Best of Greece and 7 Day Aegean Cruise
Day Seven – 17 Sept 2009
Weather – Chased by rain clouds from Kalambaka to Athens, 30 degrees
Have I said I love these really hard Greek beds?
Okay, let me say it again. I’ve never slept so well. I’ll be checking into getting one when I get home.
We were up a little earlier today in order to beat the other buses to the first monastery at Meteora.
We left at 8:10 and drove up to a lookout where we got an amazing view of the rock forest, including the pillar that was in the James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only.
As the sun hide behind the hazy clouds, we drove up to the first monastery of St. Stephens. The Insight bus had beaten us there, but we were second. Joanna told us we could loiter around to take pictures, but if a third bus arrived, we had to gather near the gate which was at the bottom of a wide bridge. The gate opened by itself at nine and we walked into the monastery.
Inside the first building was a selection of wrap-around skirts which we all tied on. Not exactly my most flattering moment. Joanna gave us a tour of two or three rooms that were filled with paintings. In one room, two painters were in the process of painting more scenes. It was interesting to watch them work on the detail while Joanna spoke about the rest of the scenes, which was likely interesting to those who are interested in the religious aspects.
I found a cat.
After almost an hour, we weaved our way through several other groups waiting to get into the tight spaces. Outside there must have been a dozen buses, but Nikos managed to squeeze through and we drove to another lookout for more pictures.
We stood on an outcropping with no barriers whatsoever and a shear drop off the edge. (Not a spot to come if you’re feuding with a spouse…it was a long ways down). The view was magnificent.
From the outcropping, we walked down then up to the next monastery and repeated the same type of talk. I didn’t even get the name of this one, but the views were great.
After about forty minutes, we walked down to the bus that was waiting on the road just as it started to rain.
Great timing.
We drove back to the Amalia for a quick bathroom break and then started the long drive back to Athens through plains and mountains. The rain chased us most of way, catching up to us when we would stop and then we’d leave it in our dust as we moved on. We stopped at the roadside diner for lunch and I had a pretty good chicken in pasta. The next stop was just a bathroom break, and on the way, we saw the Athens water supply and the site of the battle of Marathon (so we knew we were about 42 km from Athens centre).
Soon after, we met the dreaded late afternoon Athens traffic. It took us about an hour to get to the hotel and we arrived just before seven. It started to pour rain as the bus pulled in, and Moerig, the Trafalgar rep in Athens, got on to tell us our timings. She also noted that the only time it has rained all week was when she was with us.
Yeah. Rain loves me.
About half the group opted for the farewell dinner, but if I had known how tired I would be, I think I would have skipped it. The drive to Psiri took almost a half hour – most of that because the driver had to travel quite a distance in the wrong direction just to turn the bus around.
The optional was 49 Euro and while the food was good, it was not worth that much. I could see why so many people skip this optional. Worst part was that the rain meant we had to eat indoors where the Greeks were allowed to smoke, and after a couple hours, it was getting hard to breath. It was after eleven before we got back to the hotel where I slipped into a coma.
Tomorrow about thirty-one of us would join the seven day cruise and our tour director was George! My room was on the seventh deck, so….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
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