Apr 14 – Patmos Photo Tour

What a glorious, sunny day.  A perfect day for a tour around a Greek island.  In this case, we are touring part of Patmos, a new island for us.  We tendered into the small port town of Skala where we were met by our tour guide and a driver.  

Photos from our drive around the island.

We are on a photography tour.  Our first stop was a small chapel (the majority of churches in Greece are Greek Orthodox).  It was quite small with an altar area separated with a curtain.  We were a group of 12 plus guide and were barely able to fit into the small space.

The chapel was right beside a small docking area that had a number of picturesque fishing boats and lots of flowers. 

From there we headed to the Petra of Kallikatsou (also known as the Rock of Petra).  It used to have a small chapel around the back side.  Now abandoned and a rather precarious walk to it so none of us ventured around that side of the rock.  Nice views of some of the surrounding islands.

The left side of the rock had a huge rock that had fallen off of the main rock.  More photos all around. 

There was a small “beach” and a wetland that attracts migratory birds.  There were some black winged stilts wading in the very shallow water.

One of the main sites on the island, the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, high on a hill.

We visited the West Bay...

with a small, picturesque restaurant (not yet opened as the tourist season hasn’t started).

Nearby was another wetland with a white egret,

a purple heron,

and a grey heron.

Next stop was a Chora, a small village up in the hills and home of the monastery. The guide talked about the village and the island while he walked but also pointed out points where the best photos could be taken.  Everyone had cell phones except us with our heavy cameras.

There were three windmills that overlooked the island.  We have often seen windmills but rarely in this good a condition.  They have been recently restored.  One is used to mill flour and the other two will eventually be used to generate electricity. 

There were windy, narrow lanes and streets lined with white washed houses,

a little white church,

a picturesque archway,

views of the monastery (we didn’t go up to visit),

pretty doors…

and interesting door knockers,

and a small shop was open with lots of interesting souvenirs.  It was about the only thing open on this section of the island.  We didn’t buy anything. 

We stopped at a small café for a drink.  It had lovely views overlooking the island.

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More Walking Chora
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Next stop was the Church of the Apocalypse.  St John, the Apostle and Theologian, was exiled in Patmos, and while here he wrote the book of Revelations.  The tour didn’t include entrance to the church.  We saw both the old entrance...

and the new with the mosaic over it.  The mosaic St. John dictating the book of revelations to his scribe.

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More Patmos
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There were a few cats wandering around.  These are two different cats but they sure look similar to each other.  

Then it was back down to Skala.  We opted to not hit the souvenir shops and headed straight to the tender. 

View of the Crystal Symphony from our tender.  She’s a lovely ship.

A photo of the ship's pool area.

Entertainment tonight was a very major change of pace, a very good comedian, Mark Palmer, from the UK.