When we arrived we found a hiking map for the area, so I was happy! We set out after breakfast, first on small country roads that wove past private monasteries, not open for visitors, like the one below, set right into the rock.
This is a hermit cave. Monks go and live there for punishment. Who the heck knows how they get to this one!?
The small unpaved roads turned into trails and we made our way up and over passes, only taking a wrong turn once, pretty good for us. As Tom said, "it's not vacation unless we end up walking through someone's backyard while hiking". So true. Tom taking a break below at Valhava Monument. Where we are headed next is that low spot in the horizon just to the right of middle.
After hours of hiking, we came up over a crest and finally found some people, and lots of them. At two of the six monasteries, the Great Meteoron and Varlaam. This is the view of Varlaam from the Great Meteoron. We went into the biggest one and spent about an hour looking at beautiful stonework and frescoes.
We decided that hour was enough of crowds so we looked at the map, picked out a trail to some cool spots and hiked on. Below are the remnants of the monks prison.
Next we hiked up one of the big pillars, quite a climb, and wound up on top, after a short scramble near the top.
Tom on the way up.
A chapel, literally carved into the Rock. Behind a blue metal door, that made a horrible scraping sound when we opened it, we found this beautiful spot.
And our reward for scrambling up the final pitch was a bell we got to ring. I rang it three times.
The town is a lot further down than it looks, for sure. That is a straight drop off, for a long long way.
Great couple days here, all in all. Heading to Kefalonia tomorrow, one of the Ionian islands in northwestern Greece.
Beautiful pictures!
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