Rocks, Hills & Monasteries

16 June 2108, Saturday

Today we allowed ourselves a short lie-in before starting the day. There are six monasteries and nunneries that comprise a sort of development on these great rock formations. We started off at the Holy Monastery of the Great Meteoro which is the largest as well as the highest of the group. The icons are beautiful and the church ornate. We even caught one of the monks in the midst of vacuuming! In all of these monasteries, the ladies are required to wear long skirts supplied by the monastery - neither pants nor shorter than knee-length dresses are sufficient (unless you are Caroline and can slouch just the right way so that your dress covers your knees).

They use a cable system to ferry supplies in and out of the monastery. One of the unique wall paintings features prophets and Greek philosophers and historians. A description: 






Next, we went into Varlaam Monastery. Although it is considerably smaller, it is just as beautiful with its’ ornate icons and church. Additionally, this monastery raised and lowered a net to bring supplies in and out as well as people! 

View of Meteora from Varlaam Monastery

Chris & Lee demonstrating the mechanism used for raising and lowering the net.

The next monastery we tried to go to is actually a nunnery and was closed for lunch. So, we did the same and found an accommodating location in Kalambaka for a late lunch. We were finally able to move beyond gyros and try a few different items. We got back to St. Stephens Monastery/Nunnery around 4:30pm or so and did a quick tour. It had similar features as the other two (icons, beautiful church) but also had a wall painting that appeared, as Annie put it, to have been painted by someone still trying to perfect his/her skills because the faces all looked the same. The principal difference I noticed at this nunnery was the presence of more greenery—flowers, shrubs, and trees.  

Outside St. Stephens

Hours of icons was a little tiring so we returned to the hotel, rested, and watched a little World Cup, while the kids went for some walks around Meteora, went to a cafe, and then managed to gather every child in the village to play a game of soccer. The kids were all younger than ours at first and it was nice to watch Jackie, Xi, Caroline, CJ, Claire, and Abby engage with them. They were all having a blast together and getting on beautifully. The ‘rents found a small restaurant for a little nibble (since our lunch was large and late) and some drinks. Although Karen had meatballs that contained dill that has lingered well into the next morning, she was happy to have experienced a gyro-free day.