Exploring Meteora

TUESDAY MAY 26, 2015

Still beat up from our adventure on Mt. Olympus, we were up early and off to explore the monasteries of Meteora.  Located at the head of the Thessaly valley in central Greece, this group of monasteries were built on top of some striking rock outcroppings as a mean of protection and isolation.  Many have been around since the mid 14-15th century.  You may have seen them on the UNESCO world heritage site or, more likely, in the 1981 James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only" (its always important to write for your audience...).   The landscape and architecture are both magnificent and you can see more Byzantine art than you can shake a stick at.

"I don't care if it's a beautiful hotel and a great view...move it people!"

Today we had our own "mini-bus tour" complete with guide and driver.  This turned out to be some of the best money we have ever spent.  

Looking back down the valley at the town of Kalampka

After our tour was over our guide stayed in one of the monasteries to meet her next group.  Our driver, who spoke about 30 words of English, took us back to the hotel.  On the way back he kept trying to tell us something.   We were at a loss, since we know about 10 words of Greek ("Vin Kalavento Hellenica"--I don't understand Greek!).  He called a friend of his who speaks English who got on the phone and essentially told us that he was not planning on kidnapping us, he was going to show us a special site most tourists don't see.

So off we went.  He parked the mini-bus on the side of the road next to an unmarked driveway, we went through an unmarked gate and up the hill to the first monastery ever established in Meteora, in the mid 1300s.

Our driver Nikolas getting the interpreter back on the phone

The original monasteries were more akin to hermit's dwellings.

The nearby village of Kastraki.  Our enthusiastic driver Nikolas also insisted that we stop here and get a picture of his home town.  Hey...he was driving!

We left Meteora and headed south.   Our next stop was Delphi but that is a 3.5 hour drive so we had planned to stop at Lamia, only 2 hours away.

We saw several storks nests in a couple of villages along the way.

The beautiful Thessaly valley

We arrived in Lamia around 5pm, no thanks to our GPS unit which is fond of taking the most bizarre routes.   You have never heard of Lamia, nothing happened there, there are no beautiful natural features, unique architecture or any such thing.  People just live and work there.  Judging by the shape and size of the streets they've been doing so since the Middle Ages!

Central Square where we found supper.  The finest and most authentic gyro ever.

Double Parking does not seem to be a problem in Greece.  You can even stop in the middle of the street--so long as you put on your blinkers and leave four feet for everyone else to get by.

Adventures in Urban Driving coming to a theater near you.   Reportedly there was one instance of going the wrong way down a one-way street.  Fortunately policeman also seem to be a rare sight in Greece.

Our hotel.  The fanciest one in town--50 Euros a night.

Lamia is a great place to pick up a little, but very important, can to place next to the toilet.

Lamia brought to light that life in Greece feels more "Eastern European" than "Western European."     In between blog posts, Scott has been reading A Concise History of Greece by Richard Cogg (which sounds like a college textbook but which is actually quite engaging).  Most people don't realize that Greece didn't have anything near its present shape until after WWII and subsequent to that has had a civil war, military junta and several economic crises.

Tomorrow it's on to Delphi.  We'll have to ask the Oracle if she knows anything about ornery GPS units.