Day 15 Tbilisi

Day 15 was a somewhat relaxed day to see Tbilisi.  Unfortunately Tbilisi is having record heat (over 100) so we had to scale back plans and make sure we were out of the sun in the afternoon.  We still had a nice time exploring the city though.

Lincoln was as usual nuts when we woke up.  He got up pretty early and didn't get enough sleep because it was hot.  

First stop of the morning was to get iced coffee and an iced cherry drink to keep Lincoln cool

There is like nobody on the streets before 10 am so getting a picture of this sign was easier

We walked through old town on the way up to ride the funicular to the top of the hill with the TV tower.  Old town is mix of newly fixed up houses and buildings that look like they could collapse at any time.  It is mostly charming.

And we arrived after hiking up to the lower funicular station to find out it was closed until 2 pm (it was only like 10 am at this point)

Then we thought we could stop at the park across the street and let Lincoln stretch out and play, but he had just fallen asleep.  So our next plan was to find the big market and make sure we had everything we needed for breakfast and cool snacks.

On the way we found this cute little garden

And here is the market.  We spent quite a bit of time in there finding what we needed (including more pouches for Lincoln who is mostly on an eating regular food strike) and of course cooling down for the trip to lunch

We took the metro which was cheap and fast

Lincoln checking out the metro

And the next stop was Cafe Flowers for lunch with this view

Lincoln loved the view, we had to keep pulling him over to the shade and away for the railings.  Everything was "bubbles"

Green salad fries lemonade and some meat for lunch.  Lincoln is still willing to eat fries if there is dipping sauce, so we have had a lot of fries.

And final stop before escaping the heat for the afternoon was a boat ride on the Bojormi boat along the river.  We did the 50 min option and it was less than $10 per person.  

Lincoln mostly had the boat to himself to run wild

We enjoyed a pitcher of cheap wine on the cruise.  Lincoln learned how to cheers with his water and then that was all he wanted to do.

Only way this could have been better was if it wasn't 100 degrees

Then it was back to our room to say good bye to Kate and rest until the sun started going down.  Lincoln wanted nothing to do with resting.  We woke from our nap to find him wearing all my bras on his neck.  At least he was cool

Then we did the 5 pm walking tour.  We brought tons of water, avoided all sun and kept splashing Lincoln down.  He seemed ok because he managed to sleep for the first hour.

Here he is enjoying his fruit and ice smoothie

Replica of man drinking wine statue from thousands of years ago.  Georgia claims to be the birthplace of wine and there is something like 600 native varieties of grapes.  We have had lots of wine and I can say it is good and cheap

We stopped at the oldest bakery in Tbilisi to see how they make the traditional bread.

We also stopped at this underground market the was really cool (both temperature and contents)

Then we walked to a waterfall hidden right above the thermal baths in old town

Lincoln loved the waterfall and slightly cooler temperatures

View of only mosque and old town after we hiked up some spiral staircases

When we stopped to take pictures as usual a nice family thought Lincoln was really cute.  They all walked around with him for like 10 min

Then the tour was over we went back to the bazar to find a few gifts.  The lady working gave Lincoln some chocolate.  We let him hold it because we thought he couldn't get into it...that was a poor choice

We think he got mostly chocolate cherries and not the wrapper but who really knows.

And finally some good views of Tbilisi.  The view was actually even better because our entire part of the city lost power so there were no lights around us

We ate our bread cheese and meat dinner on the terrace by flashlight

Lincoln enjoying the flash light

The electricity came back on at 10 pm and then we were scrambling to get Lincoln to bed.  Unfortunately 10:30 our host decided to come talk to us and she brought the entire family to play with Lincoln.  They do tend to stay up until midnight (even babies) and since our host didn't speak English we could not figure out how to be like please get out of our apartment so we can go to bed.  They finally left at like 11:20

Then we watched a little colbert, finished up the wine and enjoyed our last night of view of Tbilisi

The next day we are off to Armenia to explore country number 3 on our trip!

Day 14 Mestia back to Tblisi

Day 14 was mostly a travel day with some cool stops along the way.  It is about 7-8 hours of straight driving from Mestia back to Tbilisi so it was a long day, but we stopped at a few really cool places again.  It was also our last day with George and Real Georgia tours.

The day started pretty early with breakfast at our hotel.  Lincoln mostly refused breakfast but again he was just carried around by hotel staff

Lincoln running wild in the courtyard before we left

Still on Georgian time for our pickup (20 min late), but we did get going at 8:20

Last views of the mountains on the way out of Svanti

We made a quick stop here because George wanted mineral water and caffine for the long drive

Quick stop on the side of the road to see the reservoir

The Enguri dam which is the second biggest in the world.  It was built by the Soviets in the 1950's.  Now it supplies something like half the countries power, but much of it goes to the breakaway regions that Russia is messing with

Lincoln enjoyed the dam view very much.  We had to keep him from leaning too far over.

Next stop was lunch in Zugdidi.  We ate at a European place that had real coffee and beer and air conditioning!

Random assortment of lunch.  It was pizza, salad, beef stir fry and Kate got virenoky 

As usual the owner was super friendly.  She let Lincoln play the piano and he loved it!  Also pictured in George our tour guide who was helping him out

Next short stop was in a town that specialized in clay pots.  I got a small one with some wine decoration for our souvenir cabinet.

Final stop was the amazing Uplistsikhe cave monestary just outside Gori (where Stalin was from).  King Tamar had a residence here and otherwise there was a church and wine making facilities in a lot of cool caves.  Kate decided it was too hot and sat this one out, but honestly while it was hot at least the sun was starting to set and it was only 95

Dinky with a view of the old city ruins below the caves

Great scenary including shepards and sheep

Wow!

That is a pretty got shot of what the caves and church looked like

There were some goats in with the sheep.  They were headed to the river for a drink.

Lincoln enjoyed the caves and running around in them

The queen (or Georgian word king) residences

There were so many of these cute lizards!

Secret cave exit.  When it was actually a secret the inhabitants used this passage to escape of there was invaders.  

On the way out there was a place selling real ice coffee and milkshakes.  Lincoln loved his milkshake so much he drank nearly the entire thing!

And finally back in Tblisi.  After a number of issues ordering dinner we finally got our fish and chips!

Family fish and chips.  Of course Lincoln only ate french fries and dipping sauce, his food of choice on this vacation

And finally after Lincoln went to sleep we had some of our Sheki desert on our terrace with a great view of Tblisi!