Off to the Islands

First of all, I'm having problems posting photos to the blog, so hopefully will get it sorted out soon. In the meantime I can at least provide an update on our activities, and there have been many!

The tour ended yesterday, after we visited incredible Meteora. A World-Heritage site, it consists of massive pinnacles of smooth rock (consisting of limestone, marble, serpentinite, & metamorphic, interspersed with layers of sandstone & shale) that have been weathered and eroded into fantastic shapes. Natural caves were the solitary abodes of hermit monks around 11AD, but eventually 24 monasteries were built on top of the pinnacles. Today, 6 of them are active religious sites, occupied by monks or nuns, and we were able to visit two of them yesterday. We had envisioned seeing them from the ground, however the road winds its way up and up (and is plugged with tour buses) so that you are actually at their level. The first one we saw was accessible from the road, so people with physical challenges are able to access it. Most of them have numerous steps up to them, and the second one we visited still had its original rope basket, which until the 1930's was used for hauling up provisions AND monks! We were all thankful for the great job our driver did on those roads...he was very careful and slow.

We had a long drive (5 hrs) back to Athens, but stopped at a great restaurant in Kalambaka before starting the drive. We were told to go all the way to the kitchen, where an elderly Greek lady proceeded to explain what was cooking that day. Two different types of lamb, a pork dish, chicken, meatballs, pastitio, roasted potatoes, rice. You picked one main dish, then she piled that together with vegs, potatoes and rice on your plate - a LOT of food for lunch! It was delicious.

At the end of the tour we were the first dropoff in Athens, as we had arranged a transfer to Piraeus, the port where we would get our ferry the next morning. Our Danish friends came with us, and after checking into our hotel the four of us had one last dinner at a small family run restaurant. This morning we walked to the dock and are now sitting on the ferry bound for Sifnos. We will spend 5 days there, so we're looking forward to staying put for awhile and having a more relaxed pace!

That's it for now - bye from the Greek islands......

Posted with Blogsy