Route to Tibilisi and Sighnaghi
After our visit to Uplistsikhe we were on our way to Tbilisi. Our original plan was to drive 3 hours to Sighnaghi and stay a night then to return to Tbilisi the next day where we planned to stay for the last three days of our road trip.
A couple of days ago, we changed our plan, we would drive to Tbilisi and stayed four nights in Tbilisi old town. We would still visit Sighnaghi on one of the four days in Tbilisi via a public transport, this lightened the driving load on Yat Thong as by now we were really not “fans” of Georgia roads!
Lucky for us we were able to make the necessary changes to our accommodations in booking.com (Tbilisi amd Sighnaghi) without any penalty.
Jvari Monastery
Jvari Monastery built on top of Mount Jvari was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994. It was located just outside Tbilisi about 24km north of the city. Wewas convenient to stop by Jvari Monastery on our way to the city.
This VI century church and monastery, was located on the rocky mountain peak, east of Mtskheta town at the mouth of the river Mtkvari(Kura River)nd Aragvi.
SigHnaghi
We went by public transport, intercity bus, that took us from Tbilisi to Sighnaghi and back on the same day. The bus terminal was at Navtlugi intercity Bus Terminal, near Samgori Railway Station. We left our stay early in the morning and drove to Navlugi Intercity Bus Terminal, near the terminal we found a free parking spot by the roadside where we left our car.
We arrived early at the bus terminal and the ticketing booth was not yet operating. Once the staff came in we bought our tickets at 10Gel/pax. At about 9.30am the first bus to Sighnaghi started its journey with a full load of passengers.
It took about 2+ hours to reach Sighnaghi, it was two hours of shakes and bumps as our driver speeded towards Sighnaghi. At Sighnaghi town our bus pulled into a open space, Sighnaghi Bus Station. From the bus station we took a slow walk to town and all the way to Sighnaghi Wall.
The town was nice and neat, a lovely quaint town with cobblestone streets and medieval architecture. The walk was very pleasant. Sighnaghi was a town in Georgia easternmost region of Kakheti. It was often considered as one of the prettiest places to visit in all of Georgia.
After passing the town central we walked towards Sighnaghi Wall about 500m from the town.
Sighnaghi wall was built in the 18th century. It was a 4km wall, with 28 towers. Presently only a part of the wall was visible. We walked on an elevated path built by the wall that led us past two towers, the path continued to where the wall turned left. That was where the walking path ended and the forward going route was barricade. The view of the land beyond the wall was incredibily lovely. It was a vast landscape stretching to the blue horizon. It had this misty and romantic vibes in the air that invaded ones’ mood.
On the way back to the start of the wall we stopped at a flowery cafe and ordered waffles, icecream, tea an coffee. There we continued our glaze into the vast peaceful landscape of Sighnaghi.
Chronicles of Georgia
Chronicle of Geogia was about 15 km from Tbilisi old town (where we stayed) and was about a half hour drive. We usually wevwere not interested in modern days man-make structure but found Chronicles of Georgia fascinating.
From far we could already see Chronicles of Georgia standing gigantically tall on a Keeni hill. We had seen many gigantic monuments, they were built in the ancient world (Mayan, Egypt etc) to worship kings and gods. Chronicles of Georgia looked like an ancient humongous monument and yet it looked technologically modern.
The Monument sat on top of a wide flight of stairs. There were 16 pillars that were between 30–35 meters tall. The top half of the pillars featured Kings, Queens and Heroes while the bottom part depicted the stories of Christ. The construction started in 1985 and from our understanding from the internet it never finished. At the base of some columns we saw incompletion, there were missing pieces, we were not sure it that was due to work in progress or maintenance work going on.
It seemed impractical that such a monument was built in today’s world where huge malls, office buildings and highrises were built for monetary proposes. This monument was built to commemorate 3000 years of Georgian sovereignty and 200 years of Christianity in Georgia, a site that was definitely worth visiting.
We tooked about an hour to walk slowly around the 16 pillars looking from one depiction to another, looking from top to bottom. On the other side of the pillars we were surprise to see church.This was the Church of the Annunciation. The church looked sort of out of place.
Mother Georgian
Mother Georgian was another gigantic monument that fascinated us. Looking at this monument we wondered what was the “story” behind it. Delving in we were abit disappointed as the statue was not about a particular heroic woman in history.
The statue was erected on the top of Sololaki hill in 1958, the year Tbilisi celebrated its 1500th anniversary. Prominent Georgian sculptor Elguja Amashukeli designed the twenty-metre aluminium figure of a woman in Georgian national dress. The statue symbolized the Georgian national character: in the left hand held a bowl of wind to welcome those who came as friends and in the right hand she held sword to defend against those who came as enemies.
At night the statue was lighted which made it easy to spot whenever we walked around the “old town” of Tbilisi.
We passed the statue from afar so many times during those few days we were staying in Tbilisi city that we decided we had to climb up the hill to the statue! On google map the walk from our stay to Mother Georgian was about 600m which involved some stairs.
So up we went onto Betlemi Street Stairs which led to the statue.The weather was good, not very and the climb up the steps were not difficult. As we approached the statue we got to see it from many angles until we were at the pedestal (concrete block) where the statue stood!
There was another route to the foot of the statue, it would be via a Tbilisi Cable Car. The lower station started from the south end of Rike Park . The ropeway moved high over the Mtkvari River (Kura River) and the Old Town up to Narikala Fortress near the statue of Mother Georgian. The price of a one way cable car ride was 2.5 Gel/pax but one had to also paid 2 Gel for the MetroMoney Card. We thought we would try the cable car another day unfortunately we never got round to it.
Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi
Coming down the steps of “Betlemi Street Stairs” we chanced upon a viewing platform/garden, Betlemi View Point that overlooked Tbilisi. It seemed like a good point to view the sunset over city. We found a bench to sit down and waited till the sun went down.
The most prominent structures in the city from the viewing deck was the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi. It turned golden under the rays of the setting sun. And when the darkness set in the Cathedral looked like a christmas tree!
VAke Park
Vake Park looked nice on the internet so we went there for a visit. We found that it was a public park with a womanly statue (Black Mother?) at one end of its axis and several fountains, big and small along the axis to the other end. The park was opened in 1946 and was located at Vake district of Tbilisi which accounted for its name, Vake Park.
This park was built to commerate the hundreds of thousands of Georgian soldiers who served and died in the Red Army during the Second World War.
Liberation square to rose revolution square
We took a walk of about 1.5 km from Liberation Square to Rose Revolution Square. At Liberation Square, in the middle of a roundabout there was a pillar with a golden man on a golden horse killing a golden dragon. During the Soviet period, this square featured a large statue of Vladimir Lenin, which was symbolically torn down in August 1991 and in November 2006 a Liberty Monument depicting St George slaying a dragon was put in place.
From Liberty Square also known as the Freedom Square was a straight walk down the road to Rose Revolution Square. On the sides of the road were more colonial buildings, housing shops, malls, hotels, theatre etc. Along the route there was also a sunday street markets selling stuffs and souvenirs. After about 1 hour and walking and stopping we finally reached Rose Revolution Square.
“Rose Revolution” meant “non violent revolution”. This square was the site of a nonviolent change of power in Georgia in November 2003 which marked the end of the Soviet era leadership in the country.
The only monument we saw at the square was a Giant Bicycle Monument.
What had the giant bicycle monument to do with the history of the square? It really puzzled us. This monument was installed in 2011.Observing it in detail, we noticed it had two handle bars and seats facing opposite direction. Did it signify a freedom to go/chart in whatever direction the citizens of this country desired? There was no writeup any where near the monument so we could only make our own guesses.
By the monument was a lovely cafe, Iveria cafe so we went in to have our coffee break.
It was a lovely cafe with a panorama view of the city. Definitely great coffee with a great view!
Leaning clock Tower
We went in search of the leaning clock tower of Tbilisi. It was located in the old town not far from the bank of Kura River. We would not call this a leaning clock tower as it was more of a crooked clock tower.
This tower was added to the side of a puppet theatre in 2011 by renowed puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze. Apparently the theatre (beside the clock tower) was built over a timespan of thirty years reusing old pieces from abandoned structures of the old town and from buildings destroyed by earthquake. The clock was added in later and took four years to complete.
This bizzare structure which was built from part and pieces of unknown sources looked like it would topple sideway anytime, if not for the steel rusty beam propping it from the side.
Along the Kura River
The promenade by the Kura River (Mtkvari) provided a view of Tbilisi City new and old architectures. The total length of the river is 1,515 kilometres (941 mi) it flowed through Turkey to Georgia , then to Azerbaijan where it was joined by Aras and entered the Caspian Sea at Neftcala.
The Peace Bridge over Kura River was a stunning looking comtemporary, bow-shaped bridge. It was opened in 2010 connecting one side to the other side of the river. Walking across the bridge brought us to the center of the Kura River giving us a better view of the State Palace of Ceremonies sitting on a higher ground. Looking to the other end of the river we saw Narikala and ancient fortress overlooking the city.
As the sun set the river promenade turned even more beautiful. The Peace bridge lighted up and with its glass facades reflecting the colorful lights, the bridge looked stunning.
We walked from the Peace Bridge to Metekhi Bridge (450m), a nice breezy walk. There we saw the Metekhi Virgin Mary Assumption Church with a “King on a horse Statue” standing by it. This statue was King Vakhtang Gorgasali or Vakhtang the Wolf Head, the King of Iberia during the late 5th and early 6th centuries and the founder of Tbilisi.
Dining in Tbilisi
Tbilisi was a city with many dining options. Streets of restaurants with outdoor seatings were plentiful. All of them looked so welcoming that we had a hard tims deciding to go in or to walk on for more choices. We had a great time dining out.
Stay in Tibilisi
We booked a duplex “Nice Room Duplex” for four nights from booking.com. It costed 465Gel in total with no breakfast. The duplix was in the old town of Tbilisi within walking distance to all the main attractions. One of the most important criteria was there was free parking available at the stay.
The duplex had a living room cum kitchenette on the first level and a bedroom in the aloft above the living room. The kitchenette was not very convenient for cooking meal. It was fine for preparing breakfast and beverages.
The toilet in our duplex though was “cute” looking was rather tight. It was build under the stairs going up to the aloft and because of the sloping ceiling the toilet felt pretty cramp.
