They were built up there specifically for the solitude and quiet. Pathways and roads weren't built until very recent times! Thankfully, we could take the bus up one of the mountain-sides most of the way and get views like this!
Folks, this place truly is amazing. I've just never seen anything like it. Maybe my favorite place so far, at least in the amazing vistas category.
You can visit multiple monasteries during certain hours, but we were only visiting the Varlaam monastery today, and let me tell you we got full value. Up until the 1920's (if memory serves), when a stairwell was cut into the rock face, this crane and basket system was the only way up or down!
The chapel inside the monastery hosts an amazing array of Eastern Orthodox artwork and icons. I particularly liked this one of IC XP (i.e. Jesus).
We couldn't leave without a group picture!
And once on the bus, we had to stop for a last shot of this amazing landscape. Wow.
(hmmm, I can't remember if that monastery in the center of the photo below is Varlaam or not... still, it's very picturesque all the same!)
How can you top such a place of beauty and tranquility? By visiting a place steeped in history and Hollywood testosterone! After our lunch (a fun roadside restaurant), we proceeded on to Athens, and the same highway that you have to take today is the same one that the invading Persian army once took in 480 BC, when they met a fierce (and doomed) little band of Spartans and Thespians who took a stand for freedom at legendary Thermopylae (or "Hot Gates"). Or so the story goes. These days people only remember the Spartans and ignore the poor people of the village of Thespia, but that's how these things go. The movie 300 was a popular film on the subject, but walking the battlefield really made things come to life for me. (no green screens anywhere to be found!) Here I'm standing on the hill that they took their final stand upon, and I'm looking west onto the narrow plain between the mountains and the ocean that the first stages of the famous Battle of Thermopylae took place.
There is of course a monumental statue of the Spartan general Leonidas that we all had to pose under, with a simply epic ancient Greek quote underneath. The Persians are said to have sent a messenger to Leonidas requesting that he surrender his weapons now that he saw how outnumbered they were. The quotation translates: "Come and get them." Awesome.
(Of course, the Persians did come and get them and the Spartans all died, but AHHH what an end...worthy of graphic novels and blockbuster movies!)
Now we made our last drive to historic Athens. Almost there!
We finally entered the edge of the city and came to Kifissia, a NE suburb where we are now staying for the next almost-a-week. Our new home is Bethel, the home of the Evangelical Scripture Union. It's kind of like a mini-retreat center with dorm facilities and a meeting room (with musical instruments that many of us are enjoying) and a recreation court out back with basketball and soccer and volleyball capabilities. What fun! When we arrived, we knew we were in good hands because we were greeted with ice cream bars! Yum! Surely a good sign of great things to come. :-) We celebrated our arrival by enjoying some recreation outside, and we quickly got up a game of Breakout (which I'd never heard of before but it's quite fun) that you see here:
Well, here we are in Athens! The real Athens of the history books and of Acts 17 and the 2004 Summer Olympics and all that! Can't wait! (but first, some sleep)
Tomorrow: Adventures into the ancient heart of Athens!
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