Georgia

Sighnaghi

Georgia, one of my favourite countries! There is so much history in this area that you don’t even realize you know. Think Bible stories and Greek mythology.

We said goodbye to Azerbaijan and hello to our second last country. Our local guide, Nutsa, and driver, Valentina, waited for us outside the immigration office. Already we felt welcome in their country.

It was a short drive to Sighnaghi, where we are staying for two nights. In fact, all out drives in Georgia will be short. It is not a very big country. But we will spend lots of time on the road. There is so much to do and see in Georgia that it is impossible to get anywhere quickly.

We are staying in homestays again. It is not the same as the ones in Kyrgyzstan. But it is not all that much different. There is even more hospitality, if you can believe it. We are staying with Nana and Lali in their houses.

Sighnaghi is a small little town at the top of a hill. There is a four kilometer wall around and through the city. You can visit the nearby convent. You can even see the snowy Caucasus Mountains some sixty kilometres away from town. But the best thing is that at last we can drink some decent wine! Many of the unique Georgian wine varieties are nothing to write home about, but then there is the Saperavi variety. I will say nothing more. Just remember the name and make sure you try some when you get to Georgia.

We went for a fancy wine tasting and dinner at the Pheasant’s Tears winery and restaurant in town. They make outstanding wine you can find all over Georgia in fancy restaurants and fancy wine shops.

Sighnaghi

Convent

Telavi

We had a busy day today. We visited the Gremi Monastery and the Alaverdi Cathedral. The cathedral was built in the eleventh century, is fifty metres high and was the highest Cathedral for more than one thousand years.

After the cathedral we went to a bee keepers operation. They explained how things work and what problems they face. There is more to honey than what you would think!

Then it was off to do a wine tasting. It started out slow. The Georgian wine is not what we are used to back home. But after the first couple of tastes things got better and the wine flowed more freely. The wine maker brought out his cha-cha and drinking horns. He invited us for dinner and we got our first real big Georgian feast. What an experience. A toast was made to everything and anything – from our mothers to the weather. There was some more wine bought and we were off to our guesthouse. It is in an old mansion converted into a guesthouse. I hope everybody gets up tomorrow morning!

Gremi

Alaverdi Cathedral

Bee hives

Honey extractors - modern equipment contrasts with the traditional bee keeping

Wine cellars

Winemaker

900 litre clay pots are buried under the ground, these small holes the only evidence!

The top of one of the clay pots - the grapes are loaded into the pots through here, and then left to ferment with regular stirring

Georgian feast

Traditional Georgian toasting horns

Toasting is much more than just "cheers" in Georgia, instead they are heartfelt toasts covering all aspects of life

More wine!

Tbilisi

Tbilisi is Georgia’s capital city. Like many of the cities in Europe and Asia, it has an old part and a developing new city around it. We are staying right on the edge of the old city with a spectacular view over it all.

Nutsa took us on a city walking tour and showed us the sights and explained about the history. The city was founded in the spot because of a natural hot spring. The king at that time built baths around it and it became a hot spot for travellers on the silk route to pull over for some down time and a business meeting. We also walk past a mosque, left over from one of the short periods when the city was under outsider rule. We ended our walk at the quirky bell tower outside the puppet theatre. The clock struck noon and out came an angel to hit the bell.

On our last night in Tbilisi we went for another Georgian feast and dance show.

On the way to Tbilisi

Tbilisi

Kutaisi

On the way to Kutaisi we stopped at the Stalin Museum in Gori to get the official history of Stalin. It is a big impressive building in an otherwise not so big and impressive normal Georgian town. Stalin’s childhood house next to the museum building seems to fit better.

After that we went to the Uplistsikhe caves. It is an ancient city dug out of the rock on the side of a hill. It makes you think of Turkey. We had lunch there and then headed on to Kutaisi, a large town on the way to Batumi, our last stop in Georgia.

Stalin museum

Stalin's childhood house

Uplistsickhe

Batumi

Batumi is on the Black Sea. It is a big port town and economically important to Georgia for the oil and gas that runs through it.

We have two nights here; one full day to explore the relaxing streets of this quiet town. We headed off to a coffee shop for the morning and up the hill with the cable car after lunch. There is great view of the sea and land and city from the top. It is a great place for a sundowner.

The Black Sea, Batumi

Dancing fountains

Farewell Georgia, hello Turkey!