see here are mostly ruins from the Roman period.

The stories of the various conquests are written in the stones.

Probably around 294 B.C. construction had began on a fortification wall over 9 km in length, enclosing the entire city, an area of roughly 2.5 km².

As we made our way down this major street we could see how vast this city is.

This part of the street was paved in the most beautiful and intricately placed mosaic tiles. The patterns were exquisite.

The archeologists have painstakingly located the stones, and have slowly placed them in the exact spot where they were before the buildings crumbled to the ground.

Some pillars, and a few missing stones had to be recreated from marble, hence the lighter color of some stones. With time they will age and take on the same hew as the original marble. To me, what they have accomplished over the years is nothing short of miraculous.

The Terrace House is a 4,000 m² area built on the side of a hill, in 3 terraces, and comprises six separate dwelling units with separate entrances. The excavation is completely roofed over to allow the archeologists to work in any weather, and to protect the site from exposure to the elements.

Below you see the archeologists, and I presume most are students, going over the stones laid out on large tables, searching for stones that go together with other stones, much like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

This work requires a lot of patience and a good eye. I can imagine the eureka moment they must experience each time they find two stone fragments that match, and then find another to add to those two, and so on. Some walls were originally paved with marble, and you can see the results of the jigsaw puzzle efforts as they plastered the pieces of marble back on the walls.

Below you see the paintings on the walls, fresco style, and the mosaic tile pictures in the floors, beautifully executed.

This is an example of what people did centuries before Kodak, or the invention of the digital camera. Apparently the love of art and beauty is an inherent trait in what makes us human.

Note the intricate and varied patterns in the mosaic tiled floors. Nothing boring about their distinctive designs.

As you can see, they have made great strides towards resurrecting these 6 dwellings that were destroyed by the 262 Southwest Anatolia earthquake, with its apparent epicenter in the southern Aegean Sea.

Some structures withstood the shocks from the earthquake, and miraculously portions of them remained standing.

From the amount of débris still laying in there fields, there is still much work to be done by the archeologists to rebuild this amazing city, and it will take many more years before the work is done.

The Romans loved their sports arenas, this being the second one we’ve seen in this city. I’m sure every seat was filled when events went on in the arenas, whether it was gladiators clashing with swords, Christians being fed to the lions, or chariot races, the people loved these spectator “sports”. Today it hasn’t changed much, with our stadiums being filled to to capacity to watch football, baseball, soccer, rugby, boxing matches, wrestling, basketball, you name it. crowds love physical contests,

Back at the harbor now, and we find an interesting restaurant to have lunch, and of course a cold brew to quench our thirst.

The calamari was excellent, as were the various meat selections.

Nobody went hungry on this tour, that’s for certain.

Back aboard the ship we freshen up after a long day of hiking around the ruins, and enjoy another great meal prepared by our most capable chef and his crew.

We depart Kusadasi at around 8:00 PM bound for Mykonos, arriving there at around 8:00 AM the following morning. We overnight there, and during the day we take a boat trip to the island of Delos (Dilos) where we walk through the true open-air museum of the archeological ruins unearthed here in the 19th century.

The harbor at Mykonos is stunningly beautiful.

Delos is the mythical birthplace of the Greek gods Apollo and Artemis.

We spent a few hours roaming through these ancient ruins. According to the 2001 Greek census Delos has a population of 14, and is administratively a part of the municipality of Mykonos. Investigation of ancient stone huts found on the island indicate that it has been inhabited since the 3rd millennium BCE. Since 1872 the French School of Athens has been excavating the island.

The Terrace of the Lions below was dedicated to Apollo by the people of Naxos shortly before 600 BCE.

The mosaic tile floor picture above was created by intricately placed tiny fragments of colored stone, creating a very life like picture of a tiger and an angel.

Back on board the ship we enjoy yet another cocktail party before our last day on board and our arrival back in Athens.

Our last evening meal was as memorable as all the rest before it.

We place our bags outside our room and head topside to enjoy the site of our return to Athens and the Marina Zeas. Transportation is available to take us to the Athens airport for our flight home. In the airport waiting area we finally have reliable WiFi, and Pete is happily catching up on his email. This was a magnificent adventure, and we are as always, looking forward to returning home.