Meteora

Saturday, May 11

We spent the day exploring the Meteora, whose natural beauty (“a forest of rocks”) and the monasteries that seem to grow out of the pinnacles have both earned it UNESCO-listed status. There are six active religious sites here, though once there were 24 monasteries on the pinnacles.  As early as the 11^th century, hermits had sequestered themselves in the area’s rock caves, but by the 14^th century, the decline of the Byzantine empire increasing inroads by the Turks, the monks decided to head for higher ground – literally. They hauled materials (and themselves!) up with ladders they could draw up behind them, and eventually used a system of winches to raise nets and baskets up to their perches.  Similar apparatus is visible today, as are a series of pulleys that ferry containers across the chasms.

We began with a bit of a miscalculation: having seen that the first monastery we wanted to visit had a parking lot a bit uphill, we opted for that approach, rather than a steep climb up from below.  We hadn’t realized the parking lot was high above the monastery, so all we really did was trade a relatively short climb to it for a pretty long one as we departed.  Anyway, the Monastery of St. Barbara was lovely, with well-tended flower gardens and beehives tucked away on the slope and a lovely frescoed katholikon, or church.  It is home to a small group of nuns.

There is a road that encircles the Meteora, with spurs leading off to the monasteries, and another off shoot that took us about five miles to Vlachava, a small village with panoramic views of Meteora and beyond.  The flocks of sheep and goats we saw (and heard) below the town made us think that there’s some connection with the residents here and the Vlachs in Metsovo, which we visited a couple of days ago.

Back again among the spires, we visited St. Stephen’s, which is also home to nuns, and which has two side-by-side katholikons, the youngest of which dates from the late 18^th century.  The frescoes have recently been repainted; the colors are brilliant, and the images seem new.  There was virtually no climbing necessary to reach St. Stephen’s, which we appreciated, as the day was getting quite warm.

After our lunch-with-a-view, we felt (sort of) ready to tackle the ascent to the Varlaam Monastery.  The church there has a large terrace with beautiful views and blooming roses in abundance.   

We planned to finish the afternoon at Megalou Meteorou, founded in the 14^th century and once the richest and most powerful of the monasteries, thanks to the fact that a Serbian emperor became a monk and brought his wealth with him.  The length of the climb, combined with the short time we had until the closing hour posted – and the 90º heat – made us opt to complete the ring road around Meteora and head for an early return to our shady terrace.

A note about the rules governing monastery visits.  Women must wear skirts – no slacks of any length; you can borrow wrap-arounds for the duration of your visit. (I’d come prepared and had brought a skirt to throw on over my capris – which were longer than the skirt! Somehow, this doesn’t make sense to me, but I am a rule-follower.)  On the other hand, Tom took the the fact that no photography was allowed in the katholikons as a direct challenge.  I’ll leave it at that!

After dinner, we went back to Meteora for some sunset photos, but reached there too late for anything remarkable. However, we did see some of the stray cats and dogs we’ve noticed all over Greece.  They amble about in the cities, on rural roads, in and around monuments and archeological sites, and no one seems to pay them much mind.

 

Tomorrow, we’ll spend the day somewhere on the road between here and Athens, where we’ll return our rental car, at the airport and then travel (probably by train) to the port of Piraeus, where we’ll take an overnight boat to Crete, where we’ll spend three days.  It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to upload a blog post until Monday evening, so we’ll wish an early Happy Mother’s Day to all!