The Monastery of Koufi Petra on Crete

The Monastery of Koufi Petra is a new monastery near the town of Neapoli and is accessible from a junction on the road from Vrisses to Neaopoli. Here we had a very friendly reception, which was very nice especially after the unfriendly monks we met at the monastery of Gouvernetou a few days earlier. Usually the opening hours of the monasteries in Greece start around 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning until around 1 or 2 in the afternoon and after that they will open to the public again at 4 or 5 in the afternoon for a couple of hours. In any case we arrived at the monastery at Petra Koufi while it was closed. I still tried the door to see if it opened and a nice gentleman came who opened the gate to let us inside. Than a very friendly nun came to us with the keys to open the church doors so we could see the inside. The church contains new but beautiful wall paintings and icons and is richely decorated. Proudly it was presented to us. We walked around admiring the beautiful views from the monastery and when we left there was the same nun waiting for us the exit. This time she had a cookie jar for us in her hands as she said us goodbye. They were so friendly here and that made it a really nice experience.