{"id":7296,"date":"2014-10-28T07:48:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T11:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=7296"},"modified":"2015-01-12T11:28:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T16:28:06","slug":"group-one-farewell-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=7296","title":{"rendered":"Last Tourist Day in Yerevan, Armenia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, October 28, 2014<\/span>
\n The day began overcast and cool. It was to be our last touring day for our Caucasus group. The mood was bittersweet and the conversation was about home and resuming normal lives. I planned to continue my travels to Central Asia\u00a0tomorrow, so I listened and watched the home bound process unfold.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\nI was excited because our last tour was to two\u00a0of my favorite sites in Armenia: Geghard and Garni. We left\u00a0Yerevan and drove east into the countryside. Unfortunately, the weather was foggy so we couldn’t see the tops of the mountains but the bright fall leaves blazed with color.<\/p>\n

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We passed large affluent houses of new suburban Yerevan then through more rural towns. We even saw a “cowboy” on a horse driving a herd of cattle on the road in front of the bus.<\/p>\n

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Geghard Monastery was carved into the side of a stone mountain in 1215. The compound is a walled fortification which includes monastic cells, churches, chapels, tombs, and khachkars all hewn from solid rock.<\/p>\n

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Irina, our Armenian guide, arranged a wonderful surprise for us. She had invited a professional quintet of young singers to perform in one of the stone arched spaces with wonderful acoustics. It was like listening to angels sing\u2026..<\/p>\n

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Near Geghard Monastery, is the pagan Temple of Garni which is on a high cliff overlooking the Azat River Valley. The temple was built in the first century AD as the summer palace of King Trdat the First. It is in a magnificent location and great fun to visit.<\/p>\n

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The temple had been destroyed by an earthquake in 1679, but restored in recent years by Armenian architects. Third century royal baths and ruins of an ancient church can also be seen at the ancient site.<\/p>\n

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Our Caucasus travelers\u00a0posed for a group photograph:<\/p>\n

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We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant in the village of Garni. Irina said the owner was a personal friend, who was also a professional photographer. There was a lovely outdoor picnic area behind high walls and several stone buildings provided individual enclosed dining rooms.\u00a0We had roasted chicken and very fresh vegetables and warm lavash.<\/p>\n

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In a building on one side of the courtyard, there were two women making and baking thin Armenia bread called lavash. We had fun watching them.<\/p>\n

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\nWe returned to the hotel about three o’clock and group members\u00a0made individual plans to walk around Yerevan or prepare for their departures at 5:00 AM. I walked to Republic Square and through Vernisage and along Amiryan Street. I had remembered a bakery there from my last visit.<\/p>\n

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I bought a large piece of freshly baked walnut paklava for 200 Drams, which is about fifty cents. After walking for a couple of hours, I was getting tired. I said my goodbyes to my new friends and retired to my room. It had been a very enjoyable two weeks with an impressive group of people. I hope my next trip to Central Asia is as much fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, October 28, 2014 The day began overcast and cool. It was to be our last touring day for our Caucasus group. The mood was bittersweet and the conversation was about home and resuming normal lives. I planned to continue my travels to Central Asia\u00a0tomorrow, so I listened and watched the home bound process unfold. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-armenian","category-caucasus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7296","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=7296"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8681,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7296\/revisions\/8681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}