Ready for the bus by 8am then off to Meteora before returning to Athens. First stop though was a workshop (and of course a store for purchasing their products) for an explanation and demonstration on painting icons. The explanation was really good and included information on the wood carving, canvas, glue, gold leaf, and types of paint including some with egg in them. There was someone there painting but it was hard to know if she was actually doing it or not; looked realistic though. The other person there was creating the frames which were carved out of a solid piece of wood. That part was definitely real so perhaps it all was.

From there off to the monastries of Meteora. Initially there were 30 or so of them perched and isolated on top of rocks but there are only 6 of them in operation today. We saw all 6 of them although we only visited 2 of them - St. Stephens and St. Barbara. Ruins of 1 were pointed out but could not see ruins of others. Some of them required ladders and hoists to access. There are dress regulations to get in the monastries but clothing is available for those who cannot comply. A couple of them only have women living in them, one of which does not allow visitors. The insides of the abbeys we visited were fantastic however pictures are not allowed in the church and apse These are however covered in wall to ceiling icons - no space for one more. They are very tiny.

The views from these monastries was fantastic but we are not sure that the pictures will do them justice. Although it was raining we were lucky that it was not misty. We had expected to have to walk up or down steep steps around the rocks the monastries were on but luckily we were visiting others with easier access although there were some people on the tour that were physically unable to do the steps.

After the visits we had to get going back to Athens. It was going to be a 6-7 hour trip and we were told that there could be delays in getting into the central part of the city to the hotels due to a visit by the French President. We had a number of stops on the way back including lunch at the Meteora Restaurant which was provided by a family run business. We queued for lunch and 'Mama' Gertsoy explained each of the 12 different dishes. Lunch which included meat was 10 Euros while vegetarian was 8. Food was really great and Mama and her boys did a good job.

Francois Hollande had left town and we managed to get to most of the hotels by 730. We then had to contact the owner of our apartment who was going to arrange for us to be picked up. Unfortunately she was unable to do this and once we found a taxi we rang her and she was able to direct him to the apartment. While it was not far away it was in a labrinth of one way streets and walkways. The apartment is small but is positioned right below the Acropolis and Parthenon and has great views of Athens from its roof. It is also close to lots of restaurants and withing walking distance to many of the sites we want to visit..