train from Athens to Meteora

Jason, I just made this trip in early June. The train actually goes to Kalambaka, the nearest small city to the Meteora region and monasteries, maybe a 15 or 20-minute drive away. The train makes many stops, and took about 6 hours or a little longer, somewhat longer than the schedule indicated. The train ride got very boring, good if you can sleep on trains, not my strength. I actually arranged my trip through a group called "Visit Meteora" (or close to that) which arranged round trip train tickets, going one morning, returning the next evening, plus a nice hotel room with breakfast, and then a 3 to 4 hour sunset tour of the monasteries (inside the only one still open), and another 3 to 4 hour morning tour, including several monasteries which were open. Infinite photo ops. That left a free evening for dinner in Kalambaka, and then a few hours from lunchtime until the train left in the late afternoon, both enjoyable times in a small city. One bonus was that the sunset tour made a stop at a beautiful, small and very ancient (11th century?) Greek Orthodox Church in Kalambaka, with overwhelming original frescoes inside. The visit was so short that I ended up walking through town and up its hills to visit the church my second afternoon as well. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside. On my second visit I waited until I was the only visitor there, and tried to sweet talk the attendant lady into letting me take just a couple interior photos, but she would have none of that. And sadly, there were no decent books or even postcards of the church.