Meteora Panoramic views

After visiting Agios Stefanos monastery and hiking back down to our hotel to pick up the car, we set off on an anti-clockwise circuit of the UNESCO heritage site.

Agia Trias (Holy Trinity) Monastery   

Our aims were both to visit the other monasteries and to stop at some of the panoramic viewpoints. The first stop along the road gave us a good view across to the Agia Trias (Holy Trinity) Monastery, to which we had earlier climbed up, with Kalabaka in the valley beyond.

(From left to right) Agios Nikolaos, Roussanou, Megalo Meteora and Varlaam, all blending surprisingly
well into the background rocks    

A little further on we climbed out onto some rocks, from where we had a view of the other 4 active monasteries.

Megalo Meteora (left) and Varlaam (right) monasteries   

Agios Nikolaos (left) and Roussanou (right) monasteries    

High up were Varlaam and Megalo Meteora, whilst looking down into the valley we could see Agios Nikolaos and Roussanou. The latter is closed on Wednesdays so we wouldn’t be able to visit it but we aimed to achieve 5 out of the 6.

Roussanou monastery (foreground). Background (left to right) Agios Nikolaos, Megalo Meteora
and Varlaam monasteries    

From the next vantage point you could still see the other 4 monasteries…

… but it was a much better viewpoint to see the pinnacle rocks. Apparently all the stacks are named but though our maps had a few names on them, they didn’t all match up.  There are now just 6 active monasteries but in previous centuries there were up to 26, all built on the rock stacks. Some of the ruins can still be seen as can some of the caves that were previously the homes of hermits.

From this vantage point we were fortunate to see the monks’ cable car from Megalo Meteora cross to the plateau. We hadn’t been expecting to see one in action as we had assumed that they don’t get used that much. However, we actually saw this one make several crossings.

Roussanou   

Varlaam – note basket hoist balcony (top right) as well as the bridge
and the rock stairway    

From our lunchtime picnic spot [Ed: fortunately, under the shade of a sort of viewpoint pagoda] we had a grand view. From the edge of the rock we could look down on Roussanou and from the other side we could see up to Varlaam. There were lots of coaches parked on the road outside – clearly it is a very popular place to visit. So, fed, watered and generally fortified for the afternoon’s step-climbing, we went to join the thronging hoards at the entrance to Varlaam.

Meteora, Greece