Our June 2018 trip took us to the Halkidiki area in mainland Greece. We stayed at the Lagomandra Beach Hotel, located 6 km from Neos Marmaras, Sithonia, Chalkidiki, in unique Macedonia. While there, we took an extremely long day trip to the area of Meteora, to see the amazing monasteries atop strange shaped rock towers.

Today there are only six monasteries still functioning, while the remainder are largely in ruin. Perched onto high cliffs, they are now accessible by staircases and pathways cut into the rock formations. Of the six functioning monasteries, the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen and the Holy Monastery of Roussanou are inhabited by nuns while the remainder are inhabited by monks. The total monastic population of the Meteora monasteries in 2015 was 56, comprising 15 monks in four monasteries and 41 nuns in two monasteries. We visited two of the monasteries on our trip. This area was the 1981 film location used by Roger Moore in the James Bond Movie, 'For Your Eyes Only'