Tour Day 6: “Stock up on brekky and embark on a sightseeing tour of Tbilisi with a local guide. Tbilisi is a city of colour, of old and new, and your tour this morning will give you a glance at its history from the early centuries AD to now, through its sites and diverse architecture. You’ll also pass by the renowned 19th century houses of multicoloured balconies, synonymous with the Tbilisian skyline.
“Take a panoramic cable car ride from Rike Park up to the Narikala Fortress, then wander down to the sulfur baths, which are set on the thermal springs that give the Georgian capital its name. After your guided tour, have a free afternoon to relax, perhaps with a spa treatment!”
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OK, a city walking tour, Let’s Go! Here’s the local guide.
I’m going to put these in the order we walked in hopes of figuring out what’s what.
On the way down the hill from our KMM Hotel, passed by every day to get anywhere, the Virgin Mary Assumption Church of Metekhi.
Continuing down the hill, I like the look of these buildings.
Into Old Town Central.
The tamada, or toastmaster, an important role in Georgian social life.
This Sioni Cathedral, one of those churches that has been refurbished a number of times. (First built in the 6th–7th century, renovated in the 13th century, and again in the 17th–18th century. The belfry was added in 1812.)
Strolling down the pedestrianized Shardeni Street, packed with restaurants and shops.
This is the The Anchiskhati Basilica of St Mary, the oldest surviving church in Tbilisi.
Cool, right.
Copied from gabriadze.com “In 2010 Rezo Gabriadze built a unique clock tower next to the marionette theatre in Tbilisi old town. Every hour an angel comes out to ring the bell with a small hammer. There is a small mechanical puppet theatre inside the tower and twice a day at noon and at 7pm you can see the show – “The Circle of Life”. Rezo decorated the tower with hundreds of tiles which he designed himself and it instantly became a major architectural attraction of Tbilisi.”
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The group took the cable car ride from Rike Park. These are views in every direction.
At the top end of the cable car, when you disembark, on the left is the Narikala Fortress (currently closed) and the St Nicholas’s Orthodox Church. We didn’t go that way. Turning to the right is the Mother of Georgia, also on the right in this picture. On the left is Mother Armenia. Notice the differences. They are both poised to protect the homeland at any cost but Mother Georgia also holds a cup, of wine according the guide, to welcome guests.
And on our way to lunch we passed through an underground tunnel overflowing with Things. Our guide has an expression she uses because we have among us some serious shoppers. She says ‘now is not time for shopping, free time is for shopping, now is time for getting there’. It’s funny.
I don’t remember the name of the restaurant. Too bad about that because the food was great and the lighting and the wallpaper were cool.
Ksenia usually ordered the food and we shared. It was great because everyone was happy with the arrangement. This is the Georgian specialty, Khinkali, available in most restaurants. Here they are in three slightly different shapes because each shape is different. We have cheese, mushroom, and meatball. This is my first chichi of the trip, a kind of grappa, made in many flavors. I like it.
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After lunch Merlyn and I caught the funicular for a ride up to the Natural Wine Festival Zero Compromise. Hilda wanted to do something else and didn’t join this time. There’s a whole amusement park up there but the wine festival was so gigantic we didn’t even think about looking around.
They fill these cinnamon and sugar delights with ice cream and various other treats. I better get one before I leave Georgia.
Notice the umbrellas on the right are the wine pavilions where they will pour all the wine you want to drink. On the left of the walkway are other things no one wants when there’s free wine to be had. The guy in the second picture was a real charmer. We stood around visiting for long while and learned a lot about his winery.
I have that toothpick in my mouth because I was using it to pick up the bits of bread, cheese, olive, dried fruit, etc that were also on offer in the wine booths.
Oh the intoxicating smell. We decided to have some food up here.
Here was a large table for sharing and this sweet family was so kind and generous. We had a great time.
And then we took the funicular down and walked the 20-30 minutes back.
Later that night, at the hotel I was hearing this crowd outside my window and noise that went on and on, so I got up. Oh Look! The demonstrators (I learned this later) were on their way to the metro stop. All the 10s of thousands were passing under my window! It went on for hours.
Interestingly not one family member or friend or even a friend of a friend asked me about the demonstrations even though so so many people know I’m in Tbilisi. What does this say about our connection to the world, I don’t know, probably nothing, being such a small sample…
Here’s a youtube from Radio Free Europe that has some good pictures.
