Tbilisi, Georgia

After breakfast, we walked throughout Georgia’s ancient capital city, Tbilisi, exploring the Old City and Medieval architecture, much of it dating back to the 12th-century golden age of the Georgia. Our local guide is Aleko, a nice well educated young Georgian. We walked up to Metekhi Church, a 13th century stone and brick structure built on a rocky outcrop overlooking the river. We visited the Georgian Orthodox Sioni Cathedral built by Georgia’s revered saint, King David the Builder.  Mass was being held during our visit and it was very crowded so photo ops were very limited. Afterwards, we walked across the New Glass Bridge of Peace. The contemporary architecture of the bridge is a stark contrast to the medieval and Soviet architecture of the city. We then walked around the city’s oldest Christian church, the 6th century Anchisyhati Church.  We were able to go into an original Georgian bread bakery and watch them baking the bread loaves. The baker gave us a sample loaf to share. It was very delicious, somewhat like sourdough bread. We then visited the Tzedakah Synagogue built in the 6th century’s when Jews first migrated to Georgia. Nowadays, there are only 3500 Jews living in Georgia. Most have moved away. There is quite the mix of Architectural styles and ages within the city ranging from pre 6th-century to 2010. We had lunch at a local restaurant and enjoyed several of the local Georgian foods. This evening we walked to the Georgian National Museum and had a private tour and reception with paleoanthropologist and National Geographic grantee Dr. David Lordkipanidze, the museum’s director.   25 years ago Georgia regained independence which they will celebrate next week. Mostly proud of their history with evolution of wine. Wine exports began over 2500 years ago. We then rode the funicular up to a hillside restaurant for dinner while enjoying the exquisite city view.  The Tbilisi Funicular is one of the finest examples of cable railways in the world. The railway leads to Mtatsminda- a beautiful leisure and amusement park overlooking the entire city. GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM Contains maps of the development of Georgia’s material culture from the Bronze Age to the early 20th century. The Treasury holds a stunning collection of intricate jewelery and artifacts wrought in gold and silver, dating back thousands of years. Other exhibits include some of the oldest human remains discovered outside Africa, the Homo Ergaster fossils found at Dmanisi. There is also a section dedicated to life during the Soviet Occupation.   SIONI TBILSI Sioni Tbilisi as many call it, (since there are numerous Sionis around Georgia), in Tbilisi Georgia. It’s a small, intimate, and unassuming church from the outside, tucked away into Tbilisi’s old town area. The church used to be home to the Patriarch until the Sameba Cathedral opened recently- and dates back to the 6th or 7th century.  Gorgeous blue and gold accent everything- with lots of pastels. It’s a fairly dark church, as there isn’t much artificial light inside- just the light of large windows above, meant to let the light from heaven shine in with patterns of stars across the ceiling. Towards the back of the church, on the left hand wall, sits Saint Nino’s cross. Saint Nino is one of Georgia’s most important saints, who has been largely credited with spreading Christianity (and wine) through Georgia. Saint Nino came to Georgia in 320 A.D., carrying a cross formed from grapevines and woven with her own hair- and was able to convert the King and Queen of Iberia to Christianity, as well as spread wine as a cultural norm throughout the land. THE FIRST WINEMAKERS Winemaking can be dated back to 8000 BC in Georgia, where evidence of grape cultivation has been found. Georgian museums house ancient wine-making pottery which dates back thousands of years.  Many people think of Rome or Greece as the birthplace of wine, but the Caucasus region is where many experts believe the cultivation of grapes for wine was born.  FUNICULAR The ride up Mt Mtatsminda on the recently reconstructed Funicular is spectacular, as are the views from the top – and the Funicular Complex restaurant building has a couple of great places to eat or drink. It’s also usually several degrees cooler up here than in the city below, which can be very welcome in the heat of summer.To ride the funicular you need a 2 GEL plastic card (sold at the ticket office) on which you then add credit for your rides (and any rides in the Mtatsminda amusement park).