Patmos and Rhodes - Part II

Patmos is located  in the Dodecanese Islands about 8 nautical miles from Turkey.  This was a long awaited return visit for me to this beautiful, peaceful island and Robert’s first time.  I had told him many time how amazing it is so I think he anticipated our visit almost as much as I.  We had not made reservations because we were sure that so late in the season there would be no problem finding an appropriate place for our 5 day visit.  As we disembarked from the ferry at the port town of Skala there was the usual group of people with signs and photos of their properties, all trying to attract us to rent from them.  We spoke to a few and got prices and descriptions of their “perfect” apartments.  Finally we decided to go with one fellow who promised us a quiet place with a sea view.  After a 5 minute drive up into a residential area a long way from town we did see a very nice apartment but just not where we wanted to be!  We thanked him and started walking back into town - it got to be quite amusing because we were obviously in need of a place to stay so we had men drive up to us on their motor scooters offering to take us to their “perfect” rooms.  We looked at a few but none felt quite right.   We were hot and tired so we finally settled for a hotel right on the water front with an amazing view of the port.  The next morning after almost no sleep because the bar downstairs played loud techno music until 2:00 am we checked out of that hotel.  We took a short walk to the quiet side of the island and booked into a wonderful little place with a view to die for and the only noise was the waves just outside our window!  Perfect!

The name of the ferry that took us to Patmos

The view from our apartment

Robert watching a man clean an octopus, a cuttle fish and a squid.

The entrance to our apartment

Me, enjoying our deck!

Patmos is a small island that really only has two significant must sees - and they are both well worth visiting.  On the way up the hill to the main town of Hora is the Cave of the Apocalypse where it is believed St. John received his vision that he wrote in the book of Revelations.  At the top of the hill in Hora is the magnificent Monastery of St. John the Theologian.    These are both UNESCO World Heritage sights.  We had heard that there was going to be three cruise ships in Patmos on the day we wanted to visit so we got up early and took a taxi up to the cave for the opening at 8:00 am just in time for the first mass of the day.  As we approached the  entrance we witnessed a very devout woman readying herself to enter the sanctuary.  She was praying and repeatedly crossing herself.  After paying our entrance fee we descended the steep winding stairs, chanting and the scent of incense came up to meet us from the cave below.  In the cave is a very small chapel, an Orthodox priest was performing what looked like a purification ritual while singing the service.  There were very few of us in the intensely hot and fragrant tiny space.  We as observers, and the devout who were kissing all the saints, kneeling with heads on the floor and continuously crossing themselves in an exaggerated manner.  I was in awe of the intensity and depth of their devotion.   I was also choking from the incense and overheated so I had to leave before it was all over.  We sat outside part way up the stairs and listen while breathing fresh air.  There was no photography allowed in the cave but we did take many of the area.  

Entrance to the Cave of the Apocalypse.

The view!

Stairs down to the cave.

The entrance to the sanctuary.

We decided to walk up the hill to the monastery and once again arrived before the crowds.  The walk itself was a gentle climb up an uneven marble stone path with spectacular views back down to Skala.  The path was reminiscent of parts of the Camino but thankfully a much shorter walk.  The town of Hora (or Chora if you prefer) is like so many of Greek Island villages - white houses on narrow winding streets that seem to tumble down the hillside, cats everywhere and the occasional barking dog.  So predictable and yet so wondrously beautiful.  

The monastery

The monastery was founded in the late eleventh century.  It was heavily fortified because of threats of piracy and Seljuk Turks.  There are still monks in residence and also a very well fed and pampered cat.  The chapel includes beautiful icons and in the museum is a collection of very old manuscripts some dating back to the 600’s AD.  The area of the building open to the public is beautiful and peaceful, at least before the cruise ship crowd arrived - which we managed to avoid!   

Inside the monastery

The resident fat cat.

When we left the monastery we strolled the narrow streets of Hora and enjoyed a great lunch of typical Greek dishes in a little restaurant with a magnificent view over the island and made it back to our village in the early afternoon.  

Happy cats!

Our lunch and the view!

Back at the apartment in time for a Mythos on the deck!

We still had a couple of days left on Patmos, we had seen the cave, the monastery and had wandered the town getting to know shop keepers and restaurant owners, so really the only thing left to do was hit the beach!  First thing in the morning we packed our swim suits and boarded a bus for a day at Kampos Beach.   There were a grand total of 5 of us who were planning a day on the beach so needless to say there was plenty of sun and sand for all of us!  The driver announced that he would be back at 3:30 and again at 4:30.  

Greek beach - after the tourists have all gone home!

Paula the Goose!

Lunch on the beach!

Our lunch companion.

All of the beach tavernas were closed but luckily across the street from the beach there was one place still open for morning coffee and lunch with a limited menu.  They had tables set up on the beach and they kindly agreed to let us use their chairs for the day. The main attraction was Paula a 20-year old domestic goose who spends her time on the beach!  We had a peaceful day with a couple of swims in the warm water, a delicious lunch and took the 4:30 bus back to Skala.  Our experience had been so nice we returned the next day to do it all over again.  This time weather did not cooperate as much, it was still warm but rather windy so we decided to take the early bus back.  This gave us time for a long walk along the water front and admire all the luxury yachts that were docked in the harbour.  We also strolled through town and bid farewell to the people we had become acquainted with before returning to our apartment for our last Patmos sunset.  

As we boarded the ferry for Rhodes the next day I reflected on Patmos and its people.  It is a stopping place for cruise ships but it doesn’t present itself as a typical tourist destination.  The shops are there with the usual souvenirs, but there is no aggressive “in your face” sales people.  The people at the tavernas and bars are happy to welcome you in but no one stands in front trying to get you to come into their establishment.  We saw no beggars - none - only people happily going about their daily business.  These are some of the nicest people I have met in any of my travels and I think it is because they are content in their own lives.  I was very happy to be there and a bit sad to leave but there were more adventures awaiting us so off we went!

We arrived back in Rhodes in the afternoon and returned to Dinos’ hotel.  One more dinner that evening at Yannis where we happened to eavesdrop on a couple from England telling an Italian couple about a restaurant outside the old city walls that they claimed to be excellent.  The next day we explored more of the old town, walked the moat and a did bit of shopping. I had a “fish” spa treatment, which entailed sitting with my feet in an aquarium while tiny fish nibbled the dead skin off my feet.  Kinda weird buy kinda fun too.  In the new town we returned to photograph an old mosque we had seen before and then went further along the waterfront and found an extensive sandy beach with a diving board out in the bay and many tourists, much busier than the beach near our hotel which seemed to be mostly locals.  That evening we found  the restaurant we’d heard about the night before.  It was actually very close to our hotel but away from the usual tourist centred restaurants.  And yes the food was excellent. I can’t remember what we ate - I just know we really enjoyed it!

This is where The Colossus of Rhodes once stood.

The moat in Rhodes 

Shopping! 

Foot Spa!

As we had a 3:00 am ferry to catch (that’s right 3:00 in the morning!) we turned in early and caught a few hours sleep before our final walk along the water front to the waiting ship.  The journey to Heraklion on Crete was 17 hours so we had booked a berth.   Thank goodness!  Our journey started out quite nice, calm seas and a nice big ship with a restaurant and lounge area as well as lots of deck space for fresh air and areas to view all the different islands where the ferry stopped.  At the first port of call the waves washing over the port made for enjoyable watching, it should have served as a warning of what was to come.  It soon became impossible to do anything on board other than to lay in our beds and hang on.  I’ll spare you the rest of the details. We did finally arrive in Crete, happy for solid ground and ready to start the next leg of our journey!

Rhodes Part 1

At the beginning of the book The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams you will find the sentence “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression, ‘As pretty as an airpot’”.  And that about sums up our flight from Dubrovnik to Athens and then on to Rhodes.  There really is nothing pretty about the corridors where passengers are herded through security and then eventually to the ‘waiting’ areas in airports.  But we do insist on flying at times, we must in order to arrive at such amazing places as Rhodes.

Our flight arrived after 10:00 pm so we had arranged for a shuttle to pick us up and take us to our hotel.  Thank goodness we did, I’m not sure we would have found it on our own.  Our driver was really great and all the way into town he told us about all the things to see and do while we were in Rhodes.  He was very helpful in pointing out important places and gave us a good overview of the area.  He even called our hotel and arranged for the owner to meet us out in the street because he could not drive into the pedestrian only area where the hotel is located.  After a very short walk through an ancient gate and just around the corner to a cobble stone street we saw Dinos, our host, waving to us!  He took us into his little hotel, up a steep flight of stone stairs to our room and wished us good night.   We had not eaten dinner so we went in search of an open restaurant.  A short walk on the quiet streets took us to the main square in the old town and we were very soon sitting with a Mythos (Greek beer) and a gyros - I was either in heaven or back in Greece!

The hotel is in the part of the Old Town that was originally the Jewish Quarter.  It was a short walk to many restaurants and tourist shops, it was also very close to a very nice beach - shopping, eating and swimming how good is that?  We enjoyed each of these activities in Rhodes as well as lots of exploring, not just the tourist sights, but also the new “modern”  Rhodes which has some very interesting architecture including some left from the Italian Fascist period.  

Entrance to the Old Town of Rhodes

The street our hotel is on.

A church ruin near our hotel

No visit to the city of Rhodes is complete without a walk up the Way of the Knights to The Palace of the Grand Master.   The palace was built at the end of the 7th century to act as the citadel of the Early Byzantine fortress, it continued as such throughout the Byzantine period and after a bit of conversion by the Knights of St. John it became the residence of the Grand Master and administrative centre of their state from 1309-1522.  It is a very impressive building designed around a large courtyard with beautiful carved marble statues in alcoves.  It has gone through extensive restoration work - even since my last visit 17 years ago.  As you climb up the monumental marble staircase past alabaster windows you arrive at another time and place.  There are huge rooms with massive mosaic tile floors, where knights must have met and planned their crusades, long echoing hallways lead almost endlessly from one room to another.  There are impressive displays of different knight’s apparel and paintings of them in their finery.  On the ground floor there were two very interesting permanent exhibitions.  These exhibits encompassed two different periods in Rhodes’ history - from its foundation 408/7 BC to the Roman period, and from the 4th century AD to its capture by the Turks (1522).   We spent a wonderful afternoon here and left feeling that we had seen something significant.  

Way of the Knights
(notice the little boy playing accordion in the corner of the photo - lots of Roma in Rhodes)

The Italian Consulate on the way up to the Palace.

A little courtyard off the Way.

The Palace of the Grand Master

The courtyard.

A reminder of past wars.

An icon in one of the exhibits

The marble staircase.

Mosaic floor

Alabaster windows.

The old town of Rhodes is a good blend of “old” interesting buildings, narrow streets, food establishments and tourist shops.  No shortage of places looking for the tourist dollar or in this case the tourist euro.  These little shops are hard to resist so I must say we did pick up a few souvenirs from enthusiastic merchants.  On the food front we relied mostly on recommendations.  An English couple staying at our hotel suggested a little family run taverna called Yannis, located slightly off the tourist streets.  The grandmother wears a traditional outfit - long skirt and apron and is there to welcome you with a great smile and the sweep of her arms to an empty table.  The menu was not all that different in the choices offered at other tavernas, but the food was of a much higher quality and taste than the typical tourist focused taverna.  We ate there three times and I can say that their Stifado, Moussaka, and Pastitsio were all delicious!  They generously gave us tasty appetizers, cakes and post dinner liquors to round out our dinners.

Our time on Rhodes was divided into two portions, we stayed for three days before leaving for Patmos and then two more days on our return.  Let’s go to Patmos now….