Welcome to Patmos, another in the Dodecanese island group in the South Aegean. The word dodecanese means "twelve" but there are actually 26 islands in the group as well as lots of small rocky atolls.
Tourists have come to Patmos since ancient times as pilgrims to the site where St. John is said to have written his gospel. This is the ancient monastry of St. John surrounded by the Chora of Patmos.
Visitors still flock here as Patmos and St.John are on the 3 day and 6 day Mediterraen Tour itineries of two companies from Pireaus, the port of Athens.
Arriving 4,000 at a time in these enormous cruise ships, passengers are brought ashore by tenders that run flat out for several hours ferrying them all from the ship to the port, and later, taking several hours to return them again.
The port is narrow, so the huge ships must anchor quite a long way out. The tenders therefore have a long run, back and forth.
Once ashore, the 4,000 need to be got to the monastery as fast as possible by a fleet of buses and taxis. The ancient monastery and its resources are then faced with hosting the 4,000 tourists over the space of about 3 hours - a mammoth task.
I was quite overwhelmed by the whole concept of this onslaught happening not just here in Patmos four times a week, but at every other site in the Mediterranean where these monstorous ships stop. It makes you stop and think about the real impact that modern tourism is having and how fragile our environment is. Just think of the requirements to provide toilet facilities, water and petrol not to mention the rest.
Previously Patmos had 9 of these episodes a week. Now there are only four. The other 5 visits are taking place elsewhere in the Greek islands.
I couldn't go to the monestry after this.
We went swimming instead.
The water is so clear and gets deep quite quickly.
This spot was lovely but it was a road and car park, as well as a beach. Good for an hour to swim and read but too dusty to stay longer, especially once the breeze came up.
Most of the islands have restored their old windmills.
There were lots of interesting little ports like this one, busy with pleasure craft of all sorts.
All shapes and sizes, some beautifully painted.
Even if there was no beach, you could always find somewhere to get into the water.
Or like me, find a nice tree to lay under.
The racey yellow car, parked opposite our hotel, with the Dodekanisos Pride catamaran that will take us to Kalymnos tomorrow.
And this had to be the most ungainly boat on Patmos - Paul christened it "The Pope-moboat".
See you next on Kalymnos.
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