Wednesday, October 22, 2014 – Sunny & bright: 3 degrees Celsius
I spent a comfortable night at the Marco Polo Hotel in Gudauri, Georgia. This was a ski resort town located in the Greater Caucasus Mountain Range and at 6,572 feet, is the highest village on the Georgian Military Highway. Snow had fallen overnight and settled on the high peaks behind the hotel.
Below are exterior and interior photos of the Marco Polo Hotel. The modern black and white two-story lobby was a surprise. The dining room was light and airy with a tasty buffet breakfast. My clean contemporary room was warm and comfortable.
After breakfast, the bus took us back down the mountain trail and into the fertile valley toward Tbilisi. Gudauri was above the tree-line, but as we descended, yellow and orange fall leaves colored the landscape.
Our destination was the city of Gori and the Joseph Stalin Museum.
Our museum guide led us through the exhibits and explained the entire history of Stalin from his childhood in Gori through his rise to Soviet leadership. He was leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from Lenin’s death in 1922 until his own death in 1952. The museum was a bit weird but interesting. No one bought souvenirs from the gift shop.
Stalin was born in a small hut in Gori in 1878 which was preserved on the museum grounds. He and his parents lived in two rooms and his father’s shoe shop was in the basement.
Next to Stalin’s hut was his personal armour-plated railway car which he used until 1941.
After exploring the museum and the other exhibits, we boarded our coach and drove to an interesting restaurant that raised trout in a stream behind the building. The fish was tasty and well cooked. We also had Georgian cheese pie, a delicious chicken soup, a variety of salads and, of course, delicious fresh baked bread.
After lunch, we were driven to the cave town called Uplistsikhe, which means ‘Lord’s Castle’. Below are photos which I took along the way. We were never far from livestock or the beautiful scenery of Georgia.
Uplistsikhe was an important town along the trade route linking Byzantium with India and China. Thousands of people may have lived in these caves as early as 1000 BC until the late Middle Ages. Different styles of architecture were represented which combined pagan and Christian elements. The first photo is a map of what archeologists thought the spaces might have been.
In order to exit the site, we had to climb down a steep narrow metal staircase through a dark tunnel. It was fun and good exercise to scramble among the huge boulders and explore the caves of Uplistsikhe. Afterwards, we drove several miles and through many centuries to the lovely modern city of Tbilisi. We checked into the Marriott Courtyard Hotel on Republic Square in the center of the capital.
The group and I went to dinner at a Georgian restaurant which was built around a bakery. A beehive stone oven was located just inside the front door.
We had a private room on the second floor and enjoyed a traditional Georgian dinner. Midway through the meal, an invited guest came to talk about modern life in Tbilisi and her work as an artist.
