Hotel Famissi Kalambaka

... the monasteries. I'm not very interested in religious buildings but these monasteries are amazing. It&#8217;s well worth the trip to see them. The buildings and the views are amazing.<br><br>Afterwards, we flew back to the yacht in transit to Corinth. This evening we&#8217;re going to have our farewell dinner cruise on our way to Corinth. The food was great and it was a nice winding down of having our guests aboard.

... it was the Ossuary which housed all the dead monks over the centurys bones and skulls this was the most interesting bit. After looking round for an hour it was time to go as not much more to see although the views from the top are pretty spectacular. I should really give you a bit of history but I dont know the exact dates I just know that the Greek monks built them and kept the Greek language alive up there when the turks had taken over the country even ...

... land train from there to Kallambaka which took 5 hours but went through the most beautiful scenery and countryside hills, mountains little villages. Sat and gazed out the window most of the time and dozed off to sleep and finally got here at 2. We again had no where to stay so for punishment for last night Ian left me to have a cold chocolate milk and he went off looking for somewhere but he is so good at it anyways he came back finding a lovely ...

<br><br>Stunning setting: Meteora is an area with fantabulous outcrops of rock, smooth, sculpted almost, on top of which have been built these extraordinary monasteries. Access was only by dangling ropes, way back - for security purposes. How they hauled up the building materials staggers the imagination! Thankfully, the road goes all the way up them all, now. We scoot around them, preferring to view from ...

... views from the ruins over the surrounding countryside.......awesome place!<br><br><br>Once our time was up, we met back at the bus &amp; were taken to the outskirts of the town of Kalambaka, destroyed during WW II, at the foot of the unusual &amp; mighty rock formations the Meteora monasteries were built on, for our overnight hotel stay....lovely place, lovely food, wide, open, airy reception, foyer area....pretty outdoor pool &amp; surrounds.<br><br><br><br>

... there are seven in all). We grabbed a bus that was to take us to the first monastery, and then we were to talk from there. When we got on the bus, we were delighted to see the rest of Team Meteora! Everyone that had been on the bus the following day was on this one, so we pretty much stuck together throughout the day. <br><br>When we were dropped off at the first monastery, we were sad to see that it was closed, though we did get to see the exterior (later ...

The distance to Meteora from Katerini is about 170 kms , about 50 of which were motorways and we had to start early in the morning in order to get to the monasteries before noon. The road to Larissa turned out to be quite scenic, with views of the sea and some mountain passages, but after that it became a bit monotonous....until we reached the city of Kalambaka and the formidable rocks of ...

... eager to head to bed so we could get up and see what was up there (plus we were exhausted from the 12 hour journey). The next morning we headed up to Megalou Meteorou, the biggest and oldest of the monasteries, and Varlaam, another crowd favourite.  They are extremely old yet very well preserved.  Being isolated at the top of enormous rock pinnacles obviously helps with that.  Anyway, they have all ...

... t answer any of these questions during the visit, but I picked up some literature from the moni store-and some very nice incense and charcoal-and got some photos. I clearly need to get hold of a copy of the Geology of Greece when I get home. Then we hit the road to Kalambaka, where our hotel for the night was. The drive is long and goes over roads that are not superhighways. First we drove back into Distomo, a village that had ...

... was a pro at driving a manual transmission car. We stopped in Vergina where Philip II of Macedonia (Alexander the Great's father) was buried. His tomb was only undiscovered in 1982 and they have built a museum around that tomb and 3 others that were found in that tumulus or burial mound. We saw fantastic golden crowns, Philip's armor ...