{"id":7179,"date":"2014-10-21T14:48:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T18:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=7179"},"modified":"2017-10-24T06:23:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T10:23:44","slug":"7179","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=7179","title":{"rendered":"From Churches to the Caucus Mountains of Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday October 21, 2014 \u00a0 cool, clear & crisp: 7 degrees Celsius<\/span>
\n We checked out of the hotel and drove out of Telavi after a buffet breakfast. Snow glistened on the distant peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. Many people walked along the road on their way\u00a0to local schools and bus stops to go to work.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5474\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our first stop of the day,\u00a0was a lovely red-roof town named Sighnaghi. We stopped at an overlook to see the hill-top village from a distance and take photos. Later, the bus drove into Sighnaghi and parked so\u00a0we had time to explore on our own and do a little shopping.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5484\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5487\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5489\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5496\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5494\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9003\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5498\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5503\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5511\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5517\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5523\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Our next stop was the Monastery\u00a0of St. Nino at Bodbe which was originally built in the 9th century. It had\u00a0extensive renovations in the 17th century. Today the monastery functions as a nunnery because the relics of St. Nino, a 4th century female evangelist, were kept\u00a0there.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5527\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9028\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5529\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For lunch we drove an hour and a half into Tbilisi, the capital city of Georgia, and ate\u00a0at an upscale\u00a0restaurant overlooking the river.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_9048\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5554\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9049\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5548\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9043\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After a sumptuous lunch, we continued to Jvari Monastery on the outskirts of Tbilisi which was built in the 6th Century. Jvari translates to ‘Cross’ and it is believed that St. Nino erected a wooden cross on this site which had been\u00a0a pagan temple. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5562\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5565\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5594\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5572\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5590\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5584\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5587\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5586\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5596\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5600\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Jvari Monastery was built on a steep hill north of Tbilisi overlooking the\u00a0city of Mtskheta. In a region of ancient cities, Mtskheta is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and is a\u00a0UNESCO World Heritage Site. Christianity was proclaimed the state religion of Kartli in 337\u00a0in\u00a0Mtskheta and remains the headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Church.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5574\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5593\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The 11th century Svetitskhoveli Church is one of the Historical Monuments of Mtskheta. The name of the church means “Life Giving Column” which comes from an ancient Georgian legend.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5571\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5605\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9082\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5637\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5609\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5613\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5626\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5620\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"DSC_5624\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"IMG_9093\"<\/a>
\nLate in the afternoon, the coach drove north on the Military Highway which runs all the way from Armenia to Russia. We continued along for several hours driving into the Greater Caucasus Mountains. We were told that famous Russian authors: Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dostoyevsky, and Chekhov traveled on this road to visit the beautiful country of Georgia.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_5649\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The dark road twisted around hairpin turns in the black night. I could see snow on the side of the road. \u00a0It was pitch dark in the mountains when we reached the Marco Polo Hotel in Gudauri. I was curious\u00a0to see where I was\u00a0and what it looked like in daylight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday October 21, 2014 \u00a0 cool, clear & crisp: 7 degrees Celsius We checked out of the hotel and drove out of Telavi after a buffet breakfast. Snow glistened on the distant peaks of the Caucasus Mountains. Many people walked along the road on their way\u00a0to local schools and bus stops to go to work. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-caucasus","category-georgia-the-country"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7179"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8675,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions\/8675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}