Wednesday, November 27, 2024

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?

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Delphi/Kalambaka

 Bags outside your door  - now was that BEFORE we went to bed or EARLY in the morning - it's amazing the things you forget after you get home!   But whenever we had to have our bags out, it was once again figure out what you needed for the morning as that would have to be put in your backpack!  So many things to get your mind working early in the morning!  We had our last breakfast on the ship and soon it was our turn to get off the ship and walk that windy walk to our bus!

Our tour guide and bus driver were waiting for us and after we got everyone loaded, we headed out!  We continued to rise in elevation and soon we were into the fir trees and the pretty colors of fall - it felt like home!


As you can see it was a cloudy day for awhile but the colors were really pretty as we were driving!


Every time I would see all of these homes on the hillsides I was amazed - so many towns and villages were just built on the sidehills!


We continued to climb in the mountains and as the clouds were breaking up, it made for a pretty picture!


Check out these switchbacks we were going up - yes, I definitely felt like I was in Colorado!


Delphi was an ancient religious sanctuary dedicated to the Greek god Apollo!  The sanctuary was home to the Oracle of Delphi and the priestess Pythia, who was famed throughout the ancient world for divining the future and was consulted before all major undertakings!

Before we went into the museum, I just had to snap a picture of the cats - I've never seen such coloring on cats as I did in Greece!


The demonic Sphinx was a monster with the head of a woman, the body of a lion and outstretched wings.


After the museum, many of us walked up to see more ancient ruins.


And yes, it was a long walk up there!



When we were all finished with the tour, our tour guide said there was something wrong with the bus and another one would have to come and get us - so we all crawled in the bus and the driver took us to a beautiful hotel nearby where we spent about an hour just hanging out, waiting for another bus to come and get us - the drivers transferred all the luggage and daypacks into the new bus but a lot of us had left our water and extra food in the net mesh bags in front of us - but we did get it back the next morning when our original bus came back!

Anyway, we had a nice relaxing time at this hotel - they served beer and soft drinks and it was just fine!

Finally headed out again, we went by this beautiful lake - and yes, it's getting dark!


We came into this smaller town it seemed and it's pitch black of course and our driver took this turn into a residential area - the road was SO NARROW - he had to back up to make a couple of turns and we wondered where in the heck our hotel was!!!  We FINALLY arrived, although have no idea how we got there on these narrow tiny streets past peoples' houses!!  But did figure out the next morning that we had come in a back way!

SO here's a couple of pictures of our hotel room - every place we stayed was VERY NICE and most places had the two twin beds right next to each other! (I know, it looks like a king bed!)

There was always plenty of room to put our bags and unpack what we needed!!  Another "new" thing to me was putting your room card into the slot when you walked into the room - and that turned on the lights so you had to keep it in there and then just pull it out when you left - pretty handy way of conserving electricity!


There was a nice buffet waiting for us when we arrived - of course it was later and we were all tired and hungry so quickly ate and headed up to bed!

The buffet breakfast was good the next morning and since this was just a one nights' stay, we packed up again to head out!

Here's the outside of the hotel with the beautiful backdrop of what we would see during the day!


And we're on the road again......

Monday, November 25, 2024

Santorini

 I had heard that this island was beautiful - and once I looked up some pictures of the mostly white buildings and a few blue roofs, I knew it would be a place I would fall in love with - and I did!  This was the highlight of the trip for me - seeing this beautiful island and getting to spend some time on it!

Once again, we had to dock out in the sea and use tenders to take us to shore!  The guy who announces who gets to leave first had promised us that we would be FIRST today since we were last the night before - and he was true to his word!  We were on the first boat to shore!  And I loved all the white buildings up on the hill!  The next picture was taken once we got to shore and went up high - it shows how far the tenders had to go to get to the shoreline!


Santorini is one of the most fascinating islands in the Aegean with its rugged, volcanic cliffs topped by brilliant white houses in the town of Thera.  The view from town is spectacular as you look down in the beautiful bay to the still active volcano island only a few miles away!



Our guide walked with us over to a historical spot where we took pictures and then basically we were on our own the rest of the time!


I love the red flowers next to the whitewash buildings!


Yes, it's a LONG ways down!


Here you can see the small harbor below.


I loved the windmills on this island!


One thing Patty and I had talked about was going to an open air restaurant on the sea and having coffee and a bite to eat!  And that's exactly what we did!


The setting was beautiful!!!  We enjoyed fresh bread with jam and strong coffee!  So relaxing!


We discovered this church on our way to a lunch spot (and yes, that's the Greek flag flying in front) so decided to go in!


The church was gorgeous inside!


And right beside the church was this fish, which I had to take a picture of for Glenn!


The view from our lunch spot - we enjoyed 3 different types of dips with pita chips - it was perfect for the two of us and we loved the setting!


Another view of a church and the volcanic island in the distance.



We shopped and shopped - found what we were looking for including sweatshirts!!  It was the perfect place to shop and enjoy all the cute things!

To get back down to the boat deck you had a choice of walking down, riding a donkey down or purchasing a cable car ticket and riding down!!  Which of course is what we chose to do!


Sitting inside - it was a short ride to the bottom with gorgeous views!


We found the boat tenders and got in line - didn't have to wait too long to get on the boat to take us back!  And after dropping our purchases in our cabin, we decided to explore the ship a little more - we had been SO BUSY with tours, etc. that we felt we hadn't gotten to really enjoy the ship!  This was taken on the top deck where the swimming pool and disco were!


That night for dinner, we opted to skip the buffet and go to the nicer restaurant - it was wonderful and we wished we would have went here before!!  A nice menu to order from and great food!

It was our last night on the cruise ship!  And I think all of us were ready to get off onto dry land!