Tuesday, June 29--Meteora Monasteries and return to Athens

The sandstone pillars on which stand the monasteries are located on the northwestern edge of the plain of Thessaly and are a UNESCO World Heritage site. There is a list of the monasteries functioning today and more pictures of them here. Built in the 1500's for the most part, only one of them is inhabited by nuns, St. Stephen.  This is the approach to St. Stephen, our first stop.

And this is a little garden tucked below the causeway entrance to the monastery.


There was also a small vineyard maintained here.

As with all the monasteries we visited, there was such a sense of peacefulness to these places--in spite of the tourists tramping all over.

Next we went to the monstery of St. Varlaam, the first one built and the 2nd largest.

Today, all of the monasteries are now accessible by steps cut into the rocks...

But originally, many of them were only accessible via ladders or rope baskets. Here, our tour leader Joy shows off one such rope basket.

And this is the cliff up which the basket, with people or cargo inside, was hauled.

After Meteora, we headed back to Athens for a final meal together as a group before everyone, except us and one other group member (Wendy), would leave the following morning.