Friday 21 June 2013
We are spending the next 12 days in Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Croatia and Italy -an historic holy land tour. We got a last minute cruise sale deal, we bought the ticket 2 days before sailing and nabbed an amazing deal.......we couldn't cover all this territory under our own steam for anywhere near what we paid for the cruise. Even better having purchased a bargain basement ticket we got upgraded to a port side stateroom, luxury after our pension stays of late....its great watching the islands glide by out the window. It will also be nice to be in one place for 12 days...and what a place....swimming pool, spa pools, gym, library (yay), bars, restaurants 24/7......must go to the gym daily!
First cruise stop Patmos, Greece.
One day here. Access to the town by tender from the ship anchored in the bay. Patmos is lovely, very tiny, mostly arid mountains and small villages.... all associated with the Monastery of St. John and the cave/grotto where St John had his visions that led him to write the Book of Revelations. Its still a working monastery with 15 monks and if you arrange ahead they will unlock the gates and you can join their first service at 2. 00am! The monastery is on the mountain top and look more like a fortress than a place of worship but I guess it needed to be fortified to protect the inhabitants and its treasures. The icons, frescoes,vestments, jewels and mosaics are outstanding. The artwork and relics date back thousands of years and they have an original 1088 codex under glass ....incredible to think the Romans, Saracens, Venetians, Turks and even the Brits all had a slice of the action here at one time or another, Greece only gained Patmos back in the 1940's. The government of Greece declared Patmos a sacred island in the1980's in order to preserve all the works of art and the precious historic sites.
The other amazing site in Patmos was a shop owner....Elvis lives......in Patmos!
We are spending the next 12 days in Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Croatia and Italy -an historic holy land tour. We got a last minute cruise sale deal, we bought the ticket 2 days before sailing and nabbed an amazing deal.......we couldn't cover all this territory under our own steam for anywhere near what we paid for the cruise. Even better having purchased a bargain basement ticket we got upgraded to a port side stateroom, luxury after our pension stays of late....its great watching the islands glide by out the window. It will also be nice to be in one place for 12 days...and what a place....swimming pool, spa pools, gym, library (yay), bars, restaurants 24/7......must go to the gym daily!
First cruise stop Patmos, Greece.
One day here. Access to the town by tender from the ship anchored in the bay. Patmos is lovely, very tiny, mostly arid mountains and small villages.... all associated with the Monastery of St. John and the cave/grotto where St John had his visions that led him to write the Book of Revelations. Its still a working monastery with 15 monks and if you arrange ahead they will unlock the gates and you can join their first service at 2. 00am! The monastery is on the mountain top and look more like a fortress than a place of worship but I guess it needed to be fortified to protect the inhabitants and its treasures. The icons, frescoes,vestments, jewels and mosaics are outstanding. The artwork and relics date back thousands of years and they have an original 1088 codex under glass ....incredible to think the Romans, Saracens, Venetians, Turks and even the Brits all had a slice of the action here at one time or another, Greece only gained Patmos back in the 1940's. The government of Greece declared Patmos a sacred island in the1980's in order to preserve all the works of art and the precious historic sites.
The other amazing site in Patmos was a shop owner....Elvis lives......in Patmos!
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