Meteora, Greece

Beautiful Meteora, it’s got to be the real gem of Greece. Sure, Greece has beautiful beaches, charming old towns and ancient ruins, but nowhere have I seen monasteries perched atop tall rock pinnacles. That's Meteora. The town itself is typically Greek in almost every way but the backdrop is of tall grey, rock formations.

View from the town of Meteora.

The story is that as far back as the eleventh century monks lived in caves in those rocks. There is still evidence of that habitation as some are walled with doorways. In the fourteenth century, the Ottoman Empire began making moves in that direction and the monks sought protection from the invaders. They set about building completely self-contained monasteries atop tall pinnacles, some directly above their caves. All of them are still inhabited as either monastery or convent.

One only has to look to realize what a feat this was because they are steep, high, and virtually inaccessible. Somehow they did it and it was successful because several of them are still there, unsacked and unpillaged. The stone is mostly conglomerate and very stable yet their buildings are a different stone which causes me to wonder how they got it there. I read that in the beginning they used rope ladders to get up and down. Then there were windlasses and rope to haul up even monks in nets. In the 1920s stairs were cut, steep and winding. Now some of the buildings are accessed by roads as well as cable cars. A few of them allow access to tourists and a bus runs from the village.

A windlass and net.

I decided to hike between them with a woman from Australia. The trip was close to seven miles mostly along blacktop roads. Along that roadway we found flowers and trees, many of them new to me. After visiting two of the monasteries, we decided to take the rocky trail into town which was steep, steep, and very green as though we'd just dropped into a rain forest. Lots of moss, lots of ferns...lots and lots of toilet paper were all along the trail as if people couldn't wait long enough to slip into the woods for privacy. Despite this rather disgusting ending, Meteora is thus far the highlight of my journey.