Continued from yesterday”¦ The first thing we saw as we walked in was the landing for the pulley system. We peeked over the edge. It is a long, long way down. Neither of us could imagine being transported in and out of the complex on that. It looks perilous. We went to the old carpenter’s shop, with a variety of general tools, such as saws and pliers. We toured the cellar, which housed an assortment of hand made farming tools and food processing equipment, such as wine vats and milk churns. The monks were completely self-sufficient. They farmed in the valley below and made their own food products, including cheese, yogurt, wine, olives and olive oil. We also saw the large kitchen and the old cookware from the days before modern stoves and ovens.

There are three churches on site, but we only visited one of them, the Transfiguration of Jesus. The church is post-Byzantine in architecture and décor, incredibly ornate, and surprisingly small. Every inch of the church is covered in paintings of Jesus and the saints. We went into several other rooms that are now museums of sorts. The large dining room is now an art gallery. The infirmary now houses ancient manuscripts, icons, woodcarvings, ornately decorated clothing, etc. It also has an area devoted to modern day martyrs, people who have fought for “our faith and our nation”. Another room documents the history of Greece, with artist renderings of famous moments, costumes, folk art and so forth. We walked around the grounds, which are beautifully landscaped and quite lovely. We enjoyed the view of the valley below. It is a pleasant place, definitely the type of quiet sanctuary that is ideal for a religious retreat.

The next stop on the tour was the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen, built in the 1500’s. The guide chose this particular one because it has very few stairs. The rock it sits on is close in height to the road. Back in the day, it had a draw bridge as protection from attack, with the chasm between the mountain and the rock being wide and deep enough to afford ample protection. This complex was damaged by the Nazi’s during World War II, who believed it was harboring insurgents, and was consequently abandoned. Nuns took it over and restored it, and it is now a nunnery.

This complex is tiny compared to the Grand Meteoron, but the grounds are prettier and even more serene. The nuns put a lot of energy into their garden. The buildings are similar to the ones in Grand Meteoron. The view is spectacular. We visited the church, also incredibly ornate in post-Byzantine architecture and art. Since most of the buildings are still in active use by the nuns, we could only stick our heads in a few of the more public rooms. There are a few paintings on the exterior walls. Both monasteries are decorated with the same style of art, so this shot gives you a good feel for the décor of both.

Once we had toured the grounds, it was time to head back to Athens. We drove back towards the Gulf of Malis. Quite a few miles from the shoreline, we stopped along the side of the road in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere to visit the monument to King Leonidus and the Battle of Thermopyle. We were confused when we were told this is where the battle took place. What? The battle took place on the shore. We weren’t anywhere near the shore. The guide reminded us that all the land between where we stood and the sea is man made, and in Leonidus’ day, this was the shoreline. At the time, the shore was actually only wide enough to accommodate one chariot.

The monument is actually on the wrong side of the road. The second shot is where the battle took place. You can see there is very little flat land before the mountains rise up dramatically

We’ll give you the quickie run down of the story for those of you that don’t know it and for those who think the “300” version is accurate. The Persian Empire had conquered Asia Minor (present day Turkey). The locals staged a rebellion, aided by Greeks. The Persian army squashed the rebellion, and the ruler, Darius, wanted to seek revenge on the Greeks. Darius sent messengers to each Greek city-state telling them to submit or be conquered. Both the Spartans and the Athenians threw the messengers down a well. Darius didn’t like that. The Persians invaded Marathon in 490 BC and lost to the Athenians.

Darius died. His son, Xerxes, amassed an enormous military, consisting of many different ethnic groups, each with their own weapons and fighting styles. He sent his army to Greece, fully expecting the Greeks to surrender without any kind of fight once they saw how outnumbered they were by the Persians. Each historical source gives radically different numbers, ranging from 800,000 to 2 ½ million troops. Modern historians think a more realistic number is 200,000 450,000.

The Olympics were going on at the time, and military activity around the time of the games was illegal. The Spartans consulted the oracle about breaking the law to fight the Persians and were told that in order to save the city, they would have to sacrifice a king. The Greeks decided to send a small advance army to wait for the Persians at Thermopylae, a narrow mountain pass 50 feet in across in its widest spots, and the only road through the area. They figured they could hold the mountain pass and prevent the advancement of the Persians until the Olympics were over and the main army could join them to really fight. King Leonidus of Sparta led all of the troops, which totaled somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000.

The plan went well at first. The Persians arrived to find the Greeks working out and combing their hair a lot. Xerxes thought it was a joke and waited four days for them to surrender. On day 5, Xerxes realized they were serious and sent in the warriors. The Greeks fought off wave after wave of Persians, “cutting them to pieces”. Few Greeks perished. At the end of day 2, a local came forward and offered to show the Persians a way around the pass in exchange for a reward. The morning of day 3, the Greeks realized that the Persians had managed to get around them and that they were surrounded. Knowing defeat and death were imminent, most of the Greeks fled. All 300 Spartans that Leonidus brought, as well as 2000 other Greeks, stayed and continued to fight. They fought valiantly until every last Greek was dead. It is estimated that 3,300 Greeks died in total, compared to about 20,000 Persians.

Back to our day”¦ Rather than going back into the mountains, we took a coastal road south to Athens. The drive back was pretty. The water is a beautiful color, and there are lots of near by islands that add to the scenery. We were dropped off at our hotel near Syntagman Square at about 1800 (6:00 pm).