Hanging Monasteries

 Rise and shine - early of course because this was just a one night stay and you always have to have your luggage downstairs early to get loaded on the bus!  Breakfast was buffet - excellent croissants!

Today we were headed to Meteora to see the "Hanging Monasteries" - I was very intrigued by this and couldn't wait to travel up even higher in elevation to see this!

On the way there, we stopped at a spot where we watched painters explain the process of how they paint these religious plaques - very interesting!

And then we were off to drive up the mountain and see the monasteries!

The complex of Meteora is composed of massive stone pillars rising from the mountains, near the town of Kalambaka.  On the top are six active monasteries, which makes Meteora the second most important monastic community in Greece.

These rocky formations were created over 60 million years ago due to the constant blow of wind and waves which formed thse unique shapes.

But it wasn't until the 12th centry that the monks decided to establish the monasteries on top of these rock formations.

Some of these monasteries were so isolated tthat they could only be accessed with scaffolds or by climbing the rocks.  Later the monks resorted to using ropes and nets with hooks and even a basket that was pulled all the way up by the monks!

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip - it was just intriguing to imagine these monasteries built this high back in the day!

We did get to enter one monastery but no pictures were allowed.  Skirts were required and they had hooks with many, many skirts hanging so you would just grab one and put it on.  

After we descended the mountain, we drove by a lot of olive tree groves and grapevines - very pretty!

We actually stayed at a Holiday Inn that night and the next - who knew they had these in Greece?