Meteora day 4

I am up at 6:30 am blogging...most of you know

I am not a morning person. Something about the

time difference, or maybe my excitement about

the day's sites to see.

These pics are from our day in Meteora. The kitten

was napping on my stroll through the town of

Kalambaka, which is where we stayed. It was

a charming town, and I enjoyed walking all through

it.

Then there are the photos of the holy Meteora region.

It is so hard to describe. There are these huge rocks,

results of erosion, that loom over the landscape, and

look other worldly. And miraculously, perched on top

of these bizarre rock formations, are these ancient

buildings: monasteries built by the monks in the

17th century or so. There are six altogether, and we

toured 2, currently run as convents by Greek Orthodox

nuns. fascinating. You must climb a number of

steps to get there, and all of the supplies, building

materials, etc were brought up by ropes, pullies,

baskets. unbelievable

The chapels are decorated with frescoes or paintings

of the life of Christ. The nuns rise at 4:30 to the

sound of someone tapping on the long wooden board

that is supposed to imitate the sounds aboard the

Ark. The Ark is a symbol of refuge and salvation,

and they feel that is their life as well. They pray for

four hours, then do the work of the convent for the

rest of the day until the afternoon prayers, again for

four hours. amazing devotion, so humbling to me

I am resizing the photos so they can load faster. I

know they look small...hopefully you can click on

them to enlarge some. We are off to do a walking

tour of Corfu this morning, and I will post some

pics tonight of this beautiful city.

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