Stairways to Heaven

Our final few days in Greece took us to the central mainland of the country, as far as the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly. When Lon was doing his research into Greece and what he might want to include in an itinerary, he was fascinated by the pictures that he saw of monasteries built on the top of pillar-like rock formations in the area known as Meteora. It is at least a four-and-a-half-hour drive from Athens to Meteora, so the main question was how it would fit into our visits to the other places that were finding their way onto our "we want to include this" list. In the end, the solution turned out to be quite simple. Meteora has become the second most visited mainland tourist attraction in Greece, surpassed only by the Acropolis. With this kind of popularity, and with us having decided that we wanted to leave the driving to other people, it was no problem to find companies willing and able to sell us a tour package that would leave from, and return to, Athens. It's possible to do a day trip to Meteora from Athens, but a 12 or 13-hour experience, spent mostly on a bus, held no appeal at all. We settled on a 4-day/3-night package that gave us 2 hotel nights in Meteora, and on our way back to Athens, a one-night stop in the ancient Greek "center of the world," Delphi. It was a much more leisurely prospect, and I really enjoyed being able to leave most of the trip arrangements with someone else.

With an 8 a.m. departure from the Athens rail station on Saturday morning, September 14, we were up bright and early. Up until September 2023, the package would have included a train ride from Athens to Kalambaka, one of the towns adjacent to Meteora, but bad floods in Greece last year damaged a portion of the railroad track that has yet to be fixed, so vans and buses are the alternative for all current tours. We were happy to find ourselves on a small-size bus that accommodated only about 20 passengers, rather than on one of several much larger buses that were also heading to Meteora that day. 

The drive to Meteora included a stop for snacks and a photo stop at Thermopylae, primarily 
known for a battle that took place in 480 BC, where the narrow mountain pass allowed a small
 group of Greeks to temporarily hold off a much larger invading Persian army. The monument
is to Leonidas, King of the 300 Spartans who died in the battle.

Although Greece is mostly mountainous, the rock formations at Meteora are unusual. They are not volcanic in origin, but are the product of eons of seismic activity and erosion. Their unusual features have turned Meteora into a present-day rock climber's mecca. 

A drive or walk among the rocks presents ever-changing, otherworldly views.

The first monks arrived in Meteora in the 9th or 10th century AD and laid the foundation for the monastic community that would develop over the next several centuries. These monks were hermits, and they lived their lives in natural caves in the rock walls. 

The hermit monks didn't settle all the way at the top, but they did have to
 find ways to get as far off the ground as they did. The hermit caves
 of Badovas, pictured in the lower photo, are found in the lower third of
 the rock wall pictured in the upper photo. Note the remnants of ladders. 

Beginning in the 14th century, a different type of monk arrived. They weren't interested in living the solitary life of a hermit monk, but sought a monastic life built around the idea of community. It was at this point that the big monasteries began to be built. The construction challenges were enormous. Until the 16th century, the "stairways to heaven" were, in fact, wooden ladders. The 16th century "advancement" in moving people and goods upward was a net attached to a winch mechanism contained within a tower at the monastery entrance. Fortunately for us--and the millions of annual Meteora visitors--we didn't have to swing from a net to access the monasteries, but could use the staircases that were built after WWII.

The 16th century was the peak of monastic life in Meteora, with the largest number of monks and the biggest number of active monasteries. From the 17th century onward, the monasteries were in decline. Out of 24 monasteries that used to exist, only 6 active monasteries remain that are open for visits. Two of the monasteries are now convents with nuns--about 50 nuns in total--and about 17 monks live in the 4 remaining male monasteries. Meteora is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We participated in two guided tours when we were in Meteora. The first took place on the day of our arrival in Meteora and was labelled as a "sunset tour." It was mostly a driving tour in a small bus, with brief stops for photo opportunities, an extended stop to visit one of the monasteries, and a final stop to watch the sun set on Meteora. It gave us a good overview of the area, but we enjoyed our next tour much more. On Sunday morning, September 15, we took part in a walking tour of Meteora. We got a chance to get away from the bus crowds while "stretching our legs" on the walking trails through--and up, definitely up--some of the Meteora hills. Our tour guide was engaging, and there were only 7 participants, a blissful break from the crowds of the day before. 

Taking a break as we made our way down the
hill toward our hiking tour finish. The bridge was
the easiest part of the trail, which otherwise was
steep and "paved" with oddly shaped stones. Very
tricky. I was having visions of falling and
breaking my hand again, so I borrowed a walking
 stick from the tour guide and that helped immensely.

In this "overview view", three of the active monasteries are visible, one at the lower left
quadrant, and two in the upper right quadrant.

The six monasteries:

The Holy Trinity Monastery. Founded in the 14th C, 
abandoned in the early 20th C, but re-opened after
renovation. The monastery appears in the 1981 James
Bond film, "For Your Eyes Only." 

The Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas has the lowest elevation
of any of the monasteries, and may have served as a resting place
for those continuing on to the other monasteries.

The Holy Monastery of Roussanou. It is one of the
two convents in Meteora.

The Monastery of Saint Stephen, now a convent. We visited this 
monastery during our "sunset tour." Like all the monasteries, there is a 
3-euro entry fee and a strict dress code for both men and women--no
 bare shoulders and no exposed knees. For women, the knees have to be
covered by a skirt. It's the only monastery of the six that
 doesn't require climbing stairs to enter.

The Holy Monastery of Varlaam, the second biggest monastery of Meteora.

The Monastery of Great Meteoron, the largest and the oldest of the six. We visited this
monastery as part of our hiking tour.

Just a portion of the staircase leading up to the entrance of
the Great Meteoron. It was a busy day for visitors, perhaps
not unusual for a Sunday.

You can just see the Monastery of Varlaam between us. It wasn't
far from the Great Meteoron, just the "next big rock over."

Sunset over Meteora with "500 of our closest friends". It was difficult finding a flat place
to stand, and forget about trying to sit. For as pretty as the view was, the crush of people
made it one of our least favorite experiences in Meteora.

The Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, found in the
old part of the town of Kalambaka, and seemingly the only
old building remaining after WWII devastated the rest of
the town (and damaged the monasteries as well.) The current
church was erected between the 10th and 11th centuries,
although excavations in the floor show a mosaic from an earlier
building. The exterior walls incorporate artistic fragments from
 Roman-era buildings. Interesting interior--but no photos allowed!

The Holy Monastery of Ypapanti, first established 
in the 14th century, was fully constructed inside a
rock cavity. It had been renovated, but is now 
abandoned. 

The simple pleasures: in exchange for the bits of
chicken I brought back from restaurants, or a
breakfast sausage, this adorable kitten consented
to spend time on my lap purring and sleeping.

After our two days in Meteora with its miles and miles of walking, including some serious changes in altitude up to Meteora hilltops and back down again, on September 14 we were whisked by private transport to the town of Delphi. The route was primarily on two lane roads and was stunningly beautiful at times. We again had a short stop in Thermopylae, but by lunchtime we were at our hotel. It was too early to check in, but we could leave the luggage, go to lunch, and visit the archeological site in Delphi.

Modern Delphi is a small town filled with guesthouses, small hotels, and restaurants. The archeological site of Delphi, just outside the town limits, sits at the base of Mount Parnassos. It had the most famous oracle of ancient Greece and was regarded as the center of the world. In mythology, two eagles were sent out by Zeus to find the "navel of the world." Delphi was where they met, and for centuries--starting in about the 8th C BC and continuing through the Roman era until abolished by Theodosius in the 4th C AD--it was a cultural and religious center of Greece. The Oracle of Delphi, believed to deliver prophecies from the Greek god Apollo, was considered as the most reliable of the Greek oracles and was consulted on both private and public matters. It reached its peak of influence between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC. 

The archeological studies in Delphi began in 1860, initially by the Germans, and supplemented in the 1890's by the French. There are two sanctuaries in ancient Delphi, the one at higher elevation devoted to Apollo, and one at lower elevation devoted to Athena. But first, we made a stop at the archeological museum, which preserves and displays many of the important finds from the Delphi digs.

On the approach to the museum and the archeological sites.

Left: The Sphinx of Naxos was erected next to the Temple of Apollo.
Right: The bronze statue of a charioteer from the 5th C BC. It likely
survived being melted down--a common fate for many ancient 
bronze creations--because it was buried under a rock fall.

Looking at the ancient Delphi site from a perspective near the site entrance. There was
going to be a lot of "up" involved in wandering the site.

Upper: a portion of the Temple of Apollo, the main site of Delphi and
from where the oracle made her predictions.
Lower: At the top of the amphitheater, looking down at the Temple of
Apollo and the valley beyond.

A portion of the omphalos--the navel of the world,
the symbol that Delphi was the center of the universe.

In legend, the Sibyl Rock was that from which the earliest high
priestess of Delphi proclaimed her prophecies.

Fun and (athletic) games were all part of the Delphi experience. At
the highest point to which we could climb was this
stadium at which the contests were held.

The Athenian Treasury, the only restored building on the Delphi
site. It was not a temple, but was used to store the offerings of
money and precious objects that were being presented to the 
gods. Several other city-states also built treasuries at Delphi.

From the heights of the Apollo sanctuary in Delphi
can be seen the ruins of the Sanctuary of Athena 
Pronaia (lower-level, mid-photo).

The circular temple, a tholos, at the site of the Sanctuary of
Athena Pronaia, less than a mile east of the main ruins in Delphi.

Several restaurants in Delphi had views to the Gulf of Corinth,
including the place we had dinner to finish out our day. 

Tuesday, September 17, was essentially an all-day travel day for us and immersion in the joys of public transportation. Late morning we caught an intercity bus from Delphi that took us to one of the bus stations in Athens. We managed to find the bus stop--thank goodness for directions from a helpful bus driver--from which to catch the express bus to the Athens Airport, and then took a local bus to the nearby town where our accommodations waited. Finding the perfect "night before flight" place to stay is always a challenge, and this place was just OK, but at least it was only a 10-minute drive from the airport and the owner of the apartment we stayed at provided the service (for a fee, of course). The remainder of the return to the boat in Auxonne was fine--the flight to Paris and the subsequent trains operated perfectly. 

We are now in the final stages of our preparation to return to Florida. We leave the boat for an airport hotel on Monday the 30th, and our flight back to the U.S. is October 1. The first few days back in France were sunny, so we were able to get our outside chores--especially the touch-up paint--mostly done. We went through withdrawal from the lack of stairs to climb. Ian and Lisette were in port, so we had a few get-togethers with them before they returned to Australia. We've been mostly inside the past two days, as it's been quite wet. Fall has arrived.

City States

After one last leisurely breakfast drinking in the view from the terrace of the Amfitriti Palazzo, we turned the rental car north towards Athens on Wednesday, September 11. Because the rental car wasn't due at the airport until 2 p.m., we had time for a stop along the way at the site of the ancient city of Corinth. 

After 800 BC, following the collapse of the Mycenean civilization around 1200 BC and the subsequent Greek "Dark Ages", the city-state, consisting of an urban center and the surrounding countryside, developed as the unit of the community structure of ancient Greece. Ultimately, there were over one thousand city-states with their ever-shifting alliances, but the "Big 3" were Athens, the world's first known democracy and a center of education and art; militaristic Sparta; and Corinth, a thriving port city and center of trade and commerce on the isthmus that bridged the Peloponnesian Peninsula and central Greece. Corinth had its heyday in the 5th and 6th centuries BC, was destroyed by Romans in the 2nd C BC, and was rebuilt under Julius Caesar in the mid-1st C BC to become the capitol of Roman Greece. Present-day Corinth is a small city about 3 miles distant from ancient Corinth.

Archeological excavations of the ancient site of Corinth began in 1896, conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and are ongoing. We very much enjoyed our visit to the site. It was as fascinating in its way as Mycenae, but might not be as well-known on the tourism circuit, because the number of visitors was decidedly less at Corinth than what we had seen at Mycenae.

The archeology museum at ancient Corinth had a wonderful
mix of finds from the Greek, Byzantine, and Roman eras.

The ornate architectural style known as the "Corinthian order"
is named for the city of Corinth. Whether it actually originated
in the city is not completely clear.

A small portion of ancient Corinth. Rising in the background is the hill upon which sits the
acropolis of Corinth, the Acrocorinth. The fortress had a secure water supply and was the last
line of defense in southern Greece because of its commanding position on the Isthmus. It would
have been nice to have visited it, but we just didn't have the time that day.

Corinth is part of Saint Paul's Cultural Route. In one of his
trips to Corinth, Paul spent a year and a half (in 51-52 AD)
 working as a tent maker and preaching in the city. 

The fountain of Peirene, which started life as a simple spring, but
was architecturally "dressed up" by the Romans. In Greek myth, it
was said to be the place where the winged horse Pegasus came to
drink and was tamed. 

The Temple of Apollo (with Acrocorinth in the background). The
current temple is from the Roman renovations of the 6th C BC
Greek temple, one of the few Greek buildings that survived the 
Roman destruction of Corinth in the 2nd C BC.

The Roman Odeum of ancient Corinth held about 3000
spectators for performances of music and rhetoric. Constructed
in the 1st C AD as befitting a city that was now central to Roman
administration of Greece, it was ultimately destroyed and 
abandoned in the 4th C AD.

On to Athens then.

The coastal road had a few tunnels.

With the car returned with 30 minutes to spare, it was an easy feat to take the Athens metro into the center of the city, and a 10-minute walk got us to our apartment in the Kolonaki neighborhood. Most of the metro lines we traveled on during our brief stay in Athens, and the stations they served, felt new, and they were new compared to metros we've traveled in other cities. Athens opened a single line in 1869, and it remained as such prior to a huge expansion starting in 1991 to add two additional lines. The project was designed to get people out of their cars and decrease the smog level in Athens, but also to prepare the city for the 2004 Olympic Games. The project also was, in effect, the largest program of archeological excavations ever carried out in Greece, and builders had to agree to adopt special measures to deal with artifacts that were sure to be discovered when the digging started. 50,000-plus artifacts were recovered during construction and several of the metro stations have displays of some of these finds. 

The display cabinets in the Panepistimiou station, which was
closest to our apartment in Athens, contain various grave goods
recovered from a series of excavations near the metro station.

The juxtaposition of the old and the new(ish): a train on the
original Metro Line 1 passes by a collection of ancient artifacts
immediately adjacent to the track. We ate lunch on Thursdsay
just across the street from this area. The park-like Athens Agora
is the treed area on the other side of the railway track, and the
Acropolis can be seen in the left of the photo just above the trees.

Airbnb type places are somewhat unpredictable, but our apartment turned out to be clean, spacious, quiet, a reasonable walk from the metro--and it had the best Italian restaurant (il Postino) in the ground level of the building, where we had a relaxing dinner that evening (and two days later on our last night in town). We then proceeded to overdo it the next day.

The Athens Acropolis site has reservation system for entry. I couldn't get the first time slot of the day for Thursday the 12th (and it wasn't available on the 13th either), so to try to avoid the worst of the midday heat and crowds, we were booked for a 5:00-6:00 p.m. entry. All well and good, but we started out sightseeing soon after 9 a.m. and covered a lot of ground before our Acropolis reservation.

The Changing of the Guard at Greece's Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier takes place at the top of every hour. We were inadvertently
lucky to catch the Presidential Guard going through their paces
 as we made our way to the metro station at Syntagma Square.

We had purchased a combo ticket that included admission to the Acropolis as well as 6 additional archeological sites, so we started our day with the Keramikos Ancient Cemetery. In ancient times it was the quarter where ceramic pottery was produced, but also the site of an important cemetery and numerous funerary grave mounds and monuments along the "Sacred Way". Organized burials date from about 1200 BC. Excavations had begun in this area in 1870--and were ongoing--but the metro expansion project in the area uncovered much in a relatively short period of time. 

Another spread out site with lots of foundations.

The museum on the site has the most extensive collection of 
burial-related artifacts in Greece. A ban in 317 BC on lavish
and imposing funerary monuments (such as at left) resulted
in much more toned-down gravestones (right).

After lunch we tackled the Ancient Athens Agora, first developed as a public site of administrative, commercial, political, and social activity in the 6th C BC. Socrates was philosophical here; Saint Paul came to preach at the synagogue. 

A view over the agora from the Temple of Hephaestus. The hill of the Acropolis is
at upper right.

Lon is perhaps pondering the history that surrounds him, but
more likely he is looking at his feet to avoid tripping on all
the loose stones and random steps that made walking through
the agora and other ancient archeological sites such a challenge.
At upper right is the 10th C AD Church of the Holy Apostles.

The Temple of Hephaestus, built around 450 BC during Pericles' building
program to rebuild sanctuaries in Athens. It was dedicated to Hephaestus,
 the Greek god of fire, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom, strategy and
 crafts. Interestingly, for much of its existence--from the 7th to 19th
centuries AD--it served as an Orthodox church dedicated to Saint George.

Finding our way to various sites meant dealing
with tourist crowds along this street lined with
restaurants and shops.

The library portion of the Library of Hadrian, built in Roman
Forum style in 132 AD. In Byzantine times, 3 churches were
built at the site (and whose foundations were visible). I hope
all the papyri books were returned; any accumulated late fees
would be enormous.

The Romans built an agora in Athens in the latter part of the 1st C BC. The site incorporated
the existing building at left, known as the "Tower of the Winds." It is of Greek construction,
 and is usually dated to around 50 BC. Its name comes from the eight large reliefs of wind gods
around the top. It is the only surviving clock tower from classical antiquity--it formerly
 contained a large water clock, and incorporated sundials on its exterior faces.

It was still only mid-afternoon at this point and too early for our Acropolis visit, so after wandering the narrow streets of the Plaka, one of the oldest neighborhoods of Athens, we stopped at a shady cafe for something to drink.

Customer beware: space being at a premium, the cafe's outdoor
tables were placed into every available space. If that meant having
to saw off some wood to shorten the leg of a chair so that an
inconveniently placed step could be accommodated, so be it.
Scoot forward at your own risk. 

Finally! It was late enough to start our trek uphill to the entrance to the Acropolis, beginning with long and steep flights of stairs from Plaka, followed by sloping walking paths.

Before we lined up for the Acropolis, we climbed to the top of Areopagus Hill. In classical times,
"Mars Hill" was the site of an Athenian judicial court. Probably most of its current draw for
visitors--aside from the view--is that it is the place where Saint Paul gave a speech about "the
unknown god" to the Athenians (Acts 17: 16-34). 

We were dismayed by the length of the line that was developing for the 5-6 p.m. time slot at the Acropolis. However, a few minutes before 5 they started letting people in and the line actually moved pretty quickly.

Once we passed the entry to the Acropolis, we still had some
climbing to do. We could look down on one side of the path
and see the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, a restored Roman
theater still used for concerts and other performances.

The not-so-fun part: managing steps and crowds to access
the very top of the Acropolis hill.

The Erechtheion, or Temple of Athena Polias, a building
that could have been a part of Pericles' building projects. One
mark of distinction is its porch (far left) with six female
Caryatids. The sculptures in place are copies; five of the
 originals are in the Acropolis Museum of Athens and the sixth
is in the British Museum in London.

The Parthenon, probably the most recognized of the buildings on the Acropolis, is undergoing
restoration. Constructed in the 5th C BC, it was a temple to Athena. The building has been damaged
in various ways at various times: the Ottomans used it as a munitions dump in the 1600's and in 
1687 a Venetian bomb landed there and set off an explosion; British Lord Elgin removed a number of
sculptures from the building in the early 1800's (and the Greeks are anxious to have them back); and
some of the early restoration efforts did more harm than good and need to be corrected.

Seeing the Temple of Olympian Zeus from the Acropolis saved
us the effort of an on-site visit. It took over 600 years to finish
construction on the huge temple. Sixteen of the original 104
colossal columns remain, and most of those 16 were under 
scaffold, so we didn't feel as though we were missing much. The
 column laying in pieces on the ground fell during a storm in 1852.

We spotted this offset chunk of column on the way out. Perhaps
there needs to be some scaffold in its future.

With no metro station particularly close, we made our way downhill and somehow back to the apartment. It turned out to be the "high point" of the entire trip, at least as far as distance walked in one day. Ten miles. No wonder I was too tired to eat that evening. We vowed to do less the following day, and we actually managed to keep to that vow.

On Friday, September 13, we avoided some things BC and early AD. We lounged around until mid-morning, then took a leisurely stroll to the Panathenaic Stadium. It is a marble stadium of the 2nd C AD that was excavated in 1869, significantly rebuilt, and was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the first modern Olympics in 1896. It is the only stadium in the world built entirely of marble.

Upper: Panathenaic Stadium being prepped for an event. Yes, we did
climb up to the very last row.   Lower: The stadium in 1896.

Passageway for athletes and to access a
small museum.

The stadium is the last venue in Greece for the handover of the
Olympic flame to the host nation. At center, the Olympic
cauldron used in this ceremony in Athens.

The Olympic torches and other memorabilia
from various Olympic games.

Next, a quick stop at the First Cemetery of Athens, which is the Greek equivalent of Highgate Cemetery in London and Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Fascinating for me, not so much for Lon (but he's learned to put up with that particular foible of mine). It is the official cemetery of the City of Athens, open since 1837, and is a prestigious "final address" for Greeks and foreigners.

The fancy and oft-times familial . . . 

. . . and some which have seen better days.

Lon waited for me on a bench in the cemetery's entry courtyard while I wandered. I didn't make him wait too long before retrieving him and making our way to lunch. 

Food photos aren't usually my "thing", but I loved the salads
in Greece so much. France, I like you a lot, but you could
learn a thing or two about salads from the Greeks.

For our last stop of the day, we decided to go to the viewing platform at the top of Lycabettus Hill, the highest point in the center of Athens. We treated ourselves to the "easy" travel options to get there--a taxi from our lunch restaurant to the funicular station at the bottom of Lycabettus Hill. In restrospect, opting for the funicular back down would have saved my knees a few tweaks, but such is life.

Lycabettus Hill from below. It also shows up in the previous 
photo in this posting that was taken from Areopagus Hill.

It's all about the views. Had we walked up the hill, we
would undoubtedly have looked totally wilted.

Upper: the view of Athens with the Acropolis.
Lower: Zooming in on the Acropolis.

A few hours of rest and relaxation at the apartment followed by dinner at Il Postino felt like the perfect way to end our time in Athens. We felt like we did a lot, but there was obviously a lot more that could have been done had our stay been longer. I don't know that either of us would say that we loved Athens, but maybe the heat dampened our enthusiasm somewhat; it certainly sapped our energy.  At any rate, time to move on to monks in Meteora and a day in Delphi.