Postcards from abroad
We leave Tbilisi at the unseemly hour of 5.00 am tomorrow morning, so this is our final post. We spent a lovely last day sampling the sulphur baths which involved booking our own little changing room and bath and hanging out in stinky hot water for an hour. We also visited the Botanical Gardens (a… Continue reading Farewell from Georgia
We’re back in Tbilisi as close followers of the blog will have noticed from the opening shot of street art. This time, we made it to the national museum of Georgia which houses the most amazing collection of Georgian gold (remember the Colchis fountain back in Kutaisi which is based on some of these antiquities?).… Continue reading Tbilisi pleasures
Our astute readers will have picked up that traditional Georgian wine is made in qveveri - distinctively shaped earthenware jars buried in the ground. We have seen ancient qveveri in the grounds of churches - in this case a a sixth-century one: (the monks and nuns were and are expert winemakers): The church builders This… Continue reading Qvevri and the Hotel Qvevrebi
I had read about the Kists who live in the Pankisi valley under the shadow of the Greater Caucasus. They came originally from Chechnya and settled here from the 17th to 19th century. They were accused by the Russians of kidnapping and terrorism during the second Chechen War but today this is a peaceful valley… Continue reading Georgia’s Muslim Kists – a special Sufi ceremony
We are exploring the main wine region of Georgia which is in the south-east and runs parallel to the Caucasus (with Russia on the other side and Azerbaijan an hour away). Traditionally, Georgian wine is made in qverebis which are buried underground: To be honest, we aren’t keen on qverebi wines so the many hundreds… Continue reading Kakheti wine region – but no wine