A rest day today…after a fairly tough five days…for Iain in particular! His legs – & bum – have been suffering!
But we are in Meteora….an extraordinary landscape…with extraordinary monasteries perched atop these monstrous rock formations (apparently enabling them to keep the Turks at bay!)….so – after a lazy start – we had to break the cardinal rule of not biking on rest days…to go and explore.
It is almost Pythonesque…not just building a monastery in the most inaccessible, inhospitable place imaginable…but…”not just one…..go and build 24”…! And so they did…the monks from Athos…in the 14th/15th century. All accessed by rope ladders which could be raised in the event of impending hostility…until as recently the 1920’s when steps were carved to allow slightly easier access!! Six are still used (two by nuns, four by monks…) and are visitable.
Altogether extraordinary….so I will simply let the pictures tell the story (not classic pics..but all the same…!)
We only actually visited one….
Thanks for the monastery shots Neil, as you note: extraordinary. I had a quick look on line at the actual monasteries at Mt Athos and some of those are pretty impressive too albeit not with quite the construction challenges of those at Meteora!
WOW!!! Absolutely remarkable!!!!