We were up early because we wanted to take pictures of the monasteries and rock formations in Meteora at sunrise. The sun sunrises at about 6 and we left the hotel at 6:20. We drove to the various available parking sites and took pictures. We got some good ones.
By 7:15 the clouds were covering the sun so we headed back to the hotel. There we packed up because we are moving again. We decided we wanted to go to the Museum of Geological Formations of Meteora which didn’t open until 10. We checked out of the hotel and headed downtown (a 1 minute drive or 3 minute walk, not a very big town) at around 9:30. To kill a little time we went into a “kinetic art” shop, aka mobile shop and talked to the owner. His English was great because he lived in Manchester, NH from the time he was 10 until 25. His home and shop is in his grandmother house. When Rick was a boy he made a mobile out of coat hangers after seeing a Calder exhibit. He says he’s now inspired to go home and make mobiles. Here are some pictures from the shop.
We went back to the museum and waited until 10:15 for someone to open it but no one showed up so we gave up.
We drove from Meteora to Arachova, the town next to Delphi. The ride took about 4 hours (with coffee stops) and mostly we were on the highway. Interestingly there were very few cars on the highway, I mean we saw one or two in about 50 miles. We think that maybe the highway was new?
We went up and over mountains to get to Arachova. There is a ski slope about 20 minutes from Arachova and this town caters to the skiers in the winter.
We arrived around 2 and lunch was the first item on our agenda. We went to a little restaurant on the main street. We didn’t know it at the time but our apartment was right next door. We had a delicious lunch and started talking to the owners, who spoke very good English. The man had worked in the tourism industry and was very familiar with the Greek islands. He gave us some tips for our Greek sailing adventure.
After lunch we got the keys to the apartment and got settled. Our apartment has a skier’s rustIc decor and is very nice. It has a balcony with a lovely view.
The weather wasn’t so nice, it was about 55F and drizzling so we didn’t feel like exploring. We found a grocery store and came back to the apartment to relax. That evening the weather started to clear and we had a lovely sunset.
Tomorrow we explore Delphi! Stay tuned.