Kalambaka

View from our hotel window to the Meteroa

We're visiting the 14th century monasteries sitting on top of the "suspended rocks" in the Meteora area of Greece. Our first stop was St. Stephen's monastery built in 1300, burnt in 1941 and then rebuilt. It is a typical Greek Orthodox church with a Narthex for those yet to be baptized, the Nave (boat) with a dome above (heaven) and a sacristy hidden by a wall of icons and finely carved wood. The whole church is covered with icons. The Narthex was quite gruesome showing many martyrs and the last judgment. The Nave was filled with stories from the New Testament especially the Transformation and the Resurrection. An interesting belief is that the face of Christ in all their icons is based off the Shroud of Turin and the face of Mary from an icon painted by St. Luke.

St. Stephan's

We also visited the Monastery of St. Barbara with a similar church but the icons were the originals from the 14th century. There are 4 other existing monasteries and ruins of several others.

In the afternoon we traveled the 400 km. back to Athens and ended up having dinner about 9:30 PM, just like the Greeks. In all we've traveled 1400 km. in the last 4 days.