A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki is a one-day journey from the largest city of northern Greece to Meteora. There, monasteries stand on top of tall rock pillars above the town of Kalambaka. The trip is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville, listed with the other Northern Greece tours and day trips from Thessaloniki.
This post covers both ends of the road in numbers, the Egnatia motorway, the Vale of Tempe, the plain of Thessaly, Theopetra Cave, the railway to Kalambaka, Byzantine chant, life in the monasteries today, how frescoes were painted, the White Tower, the wines of the route and the year Thessaly joined Greece. It ends with the questions that come up on the road: snake bites, coach driver hours, bears and wolves, pollen, rabies and spring water.
What is a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki starts in the city known as the Nymph of the Thermaic Gulf. The urban area, meaning the built-up land of the city, had 802,572 people in 2021. The Meteora municipality covers 1,658.280 square kilometres.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the starting city covers 19.307 square kilometres. Its urban area covers 111.703 square kilometres. The metropolitan area, the city plus its surroundings, covers 1,285.61 square kilometres.
The city lies between 0 and 250 metres above sea level. Sea level means the height of the sea surface. So the highest land of the city sits 250 metres above the sea.
The city that starts a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki has a sea breeze from the Thermaic Gulf. The breeze helps make the temperatures milder. A gulf is a large bay of the sea.
Silting is mud and sand that settles in water. Extensive silting mainly affects the northern and western parts of the Thermaic Gulf. Thessaloniki is bound on its southeast by Mount Chortiatis.
- Sea position: Thessaloniki lies on the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea, on the Thermaic Gulf.
- Gulf coast: Thessaloniki sits on the northern edge of the Thermaic Gulf, on its eastern coast.
- Old capital: Thessaloniki was built 40 kilometres southeast of Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia.
The Pineios delta is land formed where a river meets the sea. It is well known for its beauty and its large number of animal species.
How does the Egnatia Odos cross northern Greece?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki begins in a city on the A2 motorway. This motorway is called the Egnatia Odos. It crosses northern Greece, running from Igoumenitsa through Ioannina, Metsovo and Thessaloniki to Alexandroupolis. Building of the motorway began in 1994.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, one name stands out. Egnatia Odos means “Via Egnatia” in Greek, a nod to the Roman road. Like other major Roman roads, it was about six metres wide.
The original Via Egnatia was about 1,120 kilometres long, running from Dyrrachium on the Adriatic to Byzantium. About 360 kilometres of the motorway, from the Evros river to Thessaloniki, run parallel to it.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the Driskos Tunnel is 4,570 metres long. It is the longest road tunnel on the A2 motorway. It was dug from 1999 to 2004 under Mitsikeli mountain.
The Pindos stretch, from Grevena to Ioannina, was delayed. Fears for the endangered brown bear’s habitat caused the delay. A new route was proposed in 2003. That part was completed by April 2009.
- Tubes: The two parallel tubes of the Driskos Tunnel were designed for a 120-year life.
- Weather: Procopius records that Justinian repaired the road, yet it stayed almost unusable in wet weather.
- Name: Aromanians call the Via Egnatia “Calea Mare”, which means “The Big Road”.
Almost all Byzantine overland trade with western Europe travelled along the Via Egnatia. The Roman road linked colonies from the Adriatic Sea to the Bosphorus.
What is the Vale of Tempe on a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki is linked with the Vale of Tempe, a gorge. A gorge is a narrow valley with steep rock walls. The vale lies in the Tempi municipality of northern Thessaly, Greece. A municipality is a local government area.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the Tempe Pass can be bypassed by the Sarantoporo Pass. That other route goes around it but takes longer. A pass is a way through hills.
In legend, Poseidon’s trident, a spear with three points, cut the vale through the rocks. In another legend, Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, fled in the vale. A snake bit her, and she died.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the vale’s past includes war. Herodotus wrote that about ten thousand Greek men-at-arms, or armed soldiers, camped at Tempe while Xerxes’ army approached.
Messengers from Alexander the Macedonian urged the Greeks to leave Tempe before invaders trod them under foot. The Greeks went back to their ships and returned to the Isthmus, a narrow strip of land.
- Roman road: Until recently, the vale road followed an ancient Roman military road on the river’s right bank.
- Third Macedonian War: In 169 BC, the Romans broke through the defences of Perseus of Macedon at Tempe.
- Pompey: After Pharsalus, Pompey passed through the vale to the sea, a historian wrote in 1863.
In 1854, William Smith said the writers who praised Tempe had not drawn their pictures from actual observation.
Why is the plain of Thessaly called the granary of Greece?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki raises a question about Thessaly’s farmland. The Thessalian plain is its dominant geographical feature. The alluvial soils of the Pineios basin make Thessaly a vital farming area. Alluvial soil is fine soil that a river leaves behind.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the Pineios River matters. It and its tributaries, smaller streams joining it, formed the plain. Mount Othrys lies south of the plain, and Mount Pelion lies east.
Larissa is the second largest regional unit, or official district, in Greece, exceeded only by Aetolia-Acarnania. It covers about one-third of Thessaly. Its larger part is fertile land, which is the Thessalian Plain.
During a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the plain is famous for watermelon and melon. Tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and onions are famous there too. So are cotton, dairy, cattle and other crops.
Agriculture is the second leading industry in the Larissa regional unit. Thessaly is the leading cattle-raising area of Greece. Farm modernization in the mid-20th century controlled the repeated flooding of its low-lying plains.
- Delta: The Pineios forms a large delta, well known for its beauty and animal species.
- Protection: The delta is protected by international environmental treaties, which are agreements between countries.
- Cotton: Greece was the largest cotton producer in the European Union in 2018, with 837 thousand tons.
A granary is a place where grain is stored. Greece produced 1 million tons of wheat in 2018, and wheat is a grain.
What is the Theopetra Cave near a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki sits near the Theopetra Cave, which covers about 500 square metres. Excavations there were meant to answer questions about Thessaly in the Palaeolithic, or Old Stone Age. It lies just north of the centre of Theopetra village.
Near a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the cave is within walking distance of the village centre. Sediment layers and plant remains in the cave have given important data about past environments.
A 1999 study looked at the cave’s deposit layers in detail. A 2015 study used layers of volcanic ash, called tephra, in the cave. That study linked the cave’s deposits with climate events.
Two people were buried in the cave near a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki. In 2016, researchers extracted DNA from the tibia, or shin bone, of both. Both carried the DNA lineage haplogroup K1c.
Haplogroup K is a mitochondrial DNA lineage. It is found in about 6% of people in Europe and the Near East. It is thought to have a West Asian origin.
- Rock age: The cave’s limestone formed in the Upper Cretaceous period, 135 to 65 million years ago.
- Haplogroup age: Haplogroup K is believed to have arisen between about 30,000 and 22,000 years ago.
- Larger lineage: It is now known that haplogroup K is a branch of the larger U8 lineage.
Ruins of the Monastery of St Theodore lie just south of Theopetra village. They also sit near the village of Agii Theodori.
How did the railway reach Kalambaka?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki has a railway story behind Kalambaka. In 1882, Prime Minister Charilaos Trikoupis signed a contract for a railway from Volos to Kalambaka. Work on building the Thessaly network started in 1882 as well.
Before any Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, a railway company ran the Thessaly network from 1884 to 1955. On 22 April 1884, King George the First opened the 61 km section from Volos to Larissa.
The Velestino to Kalambaka line was a single-track railway, with one track, crossing southern and western Thessaly. The maximum gradient, or steepest slope, on that line was 3%, between Velestino and Aerino.
Next to a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the history of the Kalambaka line has a postal side. After 1900 the line carried the mail of Thessalian towns, and its stations sold stamps.
In 1955 the company that ran the Thessaly railways was absorbed into the Greek state railways. In 1960 the Larissa to Volos line was converted to standard gauge, a different width between the rails.
- War service: In spring 1897, during the Greek-Turkish war, the line carried troops and wounded soldiers.
- Track width: The Kalambaka line began as a narrow gauge railway with 1000 mm between the rails.
- Closed section: The Velestino to Palaiofarsalos metre gauge section, with rails one metre apart, closed in 1999.
A railway museum, founded in 2006, occupies the first floor of Volos station. From 1960, parts of that station had three track widths.
What is the Byzantine chant heard at Meteora?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki brings up the topic of Byzantine chant. Byzantine chant uses eight modes. That system is called the octoechos, from Greek words meaning eight and sound. UNESCO inscribed the chant on its Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2019.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the topic is Byzantine chant. Cyprus and Greece are the two countries behind its UNESCO listing. UNESCO says it is exclusively vocal, meaning sung only.
The first four modes match the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian and Mixolydian scales, which are sets of notes. The Hagiopolites is a 9th-century chant text. Its first paragraph says John of Damascus wrote it.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, ison is the term in Byzantine chant for a drone note. It is a slow lower voice that supports the melody without turning it into harmony.
Ison is believed to have entered Byzantine practice in the 16th century. Its first written example dates from 1847. Before the mid-20th century, nearly all scores omitted it, as singers thought it too simple.
- Neumes: Neumes began around the 9th century as shorthand memory aids for the melodies of chant.
- Signs: Early 19th-century chant signs were so complex that only highly skilled chanters read them.
- New Method: Chrysanthos of Madytos, Gregory the Protopsaltes and Chourmouzios the Archivist reformed the notation.
A computer study looked at 94 chants sung by four singers. It found that real singing differs from Chrysanthos’s theory of the modes.
How do monks and nuns live at Meteora today?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki leads to Orthodox monasteries. Monastic life there is built around prayer. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the canonical hours, which are fixed prayer times, are called divine services. Their book of hours is the horologion.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, services follow a set order. In Byzantine Rite monasteries, the overall order of services is the same, despite small differences. Vespers is normally prayed around sunset.
The Octoechos is a book of texts. It holds an eight-week cycle for the services called Vespers, Matins and Compline. Orthodox Vespers services can end with Compline, especially the all-night vigil.
On a major feast day during a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the Vespers service changes. Orthodox Vespers adds a litany, a form of prayer, and the clergy walk outside with hymns.
Great Compline is a service of repentance. The priest can hear confession during it or right after it. In monasteries, everyone present honors the relics and icons after Compline and receives the priest’s blessing.
- Rules: St Theodore the Studite saw that monks needed a practical code of rules for daily life.
- Title: Archimandrite first meant “head of the enclosure”, and only monks and nuns can hold the title.
- Fasting: On Wednesday and Friday fasts, Orthodox Christians avoid olive oil, wine, meat, fish and dairy.
Certain Orthodox monasteries also fast on Mondays. The reason is that monasticism, the life of monks and nuns, is called the “angelic life”.
How were the frescoes painted on a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki raises a question about how wall paintings were made. Fresco is a mural technique painted on freshly laid wet lime plaster. The pigment becomes part of the wall. Fresco comes from an Italian adjective meaning “fresh”.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the key idea is the wet lime plaster. Water carries the dry pigment powder into the plaster, and the paint sets as the plaster dries.
Painters worked in giornate, patches of plaster laid and painted in one day. Buon fresco plaster takes about ten to twelve hours to dry. Roughly seven to nine hours are left to paint.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the word secco is also worth learning. Secco is painting on dry plaster, so its pigments need a binder such as egg, glue or oil.
Lapis lazuli and azurite work poorly in wet fresco, so blue skies were frequently painted secco. Ground lapis lazuli made the pigment ultramarine, and only gold cost more in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
- Cinnabar: This bright scarlet to brick-red mineral is mercury(II) sulfide, which has the chemical formula HgS.
- Ochre: These natural clay earth pigments combine ferric oxide with varying amounts of both clay and sand.
- Egg tempera: This paint uses only the egg yolk, because the white and the yolk membrane are discarded.
No Greek wall painter of his day was more important than Theophanes the Cretan. His first dated work is from 1527.
What is the White Tower where a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki begins?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki starts in a city where the White Tower stands. The White Tower is a monument and museum on the waterfront of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece. The tower has 6 floors, and each floor has a central room.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the White Tower has a round main body. The main body is about 23 metres across. It stands about 34 metres above ground level.
A turret, or upper tower part, sits on the main body. It is about 12 metres across and 6 metres high. The first roof was cone-shaped, like roofs on similar towers in Istanbul.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, one clue to the tower’s age is a verse. Until 1912, the Ottoman Turkish verse over the door dated the tower to 1535–1536 under Suleiman.
A French study estimated the tower was built between 1450 and 1470. It said the 16th-century inscription possibly refers only to an outer wall. Venice was long credited with the tower.
- Names: In Turkish it is Beyaz Kule, and in the Ladino language it is Kuli Blanka.
- Outer wall: An outer wall called a chemise stood at the tower’s foot until its demolition in 1917.
- Remodelling: In 1912, when Greece took control of the city, the tower was remodelled and whitewashed.
The city walls, which included the tower, were demolished in 1866. King George the First of Greece was assassinated near the tower in March 1913.
Which wines grow along a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki is linked with the PGI Meteora wine zone, set up in 2006. The zone covers the places Vasiliki, Kalambaka, Parallithea, Tymphea and Hasia. The vineyards of the zone are planted at altitudes from 150 to 800 metres.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the wine styles of the PGI Meteora zone are worth knowing. The zone makes white and rose wines from dry to sweet, red wines, and sparkling wines.
Red PGI Meteora wines can use Xinomavro, Limniona, Zalovitiko, Vlachiko, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon or Cinsault. A grape variety is simply a type of grape that is used to make wine.
Within a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the white wines of the PGI Meteora zone come next. White PGI Meteora wines can use these grape varieties: Assyrtiko, Malagousia, Batiki, Debina, Roditis or Chardonnay.
The Rapsani protected name was set up in 1971. The Rapsani zone covers the villages of Rapsani and Pyrgetos Kato Olympou. It also covers the area of the traditional village of Ampelakia.
- Rapsani wine: The Rapsani name covers only dry red wine, which is red wine that is not sweet.
- Old vineyards: Traditionally the Rapsani vineyards held all three grape varieties, about one third each.
- Location: The place called Naousa lies 90 km west of Thessaloniki, in northwestern Imathia.
The protected designation of origin (PDO) scheme for food was created in 1992. A PDO product is made, processed and developed in one named area.
When did Thessaly join modern Greece?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki touches the story of Thessaly. Thessaly passed to Greece in 1881. Greece and the Ottoman Empire signed a deal called the Convention of Constantinople on 2 July 1881. A Greek army unit entered Larissa on 31 August 1881.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the history of Thessaly and its new border matters. The Reichstadt Agreement between Russia and Austria-Hungary had planned Thessaly, Crete and parts of Epirus for Greece.
At the Congress of Berlin, Greece was invited only to talks about Epirus, Thessaly and Crete. On 5 July 1878 the Great Powers asked Greece and the Ottomans to agree a new border.
On a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki, the year 1881 stands out. The Great Powers and the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty that year. It fixed the new border between Greece and the Ottomans.
Greece pledged to respect the religion, self-rule and property of the large Muslim population of Thessaly. The area around Elassona was left out of the 1881 handover and stayed Ottoman until 1912.
- Population: In 1880 Thessaly had about 285,000 Greeks, 40,000 Turks and 40,000 Jews.
- Epirus: Ioannina and the rest of southern Epirus joined Greece only after the First Balkan War.
- Larissa: After 1881 a considerable part of Larissa’s Turkish population left for the Ottoman Empire.
In 1897 Turkish troops took Larissa after the Greek army left. Larissa stayed Greek after the peace treaty. Ottoman forces also took Volos that year.
What do visitors ask about a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
A Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki brings questions about snakes, bears, wolves and rabies. Visitors ask about hay fever, spring water and the driving-time rules for coach drivers. Bites, pollen and germs in water are the health topics.
What helps after a snake bite on a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
The nose-horned viper, Vipera ammodytes, lives in Greece. After a snake bite, wash the wound with soap and water and keep the limb still. Sucking out the snake poison does not work and can harm the bitten area.
What do EU driving-time rules for coach drivers say about a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
EU Regulation 561/2006 limits driving without a break to 4.5 hours. The break lasts at least 45 minutes, or splits into 15 and 30 minutes. Daily driving is limited to 9 hours, or 10 hours up to twice weekly.
What is worth knowing about bears and wolves before a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
Greek and EU law protect bears and wolves, yet people kill them, fearing harm to farm animals. A bear information centre at Nymfaio runs programmes on living alongside bears. A wolf and lynx sanctuary near Agrapidies opened in 1993.
Why does hay fever matter before a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
Hay fever is an allergic reaction to pollen, a fine plant powder. It can last weeks or months, unlike a cold. An estimated 90% of people with hay fever are allergic to grass pollen.
Is rabies a worry before a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
Greece is one of 17 countries that say they are free from rabies. Wash a bite or scratch from a possibly rabid animal with soap and water. Keep washing for at least 15 minutes, then see a doctor.
Why can spring and stream water carry germs on a Meteora day trip from Thessaloniki?
Faeces, meaning body waste, in drinking water pose the greatest risk to its safety. Contaminated water can spread diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio. The germ Giardia lives in human and animal intestines and spreads through water tainted by faeces.