Meteora

We are fortunate to have three days here and so don't need to rush around the monasteries - there are six open to the public and some people visit all of them in a day. We wanted to walk to them, on the old paths which the monks have used for centuries. It proved difficult to get proper information about the routes, as most tourists visit by coach, bus or car. We had a map from the VisitMeteora office but it was more artistic than accurate. In the end we just set off and it was actually quite easy to find the path and the walking was very pleasant, through cool forests right to the top.

We only visited one monastery today, but it was the biggest and most famous  - the Grand Meteoron. You can read more about it Here. It turned out that the most interesting bits were those which we weren't allowed to photograph. These were - the interior of the church, covered in 16thc frescoes, the 13thc embroidery in the museum and the amazing collection of books, some printed in the 15th century.

Her is Sarah peeping into the ossuary where there are skulls of the Holy Founders and other monks.

From here we walked to Verlaam and then back down to Kastraki. We had dinner at a rather lacklustre taverna (should have stuck with the nice one from last night) and then out for another sunset walk and a Greek coffee.

The days are just packed :-)