Kastraki, Greece: Passes, Plains, and Pinnacles

Four days of cycling have passed since we left Delphi. We went up, we went down, we went across. And repeated the sequence again.  And it has brought us to a most wonderful place, where geology and human engineering meet to make something special.

We left Delphi and cycled (uphill) to Arachova, expecting only to get food but instead discovering a lovely town.  This is where many people stay when skiing at the two nearby ski resorts.  There were a fair number of upscale hotels, but also crazy small streets with steps going right down the center and an intimate town square. 

Itty bitty retired gondola cars now are a feature in a public park.

It continued uphill after Arachova, and soon we were looking down on the village and the road we came up.

The grade was moderate going up to the pass.  But long enough to let the eyes wander and to have that song that is stuck in your head repeat over and over.

An alpine valley spread out before us once we crested over the pass.

We found a picnic table next to a restaurant closed for the season with these old ski lift chairs.  The development in the valley was mostly chalet-style vacation homes and restaurants.  And it was eerily quiet -- almost all the homes were unoccupied, and many were in a state of half-finished construction.  The restaurants were either shuttered for the season or out-of-business completely.  It lacked the character of the many villages that we have passed through that have been there for centuries, with a central town square and people about.

Unexpectedly, we had another pass to get over when we left that ghost-town of a valley.  We passed through an area designated as a national park, and the fir forest was thick and deep green.  It was a quick free-fall descent to the valley in the distance.  The valley was only 15 kilometers wide or so, and we crossed through fields of alfalfa and grains to the hills on the other side, where we camped in a little olive grove.

The next morning, another short uphill, and then a spectacular winding road down to the ocean plain near Lamai.

The afternoon was field after field of alfalfa, grain, and cotton.

Honey is a treasured Greek product, and beehives dot the landscape.

Another typical roadside chapel.

And the place where you can buy one, and a bar-b-que, too.

It was easy going once we reached the broad Thessalian Plains.  We did 55 kilometers the morning our destination came into view -- the pinnacles of Meteora.  This is a UNESCO World Heritage site, where in the 16th century 24 monasteries existed.  Now only six are still functioning, and the others are in ruin.  The pinnacles are popular for rock climbing, and hiking trails connect the monasteries.  But since another high pass was in our future, and we needed to rest, we opted for a four-hour van tour that took us to four of the monasteries.  For a small fee we could go inside, along with busloads of other visitors.

The monasteries are built high atop the pinnacles, seemingly part of the rock.

Steps to the monasteries were built in the 1920's, but previously the monks were transported to their lofty residences in nets hoisted up by cables.  They still use the pulley system to bring up construction materials and other large loads.

Electricity does the work now, but the old mechanism is still on display.

The female visitors were required to wear wrap-around skirts while visiting.

Turnouts from the steep, winding road between the monasteries offered exceptional views.

Four of the six operating monasteries are visible in this view.

The formation is conglomerate of cobbles, which is different from the kilometers of limestone we have biked by so far on this trip.  It makes for a good platform for selfies, which John is graciously doing for a fellow van passenger from Singapore.

This is the famous Monastery of the Holy Trinity, which had a starring role in the James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only"...might have to watch that when we get home.

Our favorite monastery, the Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of Anapafsa.  It was not on our van tour, and many of the other tours do not stop here since it required climbing up quite a few steep steps.  So there were few visitors, and it was small and intimate, with a bell tower at the very top with tremendous views of the area.

And here is a stylized view of it on a poster on the way up.

The frescoes were very nice, and we were allowed to wander in the oddly-shaped common areas.

From the bell tower we could see the the northwest and the snow-capped mountains.  The towns of Klabaka and Kastiki are spread out below.  Tomorrow we take the second canyon from the left up and over a 1,700-meter high pass.  Oh boy.  better get to bed.