Athena53
Feb 14, 06, 11:55 am
This may belong on the Trip Reports section: Moderator, please move if necessary, but I thought the Religious Travelers might find it more relevant.
We'd been in Athens for one day, but wanted to see the cave on Patmos where John the Divine wrote Revelations. This is a major effort- Patmos has no airport and it's way the heck down in the Dodecanese islands. We booked a ferry, which left Piraeus at 11:30 PM and arrived at Patmos around 8 the next morning. We took the Metro to the port of Piraeus- flawless trip thanks to the great Metro system. We were in a stateroom with a nice porthole facing the bow of the ship, with twin beds. My husband was very grateful it wasn’t a setup with bunks built into the walls, where he would have had to scrunch up to fit. The refrigerator had some complimentary fruit and a bottle of water. We watched a French TV show. Finally- a language I understood!
We encountered no Americans- it appeared to be mostly Greeks traveling between the mainland and Patmos to visit family. Accommodations ranged from “Deck” (whatever chair/couch you could commandeer in the lounge, showers and bathroom down the hall) to “Air Chairs” (a room full of reclining airline-type seats, except with much more legroom), to inside and outside staterooms. The common areas had a heavy haze of cigarette smoke- the Greeks like their cigarettes- so I was very glad to retreat to our room. Neither of us slept well- I think I was just too excited to be perched in a stateroom on a ship headed for Patmos, and a little worried about details, as usual. Would rain spoil our day? What would our hotel be like? Would we make it back to the boat in time at the end of the trip? (The latter was not a trivial question. This time of year, ferries between Patmos and Pireaus run every 3 days and Patmos has no airport.)
Finding the cave proved to be a challenge. The good news was that the day was cold but clear. There was one shower early in the morning and then the sun came out, revealing the blue Grecian sky and the whitewashed buildings all over the mountains. We started up the road to the Monastary of St. John the Theologian at the top of the hill, knowing that the caves were on the way. We left the raod at a sign that said “Sacred Caves” but found only an open room with a conversation going on somewhere in the house, and no one in sight. We thought it might be a private residence. We wandered through the area, disappointed that we found nothing. Finally, we decided to proceed to the monastery so we could get there before it closed.
After our monastery visit, we went back to the cave area. Even though it was past the closing time for the cave, we wanted to see where we’d gone wrong. This time I found a sign hanging from the ceiling in faded gold lettering. I spotted the Greek first: “Pros Iarios Spelios”. The translation below it: “To the Sacred Cave.” We walked down the steps and found a small church. I was about to ask the young priest, who was walking around dusting icons as he sniffled from a cold, where the cave was, and then looked up. There were the 3 fissures in the ceiling from which John said he’d heard the voice of God. There was the corner where he’d slept, encircled by a carved silver halo in the niche where his head had rested. We’d found it and, by the grace of the icon-dusting priest, had gotten in half an hour past closing. It was a real blessing.
We left Patmos at midnight- this time the offering on our stateroom TV was "Shaft 2" subtitled in Greek. I settled in with a galss of ouzo and slept much better.
I'm still not sure whether that was The Cave or someone decided that in the 2nd century to draw tourists, but it was one of the highlights of our trip. If you make the same pilgrimage, pay attention to the signs!
We'd been in Athens for one day, but wanted to see the cave on Patmos where John the Divine wrote Revelations. This is a major effort- Patmos has no airport and it's way the heck down in the Dodecanese islands. We booked a ferry, which left Piraeus at 11:30 PM and arrived at Patmos around 8 the next morning. We took the Metro to the port of Piraeus- flawless trip thanks to the great Metro system. We were in a stateroom with a nice porthole facing the bow of the ship, with twin beds. My husband was very grateful it wasn’t a setup with bunks built into the walls, where he would have had to scrunch up to fit. The refrigerator had some complimentary fruit and a bottle of water. We watched a French TV show. Finally- a language I understood!
We encountered no Americans- it appeared to be mostly Greeks traveling between the mainland and Patmos to visit family. Accommodations ranged from “Deck” (whatever chair/couch you could commandeer in the lounge, showers and bathroom down the hall) to “Air Chairs” (a room full of reclining airline-type seats, except with much more legroom), to inside and outside staterooms. The common areas had a heavy haze of cigarette smoke- the Greeks like their cigarettes- so I was very glad to retreat to our room. Neither of us slept well- I think I was just too excited to be perched in a stateroom on a ship headed for Patmos, and a little worried about details, as usual. Would rain spoil our day? What would our hotel be like? Would we make it back to the boat in time at the end of the trip? (The latter was not a trivial question. This time of year, ferries between Patmos and Pireaus run every 3 days and Patmos has no airport.)
Finding the cave proved to be a challenge. The good news was that the day was cold but clear. There was one shower early in the morning and then the sun came out, revealing the blue Grecian sky and the whitewashed buildings all over the mountains. We started up the road to the Monastary of St. John the Theologian at the top of the hill, knowing that the caves were on the way. We left the raod at a sign that said “Sacred Caves” but found only an open room with a conversation going on somewhere in the house, and no one in sight. We thought it might be a private residence. We wandered through the area, disappointed that we found nothing. Finally, we decided to proceed to the monastery so we could get there before it closed.
After our monastery visit, we went back to the cave area. Even though it was past the closing time for the cave, we wanted to see where we’d gone wrong. This time I found a sign hanging from the ceiling in faded gold lettering. I spotted the Greek first: “Pros Iarios Spelios”. The translation below it: “To the Sacred Cave.” We walked down the steps and found a small church. I was about to ask the young priest, who was walking around dusting icons as he sniffled from a cold, where the cave was, and then looked up. There were the 3 fissures in the ceiling from which John said he’d heard the voice of God. There was the corner where he’d slept, encircled by a carved silver halo in the niche where his head had rested. We’d found it and, by the grace of the icon-dusting priest, had gotten in half an hour past closing. It was a real blessing.
We left Patmos at midnight- this time the offering on our stateroom TV was "Shaft 2" subtitled in Greek. I settled in with a galss of ouzo and slept much better.
I'm still not sure whether that was The Cave or someone decided that in the 2nd century to draw tourists, but it was one of the highlights of our trip. If you make the same pilgrimage, pay attention to the signs!