METEORA AND KALAMBAKA

Today we went to the rocks at Meteora. This is one of the most fascinating and interesting stops on this tour.  

Long ago some hermits would come and move into the caves that existed in the mountains. I'm using the word mountains but they are really  giant freestanding rocks.  They are about 750 meters high. And they come straight up from sort of a valley floor.  Geologically, they are the result of a giant inland sea and later erosion.  

As time went by they built monasteries in these various places and up at the top of the rocks.

I think the monasteries are about 400 or 500 years old. The Nazis bombed them all during World War II so most of them have been partially or totally rebuilt since then, though parts of them have lasted. There is a road that winds through these hills with fabulous views. Some of the monasteries are very close to the road. The first one we went to was Saint Stephen's.

This was previously a monastery, but is now a nun's convent. It was seriously bombed in World War II and so the chapel has been rebuilt and the frescoes in it are just wonderful. They are very bright because they're still painting the church. It isn't even finished yet.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I found there two pictures online.  

We learned some things that I did not know about icons. I always thought the Byzantine icons looked the way they do because the artists have not mastered the art of painting with perspective. But the fact of the matter is they do not want the paintings to look realistic. They felt that realistic paintings were too much like statues, which the Orthodox Church rejects. Also that every church has a very standard iconography so Jesus will always be in the middle door, Virgin Mary will be on his left, and John the Baptist will always be on his right. There are other things that always the same so that if you go into any Greek church you will recognize the saints.  Also Jesus is the only one who always gets his name inside his halo. The colors that I thought always look grey on the faces are also on purpose so that they don't look like a living person.

Because this is a nunnery, they have to have a priest come to say the mass.

There is a piece of wood hanging outside where the priest knocks, and then there is a sort of a bell -- more like a wind chime, but very heavy -- that the priest gently rings to ask if it is all right to come in. 

The second monastery we visited was Varlaam. They are building something that might be a new belltower there, which means they are raising  these huge pieces of stone up some kind of a pulley up the outside of the mountain.  

In this monastery we saw older paintings, because this particular one was not destroyed by the Nazis. There were some newer ones in the public area.  

It was a hundred steps up to the top of this one. And did I mention that all of these have beautiful views?

Following this visit we went into the town of Kalambaka so that so Zoe could visit the doctor for her breathing problem and also to have her stitches examined. We also had another member of our tour who fell and it turns out cracked a rib last night. This is the same man who was stung by a bee one day and bitten by a cat another day. 

The rest of us were free to have lunch and wander about the town and buy souvenirs. I am at the point in a tour where the opportunity to skip a meal is so exciting I can hardly stand it. Needless to say I had ice cream for lunch.

We had three hours free in the afternoon to hike around the area or go to the pool. The pool was lovely.

Then last night we had our home hosted dinner which is somewhat of a trademark of Grand Circle. Usually I don't care that much for the home hosted dinner but this one was immensely fun.  

The house was actually built into the side of one of these big rocks. And was very charming. The owner had added on to the house so there were only two walls that were the rocks. He and his wife were very gregarious , friendly people. 

To top off the night we had a fantastic thunderstorm that looked like it was made in Hollywood. The darkness was lit up and the rocks appeared and then disappeared. Then there was hail. Then the rain hit directly on our window which was under a five foot roof. Loved it.