Saturday, 10/3 - Greece – tour of Delphi
This morning we returned to the ancient site of Delphi, the sanctuary of Apollo and his “mouthpiece,” Pythia, who was the priestess at the Temple of Apollo. (See Sept. 25 for descriptions and pictures of our first visit to Delphi. Use your back arrow to return here.) It was raining hard at breakfast but stopped for our tour.
We drove through rain past the bauxite mining operations to Itea for lunch and took a short walk along the esplanade.
Lunch in Itea
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Harbor at Itea |
After lunch we drove over the mountains and on to the Thermopyle plain where a major battle in the Persian Wars was fought. Three hundred Spartans and 700 Thespians faced 300,000 Persians who were marching south. The Greeks held them for three days until a traitor showed the Persians a path through the mountain to surround the Greeks. Xerxes, the Persian king, lost his two brothers but all of the Greeks fought to their death. Today there is a large monument at the area to honor only the brave Spartans and a more recent monument to honor the Thespians.
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Leonidas monument |
Statue of Leonidas
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Thespians' monument |
Statue of Eros
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As we continued toward Kalambaka we drove through the Thermopylae plain, a rich agricultural area in which are grown cotton and vegetables. Later we entered the Thessalian plain with fields as far as the eye could see. It is Greece’s breadbasket with cereal grains as well as cotton, some tobacco, and lots of tomatoes. The plain is below sea level and is hot and humid in summer (up to 110° F) and can have freezing winters. They can have violent thunder and hail storms. It is irrigated from underground water. We also saw a gypsy settlement and large flocks of sheep on the hillsides.
We finally arrived at our hotel in Kalambaka. Another Divani and very nice. We took a quick walk into the town of Kalambaka. It was a busy Saturday evening and the courtyards, squares, and tavernas were getting crowded. Dinner was another hotel buffet. My favorite was grilled eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, and peppers. I ate a plateful!
Sunday, 10/4 – Kalambaka and the Monasteries at Meteora
This morning we rode up into the rock formations above Kalambaka to visit one of the four remaining monasteries and one of the two nunneries built up on top of those rocks. Originally hermits lived in caves up here seeking solitude. Later communities of monks built secluded buildings that were accessible only by rope nets cranked up to the top. At one time (14th c. AD) there were 24 monasteries but only six are left and two of those have been converted to nunneries. The oldest monastery, Meteora, has three monks, Varlaam has three, and St. Stevens has 27 nuns now. Numbers are in decline!
Monasteries of Meteora on the rocks above Kalambaka |
Monasteries of Meteora - St. Stephen's
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Prayer flags in a cave in the rocks
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Monasteries of Meteora - Great Meteoron |
Monasteries of Meteora - Holy Trinity
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Monasteries of Meteora - St. Nicholas Anapausas and Roussanou/St. Barbara |
We entered two of the monasteries - Varlaam monastery and St. Steven nunnery. Both had very small churches covered with frescos. In the nave the frescos were of martyrdom - horrible scenes of torture - the idea being that the afterlife was worth attaining. The narthex had the typical icons we saw many times in Russia. Jesus painted on the cupola so we look up at heaven. The saints were painted on the lower (earthly) level. Below Jesus are the prophets, then the four Apostles, and then the life of Christ. Both churches had a very graphic painting of the second coming of Christ in the Nave. The throne waiting for Jesus and the scales of justice to weigh whether we go to heaven with the saints or to hell via fire into the mouth of a monster. The nave made me feel that Christianity was very dangerous!
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Monasteries of Meteora - St. Varlaam's
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St. Varlaam's |
The yellow flag with a double eagle is the Greek Orthodox flag. |
St. Varlaam's
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St. Varlaam's - the platform from which people and supplies were raised and lowered |
St. Varlaam's - it is a long way down/up
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St. Varlaam's - cage for moving things up and down
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St. Varlaam's - tracks used in raising and lowering |
Strict rules At both monasteries we had to wear skirts, have our shoulders covered but not our heads. |
Compliance
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St. Stevens has a newer church replacing the 16th century one that was bombarded by Nazis in WWII. The frescoes are still being added to the nave. Of interest were the different ”bells” used to signal the monks or nuns to duty. One was a curved iron slat, one was three iron slats in suspension, and one was a wooden 6 foot slat 6 inches wide, in addition to more traditional bells.
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St. Stevens
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St. Stevens |
St. Stevens' bell tower
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The fact that monasteries were built up here is intriguing but the views of the Kalambaka Plain are spectacular.
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Soccer field
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Kalambaka
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Kalambaka |
Both while hiking at home and while traveling to different places, we are often rendered speechless by the outfits of our fellow hikers and travelers, especially the shoes they wear. This trip found us traversing some pretty rough terrain. Loose dirt and gravel, cobblestones, slick marble, to mention a few. Below is illustrated some of the footwear we observed on this trip. The pictures speak for themselves.
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We got up at 3:30 AM to get our 5 AM shuttle bus to the airport. The hotel was nice enough to have coffee, tea, and pastries for us at 4:30 AM. Our plane left at 8:35 AM - Aegean Air (a Star Alliance partner) to Munich - 2 hours and 40 minutes - and we had a nice omelet, potato patty, hot roll, yogurt and honey, and coffee.
In Munich we had to go through another passport and luggage control station. It was obvious they were looking for something. We weren’t given boarding passes for the Munich to Dulles leg so we had to go to the gate counter to get one. They again looked at our baggage claim stubs and checked them into their computer. We got our seat assignments and we were assigned four rows apart on an over filled plane. The nice young man next to Marge swapped with me so we could be together for 8½ to 9 hours across the Atlantic.
We arrived safely in Denver, collected our luggage and car, and decided to stay overnight in Longmont instead of driving up the canyon when we were both very tired. It was great to get home after a wonderful trip. Turkey was delightful and Greece was full of ancient history. We are very sorry we missed all of the Greek islands we were planning to see. We will look for another trip some year that will take us back to those islands.
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