Thursday, 18th July 2019
It was a peaceful morning we woke up to – Dhoupiani House lies just outside the village of Kastraki just under the Meteora hence as soon as I woke up, I opened our wooden shuttered doors to our balcony to witness the colours of the majestic rocks.
We went down for breakfast which we took outside in the tree shaded garden – it was so pleasant! The buffet breakfast was set up indoors and one of the staff greeted us and explained all the appetizing dishes laid out – fresh Greek yoghurt from the local farm and honey to go with it. Fresh fruit from the garden, home made jams and conserves, home made cakes and pastries – a pity we were staying only one night as we just could not taste everything in just the one breakfast…….
After breakfast, I finished writing yesterday’s blog in the garden while we saw most of the guests disappearing for their day’s activities. We were the last ones to leave but that wasn’t bad as Gerry enjoyed his smoke and I finished my blog while listening to relaxing classical music. Dhoupiani House is certainly recommended if one is travelling to the Meteora……
Our first mission for the day was to visit one of the monasteries – and us being relaxed pensioners, we were not prepared to climb hundreds of steps so the receptionist recommended that we visit the monastery of St. Stephen – actually it’s a nunnery and open to the public on certain days. Well we also discovered that some monasteries had cable cars to transport people and goods across – the Monastery of the Holy Trinity which was on our way and closed today had such a cable car – I had joked that nowadays the monks and nuns could have zip lines across but it seemed they are more clever and have cable cars……
On the way, of course, we stopped a few times to take more pictures – today we had better views as the sun was behind us and hence most of the monasteries lay in good light.
By the time we arrived at the monastery of St. Stephen, we were scrutinized by a nun and while I was admitted as I had a shawl over my bare shoulders, Gerry wasn’t allowed in as his shorts had to be below the knee – and not on the knee. Hence I toured the nunnery on my own – most places were prohibited to take pictures but the view of the village of Kastraki from up here was breathtaking!
When I had toured the nunnery, Gerry was waiting for me sitting on the wall outside and that’s when we saw two nuns being brought back by car and of whom I secretly took some pictures……
We were then on our way to Nea Plagia, some 60 km south of Thessaloniki and while the first part of our drive was on a secondary road and took us more than an hour to reach the motorway, we enjoyed some majestic rock formations which were evident of the scene many thousands years ago when gushing waters rushed down from the melting ice.
Once on the motorway, we drove most times on our own – hardly any traffic till we reached the outskirts of Thessaloniki. This motorway leads to Turkey and Bulgaria ……..
We arrived in Nea Plagia after driving some 335km and got to the hotel Mavridis. This is a seaside hotel and the long stretch of sandy beach is mostly commercialized with beach parasols and sun beds. This will be our last couple of days to enjoy the sea side before hitting the road inland and homeward bound!
We had a relaxing evening and decided to go to bed early ……..
Ps I have been trying to upload pictures but haven’t been successful due to the poor Wi-Fi – will finish off when better Wi-Fi is available…..
Finally now in Nis, a town just south of Belgrade and where we are staying overnight has a fantastic Wi-Fi!
