Day 11 was a travel day, but also full of fun stops along the way.  We started our tour to Mestia with Real Georgia tours.  We made it as far as Zugdidi and stopped many times along with way.

The morning started when Kate and I went in search of an ATM.  This is the morning view

ATM found, but then we figured out we were at our limit of cash out for 24 hours.  Turns out absolutely everything on our trip needed to be paid in cash.  When you are doing a 4 day tour that is a lot of cash.  Thank goodness it was just a daily limit thing though and not the ATM card not working anymore.

Lincoln was his usual crazy self in the morning.  He ran laps around the apartment while we packed

Our SUV was small and really packed.  They sent a 5 passenger regular size SUV so we had to repack into 1 large bag and small bags.  Even then it was a little cramped

Road sign wishing us a happy journey as we left Tbilisi

6th Century fort on the way to our first stop.  There was some legend about a father burying his only son in the walls so the fort could be built

Again lots of towns were selling specific things.  This little town sold sweet bread which is bread made over flames with raisins in it.

This is what the bread looks like.  Our guide got us some

Lincoln was a huge fan.  He kept packing his mouth full and asking for more

Next stop was lunch with a view. Lincoln and Zach were reading the menu

This was the view from our lunch spot

Part of our lunch.  It is leeks with garlic and walnuts and something else.

First real stop was this national park outside Kustasi.  It is known for its forests and dinosaur fossils.

They built a shelter over one area of dinosaur bones

Here is a footprint up close

Overview from part of the hike.  It was also along some cliffs that had so many wild bees living it in that honey just dripped from the cliffs

Part of the forest along the walk to the caves

Lincoln and Zach in the cave in front of the stony heart

More views of the cave

Dinosaur bones in a greenhouse on a hot day

There was a glass viewing platform that stuck out over the cliff.  Lincoln loved it!  He really didn't want to leave

Next stop was Martvili Canyon.  At the canyon Zach and I took a 20 min boat ride into the canyon to a waterfall, Kate and Lincoln stayed behind because Kate wasn't interested in the boat ride.  The canyon was beautiful!

After the boat ride we all did a short hike to see the waterfall part of the canyon.

On the way back up from the canyon Lincoln wanted to walk and see the sights. 

We stopped and got some ice cream that everybody enjoyed in the car

Then we had about a 1.5 hour car ride to Zugdidi.  It was through a sea of endless cows on the road in small villages.  I swear every house has a herd of cows that park on the road.  Also the cows are in no hurry.

Views of the mountains as we got closer to Zugdidi

After a brief search for our apartment and a short talk with our hosts 9 year old grand daughter who is learning English Zach and I set out to find food for breakfast and dinner.  We stopped at this supermarket where everybody followed us around trying to pinch Lincoln's checks.

We decided this would be our one McDonalds stop on the trip.  It was fast and reliably edible.  They also had all sorts of strange burgers with no descriptions.  Zach and I went for the strange burgers, Kate got a cheeseburger and Lincoln got a chicken nugget happy meal

We brought the food back to our apartment where everybody ate and quickly got ready for bed.

On the way back an old lady stopped to talk to Lincoln and then gave him these 2 random candies out of her pocket

Zach's goal burger shapped like a soccer ball.  It was no worse than McDonalds in the states.  We have had our fill of bad american food for the trip though.

Tomorrow we have a shorter drive to Mestia.  I am also going to get further behind on the blog.  While Mestia does have internet it is really slow so it has taken 2 days to get this blog written.  Also none of the pictures are uploaded yet.  Once we get back to Tblisi I will update more.  As a teaser there are some amazing pictures of mountains and medieval towers coming!

Day 10 Exploring eastern Georgia

Due to bad internet and crazy days I got behind on the blog.  I am going to jump ahead so we are only 1 day behind (which is always true so the pictures have time to upload).  Hopefully I will got back to catch days 7-9, but we will see

Day 10 was a busy day with Real Georgia tours seeing many of the sights in Eastern Georgia.  The main stops where in Davit Gareja and Sighnaghi for a wine tasting.  Another long but really good day!

Morning breakfast in our apartment in Tbilsi.  We had picked up everything from the Carrefor yesterday

Lincoln strapped in and checking out the scenery as we left Tbilisi.

This trip has involved cows everywhere.  They are generally on all the roads and take their time moving for cars.

It was about 2 hours to drive to Davit Gareja.  This was the view as we got closer.  The area is actually super dry and basically a desert but it was a little green while we were there.

The road there was ridiculous.  It is basically no better than atv tracks for much of the way.  The guide said the EU had given money to repair the road but it was "lost" by the government.  I have no idea how a motorcycle made this trip.  There were literally car size holes in the road.

Here is the entrance to Davit Gareja.  It is a cave monestary that was ransacked like 400 years ago and only recently been restored.

Some of the caves where the monks live.  At one point there was like 600 monks living here from Syria (500 years ago), now there are about 30

The view up the hill.  Over the top of the hill is the border with Azerbaijan.  It is disputed territory.  We had wanted to take a hike to the border at the top, but between it being well over 90, the threat of border guards and large amounts of deadly snakes we skipped that part.

Next was the long drive to Sighnaghi where we had lunch and wine tasting waiting.  Along the way we passed through many villages selling different things for each village.  This village made bread.  We went to visit a bread maker.  It is all done the old way and it was really hot in there.  It is called mother's bread.

Churchkhela is the national "candy".  It is nuts that are covered in sweet grape juice and dried.  One village specialized in this and we stopped and saw where some is made.

We also stopped for sheep cheese, which Lincoln really liked

And finally we made it to our wine tasting and "lunch" at Okro's wines at 4 pm

Lincoln and I enjoying the view on the 3rd floor terrace

The view was amazing!

Zach had quail for lunch

Lincoln loved our sommalier.  Luckily she was cool with having Lincoln want to climb and sleep on her

Lincoln ran laps back and forth on the balcony while we did wine tasting of 3 Georgian wines and Brandy

The wine celler where they still make wines in clay pots (and use the same gas valve that we use on our beer!).

Lincoln checking out the clay pot

Next we walked around Sighnaghi.  This is a statue of a doctor on a horse by the river.  It reminded me of any old European walled city.  But the location was great on top of a hill with great views all around.  Also it kept it's charm through communism

This dog was so sweet!  He was limping but he still followed us for most of our tour.  I wish we could have taken him home with us.  There have been lots of street dogs and cats around.

Next up was the Bodne Convent or St. Nino's Monestary.  This is the newer church they are making.  There was also an older church the houses the remains of St. Nino who brought Christianity to the area (I think in the 4th century)

The nuns had a great garden that they were tending while we were there.

Tower near the entrance

Lincoln loved the view!  He kept saying bubbles which is his general word for awesome

After about 2 hours of driving we were back in Tbilisi at 9 pm.  We enjoyed a bottle of wine

And some American pizza delivered to our apartment by Rodney's pizza

After packing we headed to sleep.  In the morning we start our trip to Svanti region.