Armeno Mattioli, interior of a Athos church (also see post 880)
Bauer watercolour, Sibthorp Flora Graeca – 1800
Douglas Atwill, Panteleimon
Etching – cell of a monk
Franz Hrastnik – Grigoriou
Franz Hrastnik – Grigoriou
Grigoriou aquarel 1981
Dionysiou – aquarel 1981
Illustration 1920 – Karyes
Illustration 1920 – Arsanas Sografou
Kößlinger – monk Esfigmenou -1984
Lavra litho
Liebig card – with a goat!
Panteleimon litho appr. 1870
Wim, 24/2
Not a lot of pilgrims spend a night in Koutloumousiou. When we tried to get a place to sleep in 1986 we were told to book a room in the Karyes Hotel, only 15 minutes away. Most pilgrims pass by and have, like us last year, just a brief look inside the monastery, before taking the path to Iviron. Here are some impressions of the buildings, the courtyard and the fresco’s of the exonarthex.
Koutloumousiou 1989
Outside the monastery: the entrance (photo Jitze B)
Courtyard, katholikon and phiale (photo Jitze B, also below, taken from B)
Courtyard photo taken from B or F (see plans below)
n
Until now I used plans from the Feigl book. As you can see I found much more detailed and better plan of the monastery and its surroundings from the ‘Atlas of Athos’, published by Paul Mylonas in 2000. On “J” Feigl mentions a 200 year old vine, but I am afraid that it has been removed, because we did not find any in October 2011.
Katholikon and exonarthex Koutloumousiou
Phiale – as you can read in post 595 this phiale was recently moved from a spot near the bell tower (see A1 and F), to a more central spot on the main courtyard, also between the church and the trapeza, but on the other side (see the red marking on Feigls’ plan above).
The deplorable state of the phiale, because of earthquakes (before 1980 – from the Feigl book)
Courtyard: Building S or H1 and church. This wing of the building was badly burnt in december 1980.
On the old spot where the phiale once stood, just in front of the bell tower, a small round chapel appeared (see 5 or B on the plans).
Gartner of Koutloumousiou taking care of his plants (photo Jitze B)
Main entrance
Wim, 15/2 (next time some pictures of the fresco’s in the exonarthex)
In addition to the last three posts about the Konaki in Karyes and the item about the ‘old’ and ‘new’ Esfigmenou konaki – buildings nr 23 and 23A – , our reader Hans Overduin send us this article. He found the information about this subject in his own archive (the yearbooks of The Friends of Mount Athos) and on the Internet. Especially for our weblog he made a reconstruction of what happened.
“The cause and outline of the violent argument between the schismatic Esfigmenou and the rest of Athos or the Ecumenical Patriarch is, he presumes, well known to our readers.
Fights between monks and police in 2009 – see 810
In 2002 he made his last visit to Esfigmenou. The monks were certainly not unkind and – to Greek standards – not unreasonable, but they weren’t easy to deal with either. The monastic complex breathed the atmosphere of a Commandery of Knights Templar, with many icons of St. George the dragon slayer and such. In the monastery shop they sold books about Jews, whereas in the Netherlands, if an attempt was made to print or sell them, you would end up in jail.
The whole thing began to take shape of a soap opera or Greek tragedy (which is about the same) in the following year when, in 2003, a police cordon was laid around the monastery and nobody could get in or out. Now the latter is not entirely true, because the monastery, by American members of the orthodox church, has (or has had) a speedboat, Q (James Bond) would have been envious about, and with this boat every cordon could be broken.
End of October 2005 the court granted the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, the right to found a ‘new’ Esfigmenou on Athos, being the “de jure” official Esfigmenou, with all rights and obligations of the original monastery. On October 3th 2005 the Patriarch appointed the Elder Chrysostomos Katsoulieris, from the kelli of the Annunciation (belonging to Simonas Petras, in the valley near Kapsala Karyes), Abbot of the ‘new’ Esfigmenou.
Of course the chosen abbot of the ‘old’ Esfigmenou, Methodios, remained in office, but was only recognized by his own monks. In a press release, dated October 24, 2005, issued by the ‘old’ Esfigmenou, this abbot compared with the Dalai Lama and Patriarch Bartholomew cs with the Chinese dictators and occupiers of Tibet.
In November 2005 Katsoulieris and his monks tried to take over the ‘old’ Esfigmenou konaki in Karyes (building 23), but failed and the police had to be invoked to separate the parties.
“Orthodoxy or death”
On Sunday, October 22, 2006 Patriarch Bartholomew himself placed the “foundation stone” (Vasilis mentiones this in his posting) of the new and official konaki of Esfigmenou. This is the new building near the old konaki (nr 23A). Temporary this konaki is, as it were, the (official) monastery itself. For this event a heavy police force had been mobilized, because it was feared that the schismatic monks, who entrenched themselves in the ‘old’ konaki (building 23), would severely disrupt the ceremony. Unexpectedly they did not appear to be such bad guys after all and the ceremony was completed calmly and peacefully.
Video of the 2006 incident
A month later, on Wednesday, December 20th, 2006, things managed to get out of control anyway. The monks of Abbot Katsoulieris, the official monks of Esfigmenou, planned to celebrate the liturgy in the chapel of the Assumption of Mary on the grounds of the ‘old’ konaki, which they were used to ever since the visit of Bartholomew. However, the schismatic monks, who are still entrenched in the ‘old’ konaki, attacked them with fire extinguishers, crowbars and sledgehammers. Other sources speak of the fact that the ‘official’ monks wanted to enter the ‘old’ konaki to establish a library and that the schismatic monks defended themselves with whatever they had at hand: the afore mentioned attributes. The result of this incident were seven injured: four of the ‘official’ monks and three of the schismatic monks. All were brought to hospital by the police outside Athos. The last three were not allowed to return to the Holy Mountain.
I do not know if there still live schismatic monks in the ‘old’ konaki, but it seems unlikely.
Since the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Orthodox Church attach great importance to the ‘new’ Esfigmenou in Karyes, the building of the new konaki will be funded by the relatively wealthy Greek Orthodox Church.
The Esfigmenou monastery: “a medieval castle”
At the moment the ‘Esfigmenou-soap’ is at a stalemate: the original monastery is placed outside the community of Agion Oros, but they do not want to evacuate the monastery by force or violence, which has happened with the Russian residents of the skiti Ag. Elias. In the case of Esfigmenou it is also more difficult: the monastery can be defended like a medieval castle (with an emergency exit !) and it has a lineup of more than one hundred militant monks.
In the meanwhile it looks as if you are able to visit the monastery like ussual.
The latest reports are that the government of Russia is interfering with the case for the schismatic Esfigmenou. It turns out the soap opera will be continued ………”.
thanks to Hans Overduin
Wim, 8/2
In Blog number 1269 and 1270 I showed you pictures of some houses where the presentatives of the monasteries dwell during their stay in the capital. Today we start at the red nr. 3 on the map.
Number 34 on the map is Konaki of Konstamonitou. It was difficult to come close and take a picture, at least I could’t find a path or any other way to get near. I decided to walk through the garden of building 29 (Konaki Xenofontos), and zoomed in on the building as much as possible.
Konaki Konstamonitou
Balcony of the Konstamonitou Konaki
From nr 3 on the map I took this photo of the renovated Protaton church and its belltower. Luckily the protecting roof has been dismantled, but inside the church it is still a mess. Iron beams and scaffolds take away the view of the splended freso’s of Panselinos. How long will it take before we once again can enjoy the “Sistine Chapel” of the Orthodox world ?
Nr 46: the Konaki of Xeropotamou
Near 46 Konaki Xeropotamou (at your left) and on your right the police station (nr 35 with Greek flag). The door immediate on the right used to lead you to the other restaurant that is closed now. It was a dark and dirty place, in 1980 a drunk monk was sitting in an obscure corner, just like a scene from a Harry Potter movie.
Nr 37: the Konaki of Iviron
The door to the Konaki of Iviron
The backside of the Konaki of Iviron with a small church
Konaki Pantocratoros nr 39
Konaki Pantocratoros seen from the other direction (with nr 37 on the background)
Konaki Panteleimon (nr 45)
Traffic victim: a dead snake! This ends the pictures from the Konaki. After a next visit to Athos I will try to show the five missing buildings. What follows are some pictures of other buildings in Karyes.
Nr 38: the bakery: do pass by to buy fresh bread or a spinach of cheese snack
The smell of warm and fresh bread (and thiropita in the niche)!
Photo from the backside of building 23, the Konaki of the Esfigmenou. On the background again the new building (now nr 23A). According to our helpfull readers the new building also belongs to Esfigmenou, but I wonder if the inhabitants represent the “Zelotes”, or the original owners of the monastery.
The “Foundation stone”of the new building (unfortuanately not sharp enough te read).
I found these drawings of the new building on the Esfigmenou site.
A ruin of a kelli near 24
Kelli Chilandariou: nr 26 on the map
This picture is from the backside of the shops at the parking place (nrs. 11, 12 and 13).
This ends my collection of photo’s of the Konaki and other buildings in Karyes. Next time we’ll move to Koutloumousiou.
Wim, 7/2
This is the normal way to start your visit to the mountain by taking the early boat in Ouranoupolis. Here our party of 2011 entering the boot to Dafni at appr. 6.30 hours in the morning.
The price is EUR 7.30 for a one way ticket on the Agia Anna to Dafni.
You have also the opportunity to take a boat taxi. It is quick but you will pay more.
If you take a taxi you decide yourself when to enter the Holy Mountain as this group of fathers did. Our group prefers to take the Agia Anna where you can sit on deck and take the time to watch the monasteries pass by.
But if the Agia Anna is full (no more tickets!) as we experienced at the end of our pilgrimage on our way back to Ouranoupolis we had to take the taxi boat at Dafni harbour. The reason that the Agia Anna was crowded and overbooked was due to the fact that another regular ferry (Panteleimonos) was not sailing at that time (october 2011).
So there we sat in a water taxi after all. We split the costs (Dafni- Ouranoupolis EUR 150) and in no time we were back in the ‘normal’ world.
hv
Let’s resume our walk through Karyes. In post 1269 I ended the tour with a picture of two large buildings (nr 50 and 51), belonging to Chilandariou. On this map post 1269 starts at nr 1, today we start at nr 2, and have a we’ll have a closer look at six Konaki. 
First I walked behind the building of the Holy Epistatia (4) and old tower (3), where the Tragos (the “Magna Carta” of Athos) is kept. On the bachground the bell-tower (2) of the Protaton church (1). I continued and crosses the main straat arriving at building 14, the Konaki of Filotheou. 
Konaki Filotheou 
According to this inscription the building is relatively new and build in 1965 
Konaki Filotheou seen from another angle, with the bookshop and the old tower in the background. I continued walking South, in the direction of nr 23, the Konaki of Esfigmenou. Just before this building are newly renovated large complex showed up, that is not mentioned on any map I have. 
Newly renovated buidlings just before nr 23 
Maybe this could it be a new Konaki of a monastery, because, as you can see on the pictures below, the building of Esfigmenou seems to be in very poor condition: 
Konaki Esfigmenou (nr 23) 
On the opposite side of the street: the Konaki of Karakalou (nr 22) 
And then, at a junction of two roads, you can see the Konaki of Xenofontos (29), on the road leading back to the Protaton-square. 
Konaki Xenofontos: everything looks freshly renovated and building is still in progress. 
The gate to the Xenofontos Konaki 
Konaki Xenofontos: the church 
If you follow the road to the South it leads to the large – but nearly ruined – Konaki of Vatopedi (24). A strange thing for such a rich monastery! 
Konaki Vatopedi
And a little bit further down the road the Konaki of Docheiariou (25). 
Konaki Docheiariou 
A stone plaquette in the wall of Konaki Docheiariou 
A (unsharp) detail of the stone with a text from 1924 
On this road you will find building 28, kelli Koutloumousiou 
The road leading back to Konaki Xenofontos (29) and building 26. 
When you turn to the right taking the road leading outside town you’ll find building 26, a kelli from Lavra.
This ends the survey of the group of Konaki in the South East part of Karyes. The Konaki of Dionysiou, Grigoriou and Lavra lie further down the road and are not on the map. I was not able to go find them this time, because they were too far away. Next time I wil show you the remaining five Konaki in the south West part and some other buildings.
Wim, 5/2
Karyes – backside of the Epistatia-building and the tower of the Protaton (3th Oct. 2011)
All the representatives who are part of the Holy Epistatia, the governement of Athos, with the Protos as their chairman, have their own houses in Karyes. Because the representatives of monasteries have to go to meetings often, they prefered to stay in their Konaki: in the old days there were no roads on Athos and everybody had to travel by foot, mule or boat, so it would take too much time to travel back and forth.
Last year I decided to try to get all the Konaki on photo and my plan almost succeded. First of all, not all of the 20 monasteries have a Konaki in Karyes, because one of them, Koutloumousiou, lies only a 15 minute walk from Karyes. Secondly it appeared that the Konaki of Stavronikita and Simonospetras in North and the ones of Dionysiou, Grigoriou and Lavra in the East, were a little far from the centre of town to visit them this time. This gives me allready one reason to go back! I managed to find 15 Konaki.
I will start with showing you the maps I used:
The other map I used was this one (thanks to Kelliotes)
And this is how this map looked after using it on the 3th of October:
I coloured the 15 Konaki that I visited blue, and the roads or paths yellow.
I started walking from the bus/car-parking or shop area (large yellow area), taking the road North towards the Konaki of Sografou, number 61.
Konaki Sografou, nr 6, a building in the shape of a cross
Konaki Sografou – entrance at the backside
While walking further up the road to nr 60, I saw furtherdown on my right side the house of the Gouverner
House nr 60, the Konaki of Agiou Pavlou.
Konaki Agiou Pavlou, front door and well kept
And even further up the hill, after passing some kelli and their gardens, I found the Konaki of Chilandariou.
Konaki Chilandariou, building nr 55
The stone gate leading to Konaki Chilandariou
The I started walking downhill again towards the centre of Karyes.
I passed the buildings nr 50 and 51, both kelli belonging to Chilandariou
Next time more about the other Konaki.
Wim, 2/2/120
My fellow blogger Vasilis found this interview (in Dutch!) with the one the most famous Dutch Athos-’connaisseurs’, mister W.B. Theunissen. It is special that this interview from the early days of television survived and now is to be seen on EUscreen.
Dr Theunissen wrote three books in Dutch about Athos: (see our Book Title List nr 1207)
We payed attention to his books in 389, 390, 399, 408, 632.
Wim, 23/1
Arsanas Lavra
Drawing Arsanas Karakalou
Arsanas Lavra
Drawing Arsanas Lavra
Details of Iviron monastery
Iviron
Athos and mountain
Wim, 30/1
Athos – The movie part III 2011, with the following scenes: boat trip from Ouranopoli to Dafni with Arsanas Sografou, Docheiariou, Xenofontos and Panteleimonos, arriving in Dafni, Karyes, Iviron, Koutloumousiou, Karakalou, Kelli Timiou Stavrou (bells played by Father David), Lavra (Ossuarium) and Skiti Prodromou and back in Ouranopolis.
After climbing the mountain in a hike of 9 hours I was so tired that I forgot to shoot new videos. Brother Herman made this fine film of the top:
Wim, 9/11
One of our traditional hikes on the day before entering Athos, is the short walk to the border. 
The distance is only 2,2 km and it takes about 25 minutes.
At the border you will find a closed gate. The Tsantali bus is to be seen on the other side, waiting for visitors to bring them to the vineyards of Chromitsa. Later this month I will show you how this gate will be opened…….. (also see blog nr 4).
Visiting Zygou monastery: plastic covers your shoes, to protect the glass plates, which are placed over the mosaic-floor of the ruined katholicon.
Zygou: part of a painting is still to be seen
Zygou ground plan
Rocky beach near the Athos border
Sunset in Ouranopoli, seen from the balcony of our favorite and cheap hotel Akrogiali.
Wim, 2/11
To our Dutch readers: buy todays NRC newspaper to read this article by Lex Veldhoen, who visited Athos this spring. As you can read later in this blog, the discussion (or confusion) about how many days your Diamoniterion permits you to stay on the Holy Mountain, three of four days, goes on. We always thought that you have three nigths on Athos and that you had go back the fourth day. In Karyes we have been told that the permission is granted for four nights!
Another thing: if you want to leave for Athos at 9.45 h. here a warning: the big boat Panteleimon is out of order and the traffic is devided between small boats. You have make resevation for these small boats, otherwise you be left standing on the quay of Dafni, as we experienced op October 3th (for more information about this “travel alert” look here). If you want to avoid this trouble, take the large Agia Anna boat at 6.30 from Ouranopolis and at 15.45 (mo to fr) from Dafni. Even better is: we (8 p.) took a privat taxi boat for € 150 from Dafni back to Ouranopolis, a little more expensive, but much quicker!
small boat at Dafni – 3/10/2011
Speed taxi boat
Wim, 29/10
All these years we visited Ouranopolis, we have been looking at the island of Amalouliani: this year we took the opportunity to visit the island. According to our taxidriver Fotis the Southern Islands of Amouliani have the finest beaches in Greece. Just rent a boat for a few euro at Hotel Akrogiali and enjoy the beaches, the fine food and the excellent view of Mount Athos!
The Island has been a Metochi of Vatopediou until the first World War. Due to expropriations the island was lost to Athos (Feigl book).
View of Mount Athos from Amouliani
Clear sea water at Amouliani
Google Earth view of Amouliani (with the small islands on the right)
Amouliani Southern Islands: beach with the boat (and small restaurant, open till the 2th of October) Photo thanks to Jitze
The 2011 pilgrims eating Greek food on the beach
The small Southern islands of Amouliani with the fine unspoiled beaches (Google Earth)
Amouliani cliffs
Commorants at Amouliani (photo Jitze)
Amouliani Islands and beaches (in the background Ouranopolis)
In former days the island was used as an exile for insubordinate and sinfull monks of Athos, nowadays it used by tourists and fishermen.
Tourists Herman and Jacques at Amouliani beach
View of Amouliani
Wim, 27/10
A new Athos map is published 2011 by Rama Editions.
New Athos map
It is for sale for 7 or 8 euros in the bookshop opposite of the tower in Ouranopolis. The owner was sceptical about the quality, because the monastery Koutloumousiou was missing, and indeed he is right.
To give you an idea of what it looks like, I made this picture (on purpose unsharp, because of copyrights).
Here some more information about the publisher:
My local bookshop in Amsterdam told me that Road Edition maps has gone broke, but the Greek bookshop owner said this publisher will continue his business and be back with new maps. We’ll wait and see.
Here some older maps that I have collected lately:
Top at 1935 meters!
map 1575
Map Mallet 1683
map 1875
map 1899 – top at 1935 meters!
From Izihazm.ru
Wim, 19/10
This year we visted the Holy Mountain from October 3th till October 6th with 8 pilgrims: just as last visit in 2009 we split up in two groups (Herman’s and Wim’s group).
Before telling our travel stories and showing the pictures in detail, here are some highlights of our 2011 trip and some tips:
A glass-bottem boat bringing pilgrims to Athos
1. beware if you want to leave at 9.45 h.: the big Panteleimon boat is out of service, so you have to make a reservation for a small boat. We found out the hard way on our last day on the quay of Dafni, when the boat back to Ouranopoli left without us. A good alternative is: take the Agia Anna boat at 6.30: no reservation needed and you will have some extra hours on your first day. Even better is: order a privat taxi boat back to Ouranopoli (€ 120).
Waiting for the permssion (photo thanks to Jitze)
2. if you want ask for permission in Karyes to stay an extra day, inform if there is meeting of the Holy Epistatia. After arriving at 10 we had to wait till 12 o’clock until they were ready for us: at 12.30 we left without the permission, because they were still gathering…… And, never trust the Athos-guards in this building: according to them a Diamoniterion for non-orthodox visitors was valid for four nights, so asking for permission for one extra should not be neccesary. Believe me: the permission is valid for three nights, and you have to leave on day four.
But there was one advantage of waiting so long in Karyes: I was able to take pictures of almost all Konaki’s (houses of the monasteries) in this small town.
Dutch monk in Karakalou (photo thanks to Jitze)
3. Theere a Dutch Orthodox monk in Karakalou! Brother Pachomios already lives for four months in this monastery and told us a lot about monastic live and orthoxy.
The top with the cross and building activities for a new chapel
4. I climbed the Holy Mountain for the first time in my live (and will never do it again!). After a start in Prodromou at 08.00 we arrived at the junction Stavrou at 11. Together with pilgrim Peter I decided to give it a try and go for the top: almost 7 hours later I arrived safely in Skiti Anna, more death then alive, totally exhausted, but happy and satisfied!
Me crossing the Athos border by foot, a special moment!
5. try to visit Chromitsa: it took some effort to come there, not by taxi-boat as planned, but simply by walking over the Athos-border, with it was worth every second!
Patriarch Bartholomeou on the pier of Ouranopoli, October 7th (photo thanks to Jitze)
6.meet important people: after returning from Athos and the Tsantali tour we came close to meet the Patriarch of Constantinopolis on the pier of Ouranopoli. Later that day the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, arrived at the same spot: we only saw his blinded limousine passing, togehter with a lot of security-men. A rumour that Putin also came to visit Athos showed out to be false.
More will be published soon.
Wim, 17/10
Our pilgrimage to Mount Athos 2011 started in Amsterdam. After a short break in Budapest we arrived in Saloniki. We choose not the spent time on travelling by bus, so we asked a taxi driver to wait for us at the airport. With the help Jan Paul ten Bruggencate we booked a taxi for € 120 from a nice guy named Fotis (tel 00 30 693 6955000). This friendly and English speaking taxidriver brought us in 2,5 hours to our hotel Akrogiali, with a view over the Meditarrenean Sea (from October low season prizes € 16 – 20 for a triple or double room).
View of Athos/Chromitsa from hotel Akrogiali
After a lovely meal with sea-bass at Kritikos, one of the best restaurants in town, we passed the old tower, where Sydney en Joyce Loch once lived, now a museum.
Next day we had a look at the new pier being build on the north side of Ouranolpoli, near the Pilgrims bureau.
New pier in progress
Later that morning a high ranked Russian clergyman took a speedboat to Athos.
Speedboat with Russian visitors (photo JB)
Wim, 15/10
Finally all our pictures, starting from August 2006, did return on our weblog, so it is time to do some catching up. Today I will start with copying all our posts from athosweblog.wordpress.com and closing down this weblog once and for all.
In the following days we will busy tagging all our 1550 posts or so with categories again, because they seem to be disppeared. But we are happy that our work of the last years did show up again and our rich photo archive of Athos did return.
Wim Voogd sitting, Herman Voogd with red cap and 6 friends from Holland, who stayed on Athos from October 3-5th 2011
Wim, 23/1
Last week I bought this French magazine from April 8th 1961 (nr 626), with an article about Athos, written by Jean Maquet and photos by Pierre Vals (for an older article from 1959 in a Dutch magazine see blog 664 - at the moment still without photos).
First page
Vatopedi courtyard
Probably monastery Vatopediou
Vatopediou – monk and semantron
Monk in his cell
Hermit in his cell
Detail of the previous photo: next to an empty bottle of wine a box with “condensed milk prepared in Holland”!
Three young monks
Katholikon Dionysiou – “the monastery was almost deserted”, says the writer in 1961
Hermit at the “desert”
Inside a katholikon
Portrait of a monk
and above you can see the text of the article (in French).
Wim, 15/1
As long as I have been visiting Karyes I always wondered what this big ruined building – with a church – looked like. In October last year I finally could take a closer look (also to a nearby small house – see plans and pictures below).
Karyes – 27/9/2009: In the front/centre: the large building with a ruined church.
The small picture is from 3/5/2007: the same building from a different angle.
First I will show you where the building is located on the Karyes map:
Here the large building with the church is coloured in red.
Another plan of Karyes with buildings in red (from the Zwerger map)
Just beside the large ruined building you can find a small house, that is still inhabited.
Front door of the small house with a Crucified Christ on the door and a rope to open it (and a text in Greek above the door).
Here you can see the large ruined building with the same church as shown above near the small house (church almost completely covered with creepers).
Church covered in creepers
Closing in on the large ruined building: everything looks oke, but when I had a look on the backside thing looked different!
Although there was a path, the backside of the building was totally overgrown. Almost all windows were smashed/removed.
The front door of the ruined building, with a cross above it. Luckily the year 1913 is still to be seen, although it won’t take long before this ornament will fall down. I believe this building must be build by Russians, not only because the year 1913, but also because of its architecture.
Inside the large building: rubbish and even some untouched windows, while the vegetation is trying to “eat” the building!
Then I tried to get a closer look at the church that belongs to the large building: the entrance to the church was already collapsed and overgrown by trees and bushes. It was to dangerous to go any futher, because the whole complex could fall down any time. I think it would not take long before this remarkeble building of Karyes will disappear forever.
The church with its dome of copper and some remnants of stainded glass.
Wim, 13/1
Ouranopolis: the room where every pilgrimage to Athos starts: the Pilgrimsbureau. At 6 o’clock in the morning we picked up our Diamonitirion (October 3th 2011).
In front of the Pilgrimsbureau: a final check before leaving for the boat at 6.30 h. Tip: do not eat breakfast in one of the cafes, you can buy food and coffee on board of the Ag. Anna.
Sunrise over Mount Athos from the Ag. Anna
Near Monoxylitis (Ag. Nicolaou): Tria Adelfia (three brothers), also the name of the best wine they produce at this small settlement (unsharp picture!)
Daybreak at Mount Athos
After leaving the boat at Dafni most pilgrims go to the left to see the shops and wait in a restaurant for the bus to leave. This picture is taken on the road, after turning to the right. This road that leads you to some (deserted) buildings. They are seldom photographed and the purpose of most of these buildings is not known to me.
Dafni from Google Earth: the road to the right is just behind the yellow marker (and the ticket/customs office) .
Dafni – old houses, not far from the only public toilet (bring your own paper!)
Dafni – new ‘supermarket”
Dafni – an old deserted building near the sea side. On the background the only church in Dafni.
Dafni – houses and the church, near the chanelled mouth of the creek
Dafni – the dried up mouth of the creek
Dafni – another unknown corner of this small town
Wim, 9/1 (next time pictures form Karyes and its konaki)
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