Tbilisi - Mtskheta - Stepantsminda (Mountains!)

Jvari Monastery built in the 6th century.

Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, built in the 11th century.

The interior.

Another view of the cathedral.

The beautiful Ananuri Fortress.

The view from the tower.

The ceiling...

and the interior of the church at the fortress.

Ananuri Fortress from the bridge.

The snow capped Caucaus Mountains were stunning.

The Russian-Georgian Friendship Monument.

With Koba our excellent local guide.

Close up of the centre of the Friendship Monument.

A very picturesque place for a photo.

One of our neighbours...

and another.

Friday, May 16th.

This morning we left the capital and departed for Mtskheta, an ancient town of extraordinary importance to the Georgian nation, located about 20km out of Tbilisi. It was the capital of the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia (not to be confused with the European peninsula) from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. Mtskheta was the site of Georgia's adoption of Christianity in 334 and remains the headquarters of the Georgian Orthodox Church. We visited the Jvari Monastery built in the 6th century and sitting atop a hill. Inside it was being repaired so there were wooden beams supporting it. Then we drove down to the town of Mtskheta to visit the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, built in the 11th century. This is the largest cathedral in Georgia. It was beautiful inside with many Christian icons and paintings. Most of the ceiling was white marble. A very friendly priest wanted to pose with me when he found out I was from Toronto. Again it was mind boggling to think of how they built a building like this back then. Both the monastery and the cathedral are among the finest architectural monuments in Georgia. We continued along the Georgian Military Highway, a historical road and major conduit leading north from Tbilisi into  Armenia and Russia and of course from Russia into Georgia. It was chalk full of transport trucks struggling with the inclines. The Chinese are digging a nine kilometre tunnel through a mountain that will bypass about 40 kilometres of the road and alleviate the truck traffic from the ski town at the summit. The highway passes the spectacular Ananuri Fortress, where we made a stop to visit this ancient medieval fortress and the church within. It was named after a young woman who became a martyr after she was captured and tortured during a siege by a rival faction but refused to give up the secret of where the fortress was getting its water, and was killed. John and I climbed the tower to get spectacular views overlooking the fortress and the water reservoir that provides water for Tbilisi. From there the highway climbs the sides of the dramatic Aragvi River Valley, providing incredible views of snow capped mountains and over the Jvari Pass (2395m /7,857 ft). We stopped at the top at the View Point for a picturesque panoramic view of the Greater Caucasian Mountain Range and to see the Russia-Georgia Friendship Monument built in 1983 to celebrate the bicentennial of the Treaty of Georgievsk and the ongoing friendship between Soviet Georgia and Soviet Russia. However, since the collapse of the USSR that friendship has been strained and now it is nothing much more than a tourist spot. Then we descended the pass to the town of Stepantsminda at 700m / 5577 ft. The town’s Russian name is Kazbegi, after the mountain, but since the tension between the two countries the Georgians prefer their name: Stepantsminda. Surrounded by gigantic mountains, Stepantsminda is a picturesque settlement overlooked by the biggest of them all -- Mount Kazbek (5047m / 16,558 ft) -- one of the six 5000+ metre peaks of the Caucasus. The town and rugged surrounds provide some of the most picturesque scenes in Georgia. We checked into our nice little guesthouse hotel and had some time before dinner at 7. John and I went for a walk about town and met a couple of the inhabitants, mostly cows and dogs before going back for dinner. Everyone headed to bed early as we have an early start and a big hike tomorrow.

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