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Mount Athos The Holy Mountain Second day Vatopedi Karyes Simonopetra walk to Agiou Gregoriou and back
Day 2 - We had reserved seats on the Vatopedi monastery bus which took us back to Karyes, where we had a cup of coffee with a friend and sorted out the programme for the rest of our trip. Then we were lucky to get a lift back to Dafni where we had brief stp, and then on stowards the monastery where we had booked for the night - Simonopetra. We walked the last part of the way, feeling that this was more proper. We were greeted very warmly and shown to a nice room with beds for the three of us. Simonopetra has a rock going straight up through the middle of it, so it is not as big as it looks. Much of the communication is by means of the walkways cantilevered out from the face of the monastery. Theair was humming with swallows - it is said they never allow a mosquito to get as far as the monastery. In the afternoon, we walked to Agiou Gregoriou. We will be doing this walk again tomorrow, but thought it would be nice to do it without packs, and to have a bit of time to see the monastery. The path winds steeply down hill, and, at the fountain, we went on winding down the hill and ended up at the sea shore by the Simonopetra arsenal, so we had to climb back up to the spring and take the strainght-on path which went down to a beach with a fishing boat, and then up again. We had separated by this time, intending to meet up at Ag. Gregoriou, but somehow missed each other. Vespers at Simonopetra was at 5 pm so we had to hurry back in just under an hour. After vespers, there was a very good dinner. It was lovely watching the sunset from a bench on one of the outside walkways.
Two views of Karyes	Karyes is the tiny "capital" of the Holy Mountain
The old school for monks	Cats dont get much food on Mount Athos
We passed through Dafni again to see the boat arrive	There is a customs inspection for departing visitors
The customs house	The port master's house
Our first view of Simonopetra perched on its rock	and the view along the coast
The new road to Simonopetra	Detail of the stone roofs
The ancient aqueduct now being restored	View of the vegetable gardens far below
More distant vegetable gardens	and the view as we started our walk to Agiou Gregoriou
Monastic outbuildings	Simonopetra's "arsenal" where goods arriving by ship were stored till the mules arrived.
Flower yet to be identified	Heavily laden mule train
Flower 2 yet to be identified	Flower 3 yet to be identified
Flower 4 yet to be identified	Flower 5yet to be identified
Flower 6 yet to be identified	Flower 7 yet to be identified
Flower 8 yet to be identified	Looking back along the coast
The first view of Agiou Gregoriou	More mules
St. Gregory himself to greet us	The wooden balustrade outside the guestmaster's room
Another interesting stone roof	Agiou Gregoriou from the return path
Flower 9 yet to be identified	Back at Simonopetra, just in time for Vespers after a fast 55-minute walk
	More of the massive building works taking place all over the Holy Mountain - this one is restoring the old aqctuedu
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