Meteora Monasteries

Like Makrynitsa, Meteora demonstrates the way the Greeks rise to the challenge of living in this physically challenging country.  The monks wanted to be where no one would bother them and they could dedicate themselves to prayer, but yikes, this was surely overkill...

You can see one of the monasteries right at the top of the rock above the church.

Here is one we drove past.  There is a chasm between the road I was on and the monastery.

To get up in the old days, you rode in a basket on a pulley from this tower. Pretty safe from unwanted visitors.

Looking down from one of the stairs.

This is still used to get people across.

Here is the new basket.  Still used to get stuff up.

People used to raise the net with this, which is still amazingly easy to turn.

Today it is motorized.

One last view.