Patmos

A stunning visit to the cave where John wrote his gospels whilst exiled from Ephesus by the Romans. There was a rock hollowed out  where he laid his head, a handhold to get up, and a table hewn out of the rock in the cave where he did his writing.  The roof of the cave had a great split, occurring at the time of the revelation.  The Greek orthodox believe where it splits into three to be the trinity. Unfortunately no photos as this is a most holy site, particularly for the orthodox churches. 44 steep steps up and down, a huge challenge but well worth it.
We followed this visit to St John's monastary. This monastery was founded in 1088 to preserve the cave where John had his revelation.  It is still a working monastery.

It is recognized together with the cave, as a world heritage site.

Again no photos allowed inside.  Being easter Saturday,  there was to be a midnight mass to celebrate the resurrection,  indeed many on our ship were there for that purpose.  The island of

Patmos was full of pilgrims for the same reason.  The whole town turned out to celebrate the mass followed by fireworks and great feasting (at midnight after the mass), so we skipped the visit to Crete the next morning.  The people of Crete lay claim to Mark.

The Greek orthodox and Patmos take Easter very seriously.

Oaks were huge.

 The view from the monastery. 

WE sailed at 2 am after the mass, ànd the fire works were huge.

The next morning we were invited to a Greek easter mass by a group visiting from Chicago. The sunrise during that time, quite appropriate.