2009 Ports of Call 47 - 51

 

Click on this link and you will be directed to pictures of all 2009 trips.

 

Greece:  Samos Island

Aug 16 - 18

 

Samos Island is the closest of the Greek islands to Turkey, only two miles away.  So the journey to here was short, although a bit roly-poly.  We got a berth in the middle of the small town quay of Pythagorio, right at the base of the main street.  The town is named after Pythagoras (philosopher and mathematician) who was born here in 580 BC.

 

Herodotus (father of ancient history) in the 5th century wrote that Samos had three of the greatest building and engineering feats in the Greek world.  We saw them all within an hour.  First was the ancient mole protecting the harbor we entered, on which the present jetty rests.  Next was the underground aqueduct, entrance shown above, completed in 524 BC which Herodotus called the world’s Eighth Wonder.  It took 15 years for two teams digging on each side of Mt. Kastri to cut through marble and rock meeting in the middle with only a tiny difference in elevation between the two halves.  Finally, the Temple of Hera, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was a copy of it.

 

Anthony & Cleopatra gave a mammoth feast on the island and invited the entire civilized world.

 

 

Greece:  Patmos Island

Aug 18 - 20

 

Following Roman occupation, Patmos Island fell into decadence.  Most inhabitants left and the Romans began using it as a place of exile.  Hence, the home of St. John for two years when he was banished to Patmos by the Emperor Domitian in 95 AD.  This is how the meta-Christ history of Patmos began.  It is now the spiritual center of the Greek Orthodox Church after Mt. Athos (on the mainland) and there are 400+ churches for 3000 inhabitants on the island.

 

St. John wrote that it was on Patmos in a cave where the sea was visible that he was commanded to write a book and send it to the seven churches.  It is believed that he dictated the revelation in a little cave now called the Cave of the Apocalypse.  Inside the cave you can see where his disciple, Prochorus, stood and wrote the words St. John dictated, where St. John slept, and the threefold crack in the rock through which God spoke to him.

 

After visiting the Cave, we went up to the Monastery of St. John which is the focal point of the island, surrounded by the Chora (chief village of the island), from where the above picture was taken.  The Cave, Monastery, and Chora were all designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1999.

 

Turkey:  Turgutreis to Bodrum

Aug 20 - 29

 

After Bob & Marilyn disembarked in Turgutreis, Lee quickly found a barber.  After two months he decided to shed the beard with a special Turkish shave and look younger again.

 

Unfortunately, Bob picked up a stomach bacteria and ended up in a hospital in Bodrum rather than Prague as they had planned.  Check out his Turkish hospital garb in the picture gallery; the US could learn from this!

 

There isn’t much to do in Turgutreis so after Bob was well on the mend, we went to Turk Buku and anchored for a couple of nights.  This is supposedly where the Turkish jet setters build holiday homes and even some US movie stars have reportedly been here.  It was a crowded bay and it didn’t do much for us except keep us awake with loud music.

 

On to Bodrum, or ancient Halicarnassus, where we had dinner with Bob & Marilyn before they left Turkey.  One of the seven wonders of the world is in Bodrum: the tomb of Mausolas, or Mausoleum, from which we got the term, built in 400 BC.  It also has an ancient amphitheater overlooking the city and a castle which houses treasuries from many shipwrecks in the area.