Meteora

A more relaxed day today, and very pleasant so far. In the morning we visited the monastery of the transfiguration, the highest and largest of the several monasteries that are perched atop the sandstone pillars which dominate this area. We were able to drive to the monastery and then climb stairs into it, but apparently the early monks would have used nets and ropes and stepladders to get in and out, so I think that acrophobia would have been an automatic disqualification from a monastic calling. It is still a living monastery so there were parts we couldn't tour, and other parts (like the church) where we could enter but not take photos. Andronikos gave us a good tour of the place, and it was a fascinating morning.

I am now firmly convinced that tour bus drivers ought to be the highest paid people in Greece. The drive to the monastery was up a steep, winding, narrow road, and near the monastery itself there were cars parked all along the side of the road. On our way down, shortly after our visit, we twice met large tour buses coming up towards us and Nikolaitos, our expert driver, had to reverse our bus some distance back around towards the monastery. He did a remarkable job, which I was grateful for, as we were on the outside and there was a rather sheer drop beside us.Weiterlesen