Today the ship arrived in Piraeus, Greece. Piraeus is the port for Athens, Greece. Today I left on a 3 day and 2 night tour called "Meteora, Delphi & Greek Easter Overland Adventure". We left the pier at 8:20 AM and headed to Meteora. We drove thru the Athens area and headed North to Meteora. We drove by farm land, olive trees and thru hills and some mountains before we got into a very large valley of farm land. At one time this area was a lake and as a result it is very flat. We drove in the valley for over an hour before we arrived at Meteora for lunch at 2 PM. Along the way we made a comfort stop at 9:25 AM and 12 Noon. We left lunch at about 3 PM and drove up the mountain for the first stop at the St. Barbara Monastery. This Monastery is located several hundred feet above the road and we had to climb many steps to get to the Monastery. It took about 10 minutes to reach the Monastery and at the Monastery we could not take pictures. We spent 20 minutes at the Monastery and walked down to the bus. We arrived at the Monastery of St. Stephen at a 4:10 PM. This monastery was only a few steps and had a great view of the valley. We left the monastery at 4:45 and headed t the hotel where we arrived at 5:15 PM. It was good Friday in the Greek Orthodox Church and I could have gone to the church and observed the Procession of the Epitaph but I was tired and I stayed at the hotel. I had dinner at the hotel and I went to bed. It was a very long day.
Meteora is a group of lofty and precipitous rocks crowned with monasteries, retreats and cells of caves. It is situated near Kalambaka at the point where the Peneus river flows out in the beautiful plain of Thessaly and at a height of some 300 metros from the valley. It was an ideal spot for spiritual exercise and meditation. The first monastery was built in the 14th century. During the centuries which followed a large number of monasteries were built. The 17th century saw the beginning of the decline of monasticism at Meteora. Today six monasteries continue to function and can be visited by pilgrims.
Below are Part 1 of pictures from Piraeus and my tour to Kalambaka. See part 2 for more pictures.
No comments:
Post a Comment