This is my last Rhodes picture.

The video below was back on the ship after Rhodes. I had ordered a cake with dinner for our anniversary, but the ship throws in some "extras." One is mention of your anniversary in the daily shipboard newsletter. The other is having these guys come "serenade" you at your table. All 7 of us at the table were laughing pretty hard. If you play the video you'll laugh (or maybe cry) at the sound and get to see the cake.

We arrived the next morning at the island of Patmos at 6:30 a.m. I was so glad we didn't sign up for the tour: those people had to be in the lounge ready to go by 6:30. Kim and I ate breakfast and made it off the boat just before 8, which gave us just an hour and a half to visit.

That's really all the time you need. There is only one major attraction on Patmos: the monastery. This is the place where John wrote the book of Revelations. You can barely see it at the top of the hill surrounded by white buildings: homes, shops, etc. I know it will disappoint a lot of people but we never made it up the hill. We spent our hour in the port village just walking around.

As you might expect the village was pretty quiet at 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning. But there were several shops open (knowing there was a cruise ship scheduled to arrive must have an effect) and this guy selling fresh produce from the back of this cart.


We had to take a tender to get on the island. Patmos is far too small to have a dock that could
handle anything the size of our cruise ship. In
fact Kim and I were able to walk "across" the island. The narrowest point is right where we got off so we walked over just to be able to say we did (about 10 minutes). I only spent a few minutes on the island so I shouldn't judge but of course I will. It's a nice getaway for novel writing or escape from the rat race but otherwise... Some pilgrims might be upset with me for saying it but it my shipboard survey I suggested that they eliminate Patmos and add the time to the Ephesus visit. We had far little time at a major site.


The ship left Patmos about 10 and we arrived at the Kusadasi, Turkey port at 2. The archaeological site of Ephesus is 30 minutes away, so we bought the tour. The first stop was up the hill from ancient Ephesus at what is believed to be the final home of the Virgin Mary. The guide was honest in stating that there is no historical evidence and their belief is based on two things: Jesus told John to care for his mother, and John was in Ephesus. The second is that a 19th century nun had a vision of the house. In any event, the structure on the left is built over what was believed to be the house (no pictures inside). The ancient bricks only go up a few feel with modern construction above so if it is authentic it would be more accurate to call it "Mary's foundation" rather than "Mary's house."

This is our Turkish guide George and he was the highlight of the trip. He was a riot. His English was perfect but his accent reminded me of comedian Yaakov Smirnoff. He would explain something to us then go into third person, "But George, how can that be?" and return to his explanation. When he finished he would say "Thank you George." We got into the habit of echoing "Thank you George." If he saw a member of the group straying from the group he would call out "come over here George."


The funniest part was also the most frustrating but you had to laugh or scream. There was an extended family of about 20 Vietnamese-Americans on our tour. They were all wearing the light blue ball caps in the picture below. George could not get them to do anything he said. As the bus was arriving at Mary's place he told them not to stop in the souvenir shops, that they charge too much, and he would take us to a place next where everything was cheaper. They got on the bus after Mary's place with DVDs, books, post cards, etc. They must have money because then they bought more when we stopped at the place George suggested, they bought there, too. I would have been cynical that George was just trying to take us to a place he got kickbacks (and he probably did) but it was also true that stuff there was less.

It was impossible to take a picture of almost anything in Ephesus without having a blue cap somewhere in the picture. George said to me under his breath, "What did I do to deserve this?" Rest of Ephesus tomorrow.