Northern Georgia.... on the Military Highway

 We were to check out some more churches in the Northern part of the country, very close to the Russian border.... one lane either way with lots of trucks heading to Russia. And we had to go over a very high pass....

Obviously we had to stop en route!

We visited Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, originally from the 4th C but mainly from 1010 onwards..

The next church was up a steep hill in the mountains..... in Kazbegi or Stepantsminda

Surrounded by the Caucasus mountains......

.........and unbelievably a young couple were going to walk up to be married!

On the way to the Armenian border we stopped at Signnaghi... to check out the town......

... the Bodbe monastery

..And as it is in the wine area we had to do a wine tasting!

On to Georgia.... Tbilisi

 Entry by air into Georgia is only to Tbilisi.... interesting city.......

I stayed at the Mercure hotel, not my choice, but the rooms were excellent and it had a great rooftop bar with light food!

....and a great view.........

Almost immediately outside the hotel were the old bath houses..some there since the 5th C

 

I found it has numerous old churches... one of the  oldest is the Anchiskhati Basiica from the 6th C 

There were some interesting sites apart from churches........ the Bridge of Peace...

and unfinished projects......

Their Archeological museum was amazing......lots of gold...some from 6th BC

....and a charriot from 24C BC!!

Wandering around I found some  graffiti.......

On to Cappadocia.....

 Cappadocia has been on my list of places to visit for many years.....

Again I found an amazing hotel, the Carus Cappadocia....They arranged a balloon ride for 6am in the morning and a private tour of the valley... and their rooftop restaurant was excellent!

Night time view from my room....

Seeing the balloons in the sky at dawn was an amazing experience....

The valley of Fairy Chimneys is amazing.....

People lived in these chimneys when they could.......

lunch was amazing... getting to it was part of the fun... we had to transfer to a 4X4 and go into the maze of fairy chimneys!

... and no... we didn't have fois gras!!

.....after lunch we went on to a full underground city, where people moved when it was too dangerous to live above ground... 

From Cappadocia we went to Izmir to check out Ephesus.....