The boat for Patmos left at 11:30 PM Saturday. We took the Metro to the port of Piraeus- flawless trip thanks to the great Metro system. We had no clue where to go, but found a ship from the Blue Star Ferry line to Mykonos and asked a crew member how to get to the ship to Patmos (same company). He pointed to a bus, which took us to another part of the port where we boarded. Ron and I are not cruise people so we had no idea what to do next- just followed people toting bundles and suitcases up a series of escalators. I joked that this would be like The Love Boat and there would be a perky blonde who would consult her clipboard and tell us where our stateroom was. Well, there was a reception desk and a pleasant young blonde woman consulted her computer, generated a room key and handed it to a porter who escorted us. We were in a stateroom with a nice porthole facing the bow of the ship, with twin beds. Ron was very grateful it wasnt a setup with bunks built into the walls, where he would have had to scrunch up to fit. The refrigerator had some complimentary fruit and a bottle of water. We watched a French TV show. Finally- a language I understood!

We encountered no Americans- it appeared to be mostly Greeks traveling between the mainland and Patmos to visit family. Accommodations ranged from Deck (whatever chair/couch you could commandeer in the lounge, showers and bathroom down the hall) to Air Chairs (a room full of reclining airline-type seats, except with much more legroom), to inside and outside staterooms. The common areas had a heavy haze of cigarette smoke- the Greeks like their cigarettes- so I was very glad to retreat to our room. Neither of us slept well- I think I was just too excited to be perched in a stateroom on a ship headed for Patmos, and a little worried about details, as usual. Would rain spoil our day? What would our hotel be like? Would we make it back to the boat in time at the end of the trip? (The latter was not a trivial question. This time of year, ferries between Patmos and Pireaus run every 3 days and Patmos has no airport.)

Our main reason for visiting Patmos was to see the cave where St. John the Divine lived when he wrote the Book of Revelation. It proved to be a challenge. The good news was that the day was cold but clear. There was one shower early in the morning and then the sun came out, revealing the blue Grecian sky and the whitewashed buildings all over the mountains. We started up the road to the Monastary of St. John the Theologian at the top of the hill, knowing that the caves were on the way. We left the road at a sign that said Sacred Caves but found only an open room with a conversation going on somewhere in the house, and no one in sight. We thought it might be a private residence. We wandered through the area, disappointed that we found nothing. Finally, we decided to proceed to the monastery so we could get there before it closed.

After our monastery visit, we went back to the cave area. Even though it was past the closing time for the cave, we wanted to see where wed gone wrong. This time I found a sign hanging from the ceiling in faded gold lettering. I spotted the Greek first: Pros Iarios Spelios. The translation below it: To the Sacred Cave. We walked down the steps and found a small church. I was about to ask the young priest, who was walking around dusting icons as he sniffled from a cold, where the cave was, and then looked up. The ceiling was rock. There were the 3 fissures in the ceiling from which John said hed heard the voice of God. There was the corner where hed slept, encircled by a carved silver halo in the niche where his head had rested. Wed found the cave and, by the grace of the congested priest, had gotten in half an hour past closing. It was a real blessing.

We had a hard time finding a place for dinner- Patmos is pretty dead in February- but after 6 PM tavernas started to open and we had a good meal. We spent the last couple of hours hanging out in our hotel room till the midnight boat back to Pireaus. The trip back was much more relaxed. We knew the territory. I picked up a glass of ouzo in the lounge and we settled into our stateroom and watched Shaft (subtitled in Greek) before retiring to a very sound sleep. This time the gentle rolling of the boat and the rain that landed later against our porthole lulled us to sleep.

We're back in Athens- another beautiful, cold, sunny day. The museums are closed today but we did some more sightseeing and bought a rug and some emboridered pillow covers from a very gregarios dealer who plied us with wine from the island of Naxos. It's beautiful stuff and we didn't spend that much- I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks once we put it on the floor in Kansas.