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Day 18: Meteora. A town to which, centuries ago, monks built inaccessible monastries on top of monolithic limestone pinnacles to escape persecution and find solitude closer to God. Back in their day, one could only obtain access to each monastry by being vertically hauled up in rope nets. The story goes that the monks only replaced the rope after “the good Lord let it break”.

Take a look at some of these buildings sitting plum on top of a rock. One can only assume that the local authorities of the time adopted a more libetarian approach towards planning approvals.

Photography inside the chapels of each of the monastries was strictly prohibited, but most featured highly graphic imagery of Christian saints undergoing terrible persecutions at the hands of the Romans to attempt to persuade them to renounce their faith in Christ. Holy men and women being beheaded, stoned, being eaten by lions, having their limbs cut off, being boiled alive, having hot oil poured on their faces, being squashed in giant human presses. Horror after horror, vividly catalogued on the chapel walls, reminding the monks of Meteora of the reason that they had sought solitude in the caves and clifftops there.

So incredible the feats of construction atop these jutting rocktops, thousands of visitors now flock to Meteora each day to make their way up hundreds of stone steps (of more recent construction) to visit. Despite this, the monastries - and particularly the smaller ones - were still beautiful places of spirit and evoked peace and reverence.

In retrospect, this was probably not the best place to visit after climbing Mount Olympus the previous day, our aching calves reminded us.