Volos is famous in legend as the place where Jason and the Argonauts started their quest for the Golden Fleece. It is now a huge city (#3 in Greece). I took an excursion to Meteora (pronounced may-tay-orah) and its famous monasteries. It was quite a long bus ride (2+ hours) and the weather was a bit rainy, but by the time we got to our destination the sun was shining and we were ready to go.
To picture a monastery, first imagine a natural stone pillar with sheer vertical sides several hundred feet high and perhaps 100 yards in diameter at the top. Now, place stone buildings and churches on top of the pillar. To supply the buildings, you lower baskets to bring up food and water.
Anyway, that’s what we saw. The first monastery we went to was the oldest one in the area (ca. 1300) and involved a climb of 150 steps or so. There are supposedly 10-20 Greek Orthodox monks living there and we saw a few wandering around on their duties. They aren’t really happy to see tourists, but it is their major source of income, so we are tolerated. The guide took us into the church buildings to see the frescos and icons. The churches are very small inside with room for at most 20 at a mass. The artwork was really incredible. Although most of it was over 600 years old, the colors were brilliant and well-preserved. We really didn’t have enough time to see as much as we would have liked since we had to move on to the second monastery on our schedule.
The next one (St. Stephen’s) was actually a nunnery. The building had been badly damaged in WWII and abandoned until the nuns took it over in 1962. They have restored (and even added to) the structure and are now repainting (not restoring) the frescos and icons. The new artwork was completely traditional Greek Orthodox, but of course the colors and gold leaf were brand-new and brilliantly colored. They had conceded to modernity enough to provide electrical lighting on some of the artwork which made it much easier to see. Once again, we didn’t have much time there and had to go on to the last event of the tour – lunch!
We had a tasty lunch with wine at a taverna at the base of the monastery mountains. The place was charming, the view was excellent, and the food was good. However, I would have preferred cold sandwiches and more time in the monasteries.