Tourism in and around Tbilisi, Capital of Georgia

Today all four of us Lynel, Dennis  Nico, and I were given Covid PCR in our hotel rooms. We need these tests with negative results to leave Georgia and to enter our respective destinations. My test came back negative which means I can do the second to last leg of my trip which takes me to Berlin on Tuesday morning. Of course, I will have to have a new PCR test in Berlin to enter Canada.

Nico and I had decided to get a former au pair girl of his son to be our guide on Monday. It turned out she could not get away from the British school where she works as it will be the first day of school. So we decided to do our tourist excursion today, Sunday.


Mariam (29) and her husband Nico (28) came to the hotel at around 11 am and we planned the day's visits. Mariam is Georgian and 10 years ago she spent a year as an au pair in Nico's son's family in Hamburg and then did a further year before returning to Georgia. Her German was good and she was a good guide. Her husband Nico had a nice Japanese car with good air conditioning. This was good as it was very hot today.

We decided to go to:

1. Old Tbilisi, Metkchi Church, which was built on the high bluff overlooking the capital. It was built in the 13 century and is still standing strong. It being Sunday, it was clearly wedding day as we saw weddings in every church we saw today. I was able to get some pictures of many icons as Georgia is a Russian Orthodox country

2. Mtsketa, which is about 20 km from Tbilisi. It is one of the oldest cities in Georgia and the former capital in the 3rd century. It is actually a walled city with the church in the middle. Some 70,000 persons lived in and around this walled city in the middle east. Now, only the Church and the house of the priest are within the walled city.

3 Juari Monastery which is located high in the mountain looking down on Mtsketa. This place is known as the Monastery of the Cross.

After finishing our tourism, Mariam asked if we would come to their house and visit the Grandmother who so much wanted to see Nico Nissen. She speaks Turkish and so does Nico.  We agreed and it became a family reunion with Grandma, Mariam's sister Nina and her two boys.  As is the custom in this country, grandma had put together a full spread of food including watermelon, a huge plate of pastries, dried fruits, fresh fruits, and ice cream. As we had just finished lunch, we really could not eat much and even had them put the ice cream back into the freezer. The family insisted on pictures with us. It was so nice to be in such a big Georgian family. This is the kind of experience that makes traveling so much fun.

We later took Mariam and Nico to dinner on the top of the mountain where the funicular runs.  Nico insisted on showing us that one can also drive up to the top by a well-built road.  On the top, we had a nice light dinner with a wonderful view of the light-up city below. We had a full meal with beer and soda water. In my great generosity, I paid for the meal for 4 persons which came to only US$ 31. A wonderful evening and thank you, Mariam and Nico.

Pictures of today's adventures are at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wTiKmkDnZxiTjK2E6


Good night. Tomorrow is the last day in Georgia.

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