Kevin and Joannie on tour

Moving on day. Joan can never sleep well on moving on days.  Up and bolt awake by 4am, she decided to compile all our different travel blogs in to one place.  We've reverted back to Blogger for this holiday as the main site we used for 5 years "Travelpod" disappeared last year but we managed to import files from there into another blog platform "OffExploring" however that was proving unreliable at the beginning of this holiday.  Unable in a rush to find our original blog from 2007, we created a new one. However with a few spare hours to fill, we've managed to track down them all. Costa Rica 2017: https://www.offexploring.com/kevin-and-joannie-in-costa-rica Iceland 2017 https://www.offexploring.com/kevin-and-joannie-in-iceland Atacama desert 2016-17 Canada 2016 Easter Island and the Lakes 2015-16 Southern Patagonia and Malargue 2014-15 Monaco 2014 Valle Centrale 2013-14 Japan 2012 https://www.offexploring.com/kevin-and-joannie-on-to...

Varlaam from Great Meteoron  So today was our last full day here at Meteora. We're now into holiday mode as we go to bed early and in Joan's case sleep 13 hours solid.  (Kevin only slept 12 hours.)  This is why we love self-catering - no breakfast or dinner times. On the way up we bought some tacky souvenirs and Joan was delighted to replace her broken prescription sun glasses with an authentic pair of Chanel sunglasses for just12 Euros ;-) So after a leisurely breakfast our plan was to visit two monasteries, including the highest and biggest, Meteoron - sometimes referred to as Metamorphosis or the Monastery of the Transfiguration. We took outside photos yesterday but it's location is still stunning on our return. The approach was down one flight of steps across a valley bottom and then a climb up to the kiosk.  It was busy but as it is bigger than all the other monasteries, it didn't seem quite so hectic. There was the obligatory winch and bas...

Holy Tinity When we arrived in Meteora, the English speaking host of the villa said, if you've seen two or three of the monasteries, you will get the idea. The guidebooks say you can do all six in one day, though this ambition is often confounded as the monasteries close on different days of the week.  We're here for three whole days, so decided to do only a couple a day.  Plus the idea of having to get up early and have a rushed breakfast to then dash around six different places in 8 hours does not fit in well with our holiday ontological disposition.  Plus having a leisurely time means we have been able to work out how Kevin's new fangled camera works - at least some of it! So today we headed back up and visited the first of the day's monasteries, Verlaam.  Initially we drove past it to get some shots of it from the Great Meteoro monastery which was closed for the day. The Verlaam monastery is reached by a bridge and a winding staircase.  It was on...

Holy Trinity monastery as seen in For Your Eyes Only So we slept in today and awoke at 9.40 am local time.  Breakfast was fairly minimal - square Gouda slices in white toasting bread - because that's all they had at the Mini-Market. By the time we had got ourselves organised to go out, it was thundering and raining.  As we left our hosts shouted to us from the bar opposite where they were drinking "Schnapps" with other villagers. It had already gone twelve. Undeterred by the weather and without rainwear, we headed up to Meteora. The roads are good and well signposted if you read Greek.  Luckily Joan was forced to do classical studies at Covent and for laughs was taught to learn the Greek alphabet.  This was possibly the first time ever this had come in handy. The circuit of the monasteries is not that far to drive.  It is also noticeable that the few monasteries and nunnery which survive to this day are the most accessible. There is a circuit which cove...