Exploring the special places of Western Europe for over a year was wonderful. Of course we couldn’t see all of any one country in a month, but we had picked some of the highlights in Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, Portugal, Monaco, Italy and Greece. Now as we prepare ourselves for what will be the most exciting part of our Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, following the Silk Road, some might wonder, what’s it all about?

Dear Friends all over the World
From our Home to Yours
We wish you Happy Holidays or a Merry Christmas
And for all, a wonderful New Year.
Let it be full of Health, Happiness & Adventure!
May our Christmas Gift be the Wish for Peace
For all the People Around the World.

Warm regards,
Gary and Monika
The Turtle Expedition, Unltd.

Perhaps you have never noticed that over the millennia, religion has been at the forefront of all history. Before “history” was even recorded there were poems and stories, learned, repeated, changed and eventually accepted as fact. Homer’s Odyssey and The Iliad are classic examples. Since there were no cameras or other means of recording what “was”, all religion in some way are based on mythology and the interpretation of mythology.

During the last few months in Europe we had seen more than our share of churches and monasteries, but as we drove through the valley north of Kalambáka we saw the first of the amazing monasteries of Metéora, balanced on what seemed to be totally impossible rocky pinnacles and cones, surrounded by sheer cliffs. The mind first asks “how”, followed by “why”. We parked and stood looking up at one of the greatest sights of mainland Greece. Metéora literally means “middle of the sky”, “suspended in the air” or “in the heavens above”.