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Published: November 21st 2013
October 17, 2013
After long debates as to where we should go and what we should see when we got to Greece, we ultimately went with recommendations from a couple of friends that used to live there and added Meteora to our itinerary...decided to do an organized tour due to our time constraints, so headed out early in the morning with an overnight excursion that would include Delphi, Thermopylae, overnight in Kalambaka and then visit a couple of the monasteries of Meteora in the morning...okay!
Hooked up with the tour and headed out of town, first stop Delphi...considered to be the navel of the Earth by the ancient Greeks and home of the oracles, it is a beautiful site perched on the side of Mt. Parnassos...fantastic spot, spent some time with the guide from our tour and then wandered off on our own to explore...worth the trip, the ruins are great; the Temple of Apollo, the Theatre and the Stadium, regarded to be one of the best preserved in all of Greece...
Due to being shuffled between two different tours we missed the Museum which was a bit disappointing, and after an hour wait at a
hotel (and missing lunch..gah...) we finally hooked up with another tour that was going on to Kalambaka and Meteora...
The scenery was amazing; I didn't realize how mountainous Greece really was (5th most mountainous in Europe I believe?)...the drive was beautiful through the mountains and valleys, and after about an hour after leaving Delphi we came upon Thermopylae, the spot where King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans made their last stand against the Persians...yes! Obviously a famous happening, and being a fan of the movie 300 it was really cool standing in the spot where it all took place...not a whole lot to see, there is a statue of Leonidas and a monument to the Spartans there but still a great stop along the way...
We then settled in for the long journey to Kalambaka...it is a quite a ways from Athens, certainly a long day's drive...we arrived at dusk, spent about half an hour in town so people could get whatever supplies they were missing (we went for a pint!) and then headed back to the hotel out of town to check in and have dinner...early night, not a whole lot to do there...
Next morning
This is Sparta!
...okay, that had to appear somewhere in this blog...statue of King Leonidas at Thermopylae...woke to discover we had another fantastic sunny day breaking...excellent! After learning about Meteora and seeing some pics we were really excited to get going and start exploring...so after a big buffet breakfast it was on to the bus and heading up the switchback roads to get to our first monastery...
Meteora loosely means "suspended in the air", and the monasteries were built high on cliffs by monks seeking safe havens from the unrest of Turkish incursions in the 14th century...originally the only way to reach these monasteries was by a rope ladder that could be lowered and raised as required...fortunately roads and stone steps were built in the early 20th century to allow us travelers to visit, don't think I could have made it otherwise! There seemed to be a dozen or so of them scattered on the surrounding peaks, sadly we would only have time to see two of them but c'est la vie...
First stop was the Holy Monastery of Grand Meteoron, spectacular in every sense...regarded as the best known of the monasteries, it was quite amazing to climb up and then explore the site, beautiful just doesn't do it justice...the church and its frescoes
Painting...
...at Holy Monastery of Saint Stephen...something about religious art... were stunning, the famous wall of skulls very cool and then the views from all sides were simply breathtaking...it has to be one of the more awe-inspiring sites I've seen in my travels...
Hung around there for about an hour and a half and then it was back on the bus, heading to the only Nunnery of the area, the Holy Monastery of Saint Stephen...although smaller than the previous site, it was nonetheless still absolutely beautiful and again the views could not be beat...
Unfortunately we only had so much time to spend in the area before we had to get back on the bus and start our 5+ hour journey back to Athens...I can't say enough about this place; if you make it to Greece do not hesitate to visit Meteora...if ever we return I would like to rent a car and spend more time in the area; there are a couple of cool towns around Ancient Delphi to explore and I would certainly like to see more of the monasteries...
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
The navel and the roof of the earth!
How fabulous you chose to visit these wondrous sites! So many visit Greece and never make it all the way out to Meteora, one of my fave spots in the country. I went, planning to spend a day, and ended up staying three weeks, hiking and walking up to all the monasteries and chatting with the priests. Santorini and the islands are wonderful, but this seemed to be the heart of this mountainous country. Great photos and blog--thanks!