It is once again, a lovely morning, and we spend it walking along the harbor, per usual, and stopping at Sam’s for our cappuccino and today little small tiropita that our sweet server/lady says she loves and eats every day.  We have to agree, these are excellent! 

Back at the house, we waste some time, because today we are going to Hora to explore and a couple of old mansions that are set up like museums that we want to visit.  They don’t open until 9 and 10 respectively, so we have plenty of time to hang around. 

We finally go out and retrieve our car, then head up the mountain to the car park below the monastery.  We’re lucky and find a space there – gotta love that Panda, it fits anywhere!!! – and begin our hike up the hill.  We are kind of on our own exploring up here. Google maps is essentially worthless in these meandering little lanes and alleyways.  This is the capital of the island and ancient old, built at the same time as the Monastery, and it has grown accordingly over time, creeping down the side of the mountain in unfathomable lanes and alleys and twisty-turny roads.  The first mansion we want to visit, Simantiri, actually has directional signs.  Praise be!  Even though we are God knows where in this town, we are able to follow the signs and not get lost.  And see a lot of lovely houses and doorways and scenic views along the way.

Arriving at the mansion, there is a ton of construction work going on in the basement.  We’re wondering if they are completely redoing the mansion or what.  It is supposed to be a house where nobles used to live and it is preserved exactly as it was years ago with period furniture, etc.  Hmmmm….. We walk into the vestibule, and the only thing there is a big plastic sheet shielding you from the construction.  One of the guys there gets who we are assuming is the boss man, who tells us the mansion is closed now.  It will probably be open in and hour or so.  When we “circle back” it should be open.  Okaaaaay.  Well then.

We decide to try to find our way to the second mansion, the Nikolaidis Mansion, which is similar, but also an art gallery.  Wandering around up here is great – the houses, the scenery, the vibrant red flowers creeping up the white washed walls.  It’s gorgeous. 

But confusing, and we do make our share of wrong turns, but eventually find the Nikolaidis Mansion, which is closed tight and the opening time has tape over it.  Hmmmm….does that mean it opens at all? Or just when they want to open?  We’ve no clue, so figuring it might open soon (haha) we retreat to the square where there are restaurants (not open until 6pm) and little cafes (not open until who knows?) and shops (just not open) and sit in front of one of the restaurants on their shaded veranda to wait a bit and see if the mansion opens. 

It does not.  So we are left to meander through town some more, eventually finding our way out and back to the lane in front of the monastery that will lead to our car. But it is early still and we really have nothing else to do – so we decide to hang out at the little café right on the corner of the lane leading to the monastery for a couple of cappuccino to waste some time.  We did this last year when we visited – and you couldn’t pick a better place to chill.  You are outside, overlooking the Skala from above with excellent, and reasonably priced cappuccino.  Win win.

Sitting there is fun too, because we have 2 guides sitting behind us, and just eaves dropping on their conversation is worth the stop!  There is a Grand Circle OAT expedition ship in town (50 passengers) and they are up here at the monastery, and one of their guides is sitting behind us.   He is with the local guide (why they aren’t with them at the monastery, we’ve no clue!) and their conversation is just priceless!

Enough time wasted, now we decided to just drive.  We went back over to Tarsanas marina, just because we could – and since we ate their last year, we were thinking maybe we could again.  But we had seen online that they wouldn’t be open until tomorrow – and thought – well what the hell?  We’ve got nothing to do and it is a nice drive.  Although we once again had to navigate through the asphalt work, but that proved fairly easy today, and we were at Tarsanas in no time.  They are open, btw, but only serving breakfast now, it was too early for lunch and didn’t want to hang out and wait 90 minutes for food.  So, we turned around and headed back to Petra beach, up through the mountains, once again past the paving works, then down the paved road past the winery and onto the horrible pebbled track to Petra beach.  It takes 20 minutes or so to get there – but get there we did.

We had passed a couple of restaurants on our drive yesterday, and stopped at the first one, Ktima Petra, where they were serving lunch.  Feedbag on!  Another private restaurant, we’re the only ones there, sitting up on their porch, overlooking the bay with a lovely cool breeze.  What ensued next was the best lunch ever!  The best Saganaki of the trip yet!  It was totally different, dense and almost crustless pie-like, made in a tart dish, with edges so browned, they were crusty and crunchy and oh so good.  Plus octopus in wine sauce – which was again the best yet.  And eggplant rolls which were thinly sliced eggplant stuffed with this excellent cheese and some sort of wine sauce. Oh boy – so good.  Seriously, the best meal we have had in a long, long time!

Stuffed from our midday repast, we decided to walk the shoreline a bit, driving 2 minutes to park near the Kalikatsou rock and the Petra beach bar we frequented yesterday.  We figured we’d walk a little bit down the rocky shoreline, but then saw this marina a ways ahead, so figured we’d go there.  We found a walking path that led us past a resort – with this great scarecrow made out of a man’s shirt and tie! – with incredible views across the bay to some little rock island.  As we neared the marina, it dawned on us that it was Tarsanas!!!  What took us almost 20 minute to drive to (all the way up into the hills and the center of the island then back down onto the coast) took us less than 10 to walk to!  Too funny!  Even funnier, though, is that when we had done a Google map for directions from Tarsanas to get to the Kalikatsou rock – it told us to drive on this pedestrian only path!!!  F’ing Google.  Thank heavens we knew where we were going and didn’t bother following those particular instructions!

Oh – and we definitely missed the Nudity memo!  Obviously, Patmos is just a nude beach haven – here again on this side of the island there were nude sunbathers.  They are everywhere!!!  Who knew?????

We’ve nothing else we want to do with the car now, so we turned it in relatively early – and what we thought would be 35 Euros per day ended up being 35 Euros total for both days. Talk about a bargain!  We hit the grocery store for a couple more beers and water, then walked back to the house and just hung out for the afternoon. 

Dinner tonight is Mermaids, the restaurant where we had lunch the last time we were here on Journey. Momma cooks, son waits tables – just fun.  And they were so excited we came back.  Plus, the food was just as good as before.  Excellent Saganaki, fabulous little fried Symi shrimps – those little shrimps that are fried whole – like seafood popcorn, I tell you!  Heads on and all!  They are the best treat ever.  For our main course we had grilled squid which was tender and delectable!  And as a last course treat, a little teeny chocolate covered ice cream pop.  A perfect last meal here on Patmos.

The rest of our night was spent as usual, our rooftop.  A little sad now that our visit is almost done.  It has been a heavenly 4 days here and we are so very glad we came!