Almost Patmos- November 14

Last evening we arrived at the Compass Rose Dining Room asking for a table for 4 and the maître d’ asked if we'd like to eat at Signatures- the fancy French restaurant. Naturally we were thrilled and headed back though this dining room and up a deck to the specialty restaurant. You really are allowed to book ahead of time one meal in this restaurant and also one in Prime 7, a steak house type of restaurant. Both of these feature food that is a step up. But generally food on Regent is tasty, well presented and with lots of variety.

After dinner Jim decided to check out the Celtic singer and I went to the suite to get off my foot for a bit. He was back in about 30 minutes and we were asleep by about 11 preparing for another day ashore.

Awoke this morning in Patmos, Greece. The sky is gray and the sun is just breaking through. Ketut delivered our breakfast and enjoyed our omelets and coffee as we considered the morning news and what the day might bring.

Patmos is the island where the apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation while he lived for 2 years in a cave. Revelation is the book many believe contains apocalyptic signs of the end times but other Biblical scholars believe John was just writing a message in code to believers about living a life guided by the Christian faith and not the culture of the day.

The Cave of Saint John

The Monastery of the Apocalypse

This was designated a “Holy Island” in 1981 by the Greek Parliament and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999. Patmos was a place of exile for the Romans because of its steep morphology or the study of words and their changing meanings. That is how, supposedly, John found safe refuge here in the 1^st Century A.D. exiled by the Emperor Domitian.

According to the prevailing theory, the Book of Revelation was written in 95 AD in the Holy Cave of the Apocalypse. John is supposed to have heard the voice of God speaking to him telling him what to write. The Monastery of the Apocalypse was built as a castle in 1088. Buildings of different ages form the monastery, comprising 10 chapels and 99 cells as well as a Library of 890 codes and 13,000 documents about the history of the site.

On the hillside you can see white houses that should be glistening in the sun, but today is a foggy and very rainy day.  This is how it all should look but this is how it actually looks today- November 14, 2013.

We were to go ashore and meet a guide for a tour, but about an hour before we were to be there the ship cancelled the tender service because of rough seas, rain and thunder. By the time the  ship officials

started the tender service again the weather was still rainy and foggy,  and we had decided to just  cancel our tour and take a day aboard the Voyager.

Our wonderful travelling companions had also come to the same conclusion. Early on we agreed that if our trip was to be fun for all we each needed to have permission to say “no” to anything and just opt out. So there is no pressure to participate in anything just to be a groupie. So today we all opted out of actually putting our feet on Patmos.

We plan a lazy afternoon viewing a movie and having lunch in the Compass Rose together. AND the rain continues to come down and the thunder is rolling about! We think we have made a right and good choice!!!!