Sumela Monastery

What an interesting day!  Yesterday in Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea in Northeastern Turkey, it was raining when we arrived on the plane from Ankara.  According to Weather Underground it was going to be partly cloudy today (Wed) so we scheduled a trip to Sumela Monastery.  Sumela clings to a sheer rock wall about 750 feet up a switch back trail (3km).  That alone would have been interesting; but, yesterday’s rain in Trabzon was snow on the mountain.  There were 5 of us on the trip and we were the first tourists up the trail with about 4 inches of fresh snow on a beautiful sunny day.  It was amazing how this monastery was ever built so long ago.  The earliest examples of the frescos (which are badly damaged) were from the 9th century.  The damage was from “bored shepherd boys” according to the guide book but most of the damage was done by really “stupid” tourists who carved their names into the walls!!  What were they thinking.  We got a few good pictures and our luck held, we were able to find a charger for our camera so we can continue to take pictures.