Main Land No.4 World Heritage : Meteora -2012 Greece No.20

The next stop after Delphi was Meteora.

Meteora is an area in central Greece where strict monasteries dot the cliff topography, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Complex Heritage Site.

Central Greece is surrounded by rugged mountainous terrain and is not an easy place to get to, but it is still a famous tourist mecca.

As you can see, it is a distance of 248km that takes 3 hours and 32 minutes, so we are only heading there on this day.

大きな地図で見る

Although we were hit by strong rain near Lamia on the way, we continued driving smoothly and arrived at Meteora in about 3 hours and 30 minutes as planned, just before dusk.

Today we will stay in Kalambaka, a town at the foot of Meteora.

Kalambaka is a small town, but it was crowded with tourists even in this season because Meteora, one of the most famous world heritage sites in Greece, is located there. I guess it’s more amazing in the season.

This is the hotel we will be staying at today.

From the window of the room, you can see the rock formations of Meteora. I’m a little worried about the weather. I wonder if it will recover tomorrow…

There was no restaurant in the hotel, so we went to the city for dinner. There was only this kind of janky food, though.

The next day, there were still a lot of clouds in the morning, but the forecast was for clear skies. It was obvious that we were going to recover.

Now, let’s head to Meteora. Once we pass through the town of Kalambaka, we’ll go around from the back side of the town.

After about 5 minutes, you will see this view in front of you.

You’re right, this is an amazing view!

There are about six monasteries of different sizes in Meteora.

First of all, we went to the largest monastery in Meteora, Megalo Meteoron Monastery. The photo above was taken when we stopped the car on the way to the monastery.

When we got back to the car after the exciting photo shoot, there was a kitten relaxing on the hood.

He seemed to like this position very much, so I felt a little bad to move him, so I watched him for a while. He didn’t move very much…

But in the meantime, the sky has cleared up quite a bit.

The cat finally moved on, and we drove back to the Monastery of Megalo Meteoron.

By the way, the parking lot was free though it was not so wide and many tourist buses were narrow.

It was a mystery how to get to this seemingly isolated monastery, but as you can see, there were normal stairs and we just climbed them.

We climbed up those stairs to the monastery. The monastery, Vallaam Monastery, which you can see from the stairs, is unfortunately closed on this day.

Buy a ticket at the entrance and go inside the monastery.

The inside of the monastery was designed in such a way that the guide signs were in English, but even so, it is a strict monastery and there are many places where photography is prohibited.

The atmosphere of the chapel in the monastery was more scary and eerie than solemn.

It is an Orthodox church, so there are no idols, but there are carvings and icons on the pillars.

However, although they were very beautiful and elaborate, the themes were rather cruel, such as the history of the Passion and apocalyptic things painted all over the ceiling and walls.

I was honestly confused by the atmosphere, which I had never experienced in Catholicism, but it was a very memorable and unforgettable experience.

On the other hand, you can photograph the view inside and from the terrace. Needless to say this is fabulous!

Still, when you look at it from the terrace, you can see how this place is standing on the precipice.

The next stop after Megalo Meteoron was the Monastery of Agios Stefano, which is about five minutes away by car.

The view from the road to here was also great.

Of course I parked the car and took a picture.

The Monastery of Agios Stephano is smaller than the Monastery of Megalo Meteoron, but the building is beautiful and impressive, and because of its location, it offers a better view of the city of Kalambaka below than Megalo Meteoron.