Rex Kalambaka

We flew to Metéora today to see the Monasteries. The flight didn't take very long at all, less than an hour. We essentially followed a highway, the E 90 all the way there. It was an amazingly beautiful flight. We flew over Lake Ioannina and through a mountain pass where we followed a river and the highway to another narrow pass near a valley with Lake Aoos at the north end of it. From here we just followed the river ...

... chocolate mild. We are leaving in the morning to go to Corfu and its a bit of an epic journey but we still popped out to the square in the evening as its the Greek general elections at the moment. The ones in power the new democracy (like conservative) where holding a rally in the square with some key members of parliment there so we went to listen to the speeches and they all were flying flags and setting off flares and stuff it was funny but still ...

Got up dead early again lol getting used to these early starts Ian had a bit of a hang over after last night AGAIN! Walking through Amonia was an experience in the morning there were still prostitutes around and used condoms, it stank of wee and there where still lots of drunken drugged up men! Still felt safe though they are really not interested in anyone else or whats going on ha ha.<br><br>Got on the tube 2 stops to Larrisa station then took ...

<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>

... We continued along the way, but found out that the next two monasteries were closed (for lunch or something) so we decided to take a footpath from the monastery down through some woods to our hotel.<br><br>Once we made it back to the hotel, we rested for a bit, then went back out to get some lunch. We stopped by this place with gyros and randomly ran into 2 of the people from Team Meteora and sat to eat with them. After lunch, we made our way down to the bus ...

... were build back in the 14 century, they were really unreachable. The building materials for them, and later food as well as the monks themselves were delivered up by ropes and pulleys. These are now exhibited as artefacts, but in Agia Triada there is a lift in operation and we saw a monk arriving in this lift. Agia Triada is the one monastery that is hardest to reach, as you have to ...

... ns souperons ensemble mercredi! On arrive a Kalambaka et qui nous retrouvons!? Francine et Michel! Ils ns suivent dans le circuit et on a failli souper avec eux ce soir! On est tres bien installe! des belles chambre ds un style villa qui ns fait penser a l"Italie! On vient de finir de souper! Au boffet! bedaine pleine! On se couchera pas trop tard, on repart demain matin a 8h pour Delphes! Kalimera!

... everywhere, and in the Chaironea valley and from Lamia northwards, that means they're widening and straightening them. In the short term, however, we experienced chaos and confusion. I'm particularly susceptible to confusion and didn't recognize many turns, although I managed not to get lost with Karen's help, and, I have to conclude, that during my previous trips through this area, especially south of Domokos in central Thessalia ...

Moving right along we mounted the bus again for a long drive to Kalambaka in the northern end of central Greece. Along the way, about an hour east of Delphi, we made the required stop at wool-weavers SHOPPING emporium where we were encouraged to buy everything in the place. If the archeologist had her time in the sun for the past several days, it was now time for the bus driver's skill to take center stage. The mountainous region we traversed was aclutter with steep ...