Meteora

I hope everyone had a great MLK weekend. David had Monday off so we decided to get out of Athens and take a trip for the long weekend. We went to Meteora which is about 4 hours north of Athens. As you will see in the pictures below it is truly an amazing place. There are these huge rock formations which jet out of the ground. No one really knows how they were formed. It is believed that there was once a lake in the area which slowly receded and when it did the soft rock and soil was pulled away and all that was left was these huge rock pliers. Many years ago Greek Orthodox monks founded numerous monasteries on many of the pliers. David and I visited three of the monasteries and there are pictures below.

This was the first monastery that we visited Ayia Triada. This monastery was featured in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only.

All of the monasteries have cable cars similar to this one that is used to bring up supplies otherwise they would have to haul them up hundreds of steps like the ones below.

David climbing up the stairs.

Us at the top of the Ayia Triada which had a spectacular view.

David pretending to fall off the cliff.

Me as we walked back down.

This was the second monastery we visited called Megalo Meteora. This was my favorite one.

This is the sign outside of Megalo Meteora and each monastery has a similar one that outlines the rules and regulations for the monastery in different languages. No shorts allowed, women have to be in skirts to their knee and you have to cover your shoulders. I read about this in the guide book before we came so I just brought a wrap and tied it around my wast for each one over my jeans. The monasteries also provide long skirts you can wear while you are visiting over your clothes.

When I first took this picture I just thought it was a pretty setting but upon further inspection I noticed that behind the door was a room full of bones. Yes kind of creepy and yes they are real.

Closer view of the bones.

Pictures of the inside of the monastery


This is the very cute guest house that we stayed at.


Relaxing on our balcony with some local wine

Our room had a fireplace which was great because it was cold. David loved it!

View of the sunrise from our balcony on Monday morning.

View with the mountains in the distance.

View of rock formations

Great shot of one of the monasteries. This really shows how amazing they are and how difficult it must have been to built them.

View of the Varlaam Monastery which was the last one we visited before we headed back to Athens on Monday morning. Megalo Meteora is in the background too.

Us on top of the Varaam Monastery




This is a picture of the battlefield of Thermopylae. If you are not familiar with the battle you are probably familiar with the movie "300." Well this is the historic battlefield were it all took place many many years ago. It is between Athens and Meteora and we stopped on our way back to Athens.