A few minor sites on our way back to Tbilisi. We stopped at the Shaumta Monastery Complex (6-16th C), still active with a group of priests and nuns. The fresco paintings that survived in the church were spectacular. Most were destroyed by the Russians who whitewashed all the walls of the churches.
From there, we stopped at Alaverdi Cathedral, a 11th C church and at Ikalto Academy (11th C). Finally, we stopped at Gremi Architectural Complex (16-17th C) and climbed to the top of the tower to get a view of the complex.
We requested an unscheduled stop at the local winery where you could supposedly get a tasting of fine Georgian wine. Our driver was thrilled with the challenge of finding a new place to explore and set about asking everyone how to get to the winery. We finally found it and enlisted a woman from the main office to help us. She had to get the local workers to stop their welding to divert the electricity to the tunnel (they also told us about the two snakes they had killed just that morning). Once inside, we walked for quite a way down a huge tunnel cut into the mountain. The actual tunnel was 7 km long with 6.5 km of lateral tunnels running off of it. The room was filled with gigantic metal wine castes, each about 10 feet in diameter, sitting side by side. We made our way to one of the vats and had a tasting. The old man pouring the wine made 30 lari a month (about $1/day) and hadn’t been paid in 5 months.
Note- most Georgian cars have broken windshields because of the horrible road conditions. And, most drivers choose not to replace them when they crack. They just leave them cracked- there’s less likelihood of them being stolen.
Dinner at the Santa Fe…Mexican music with Georgian lyrics and a table of drunk Georgian men. After dinner, we tried some local Georgian champagne in our hotel restaurant. They should probably stick to wine.
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