Eggplant rolls
Our tour was over, and we now had a couple of days to wander around on our own. We decided to walk the length of the main street of Tbilisi, Rustiveli Avenue. We had to once again cross the river, walk through the Old Town and then up the hill. The streets are a bit of a maze and after we felt we had gone higher than we needed to, we saw below us the the shining gold statue of St George in Liberty Square. So downhill we went.
One of the small bakeries that are so common
The local cheese for sale
Crossing the Mtkvari River
Lovely old building high above banks of river
Heading across the Old Town
Upmarket Hotel and Wine Shop
Wooden balcony railings of various designs
Some buildings renovated
This building rather unusual style
We were heading towards the modern glass building
Walking the duck
This area was obviously once a grander part of town, though many of the buildings are quite dilapidated..
Old and uncared for but still lovely
Old buildings through the old town
Some buildings quite rundown
Is that about Nana Mouskouri
Harry Potter style building
We have seen Tbilisi promoted quite a bit with this image. It seems to be quite common these days for tourism photos to use over colour-enhanced photos. The bulidings in Tbilisi are not actually as coloured as the image suggests.
Tourism style coloured photo
Georgian wine made by the traditional process either has the shape of a clay pot or the name for the claypot 'qvevri’ ( or both) on the label.
Old style Georgian wine
Hmmmm
By the time we reached the start of Rustiveli Avenue it was raining lightly. Made it much easier to walk than in the warm sun. We started in Liberty Square. Here once stood a statue of Lenin. Now gone.
Statue of St George in Liberty Square
Walking by Liberty square
Many government buildings in recent times have glass walls. Apparently to show 'transparency' of the government.
Modern building
City Hall on Liberty Square
Parliament building on Rustaveli Avenue
Protest in front of Parliament House
Museum of Fine Arts, Tbilisi
Waiting for the bus
Winter is coming
Statue of poets outside first experimental public school
Rustaveli Theatre
Nice
Georgian National Opera Theatre
We had seen this image of a fisherman used for tourism promotional purposes in Tbilisi and found that it was painted by Niko Pirosmani.
Georgians are proud of Pirosmani, a self educated artist, who lived and died in poverty, and was never recognized by his countrymen while he was alive.
Inside the National Gallery in Tbilisi
I like the 'naive' art of Pirosmani
On the table is the curved Georgian bread
Pirosmani liked to do scenes like this of weddings or fetes
The wine clay pots lie around the table
Now that it was just us, lunch was a more simple affair, fish and salad.
Fish with pomegranate sauce
The huge Biltmore Hotel across from our lunch place
While waiting for our meal I studied the menu. Two pages of different types of the cheese pie or Khachapuri.
Different types Khachapuri
Khachapuri types
Then our last day. Another lap of the sites and a last lunch.
Tree made from stove and other metal parts
Old style hotel on the cliffs
This theatre has been left unfinished. Strange.
Entrance to theatre
Unfinished theatre
The Palace of the President of Georgia is up above the cliffs and is a sort of copy of the White House. Very grand.
Presidential Palace right behind theatre
Lovely old buildings nearby
Sculptures on the bridge
Mushroom building
Walking to lunch
Last lunch by the Peace Bridge
We picked our favourite dishes.
Eggplant rolls
Mushrooms baked in clay pot
Khinkali
Bean clay pot dish
Restaurant area
Menu, divide by 2 for Aust. prices
A publicity event it seems
And then back to hotel to pack. We weren't looking forward to a flight leaving at 3.20 am , but it was time to go home. Taking with us some very good memories of our time in Georgia and Armenia.
Crossing the river for the last time
This featured blog entry was written by jannettek from the blog Time to travel.
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