We reach Meteora the most significant monastic centre in Greece after Mount Athos and is a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site. Monasticism began here in the 11th century reaching its peak in the 13th and 14th centuries when many devotees chose the ascetic life.
There are six operating monasteries. I have visited two of them on a previous visit so I am here again for the second time and dearest F for the third time for the visuals which are stunning with the monasteries perched high up on the rocks.
Perhaps the most famous monastery would be the Great Meteoron founded in 1340 by Saint Athanasios on the highest rock. As we approach the monastery dozens of cars and a multitude of tourist buses line the edges of the road. Short tempered drivers arrive at the entrance and head back down the road realizing parking is nonexistent. There must be several hundred visitors waiting on steep stairs to enter the monastery. It is an immediate turn off. No way dearest F and I want to wait to see what we have previously seen. The visuals are stunning enough thank you. This monastery is not besieged by Ottomans but by an excess of tourists in a space that can’t adequately manage them. What is the answer? Strict control over entry to the area such as issuing a limited number of visiting permits to tourist buses? I hear later from a local it is best to visit the other 5 monasteries with less crowding.
In any case T and I had booked an off-road self driving buggy tour of Meteora with Meteora Off-Road Adventures, so we drop them off in town and walk about for a few hours. A rather commercial town with very little charm as tourist buses roar and twist through it.
We sit down on a bench outside a school and watch some children playing one teasing a small stray dog upsetting dearest F as he is bothering a stray dog for no better reason than bothering the poor thing and in her politest Greek explains to the little fellow the error of his ways! There are a couple of women with headscarves sitting nearby watching their children. Immigration to Greece long ago spilled over from Athens. We discover some quiet local restaurants a bit off the main street but dining in town appears limited.
We stop at a bakery café and have a perfect spanakopita a traditional spinach pie and a pastelis a sesame seed honey bar. There are a few tourists about including a few Japanese tourists. Why no Chinese tourists? Come to think about it I can’t recall encountering any Chinese tourists on this entire trip. There are also scant Americans in comparison to previous trips to Greece perhaps fearful of the impression President Trump has inflicted upon Europe.
I note as I look across the way from the bakery where I am sitting a huge rock formation in the distance with two white crosses on the cliff face to mark the deaths of rock climbers. Meteora with its huge rock formations is a rock climber’s dream except for those who perish.
We sit at a sports café drinking a portacalada an orange drink until dusty and tired T and I arrive from their offroad adventure which they inform us was fabulous.
Time to head to our hotel which is not in Meteora and from what I have seen of the town I am happy to be leaving it.
