Another fine day

Our first stop this morning was to a memorial to the fallen in the Great Patriotic War, overlooking the city with a view across to Mt Ararat, which could be seen just through the haze. It was a giant Soviet era “Mother of Armenia” statue. She was holding a sword like a cross, but held slightly down at one side to indicate peace. Around the area were some bits of old WW2 Russian military vehicles including a T34 tank, which Mr C assures me was better than Allied tanks as it was low profile with a single cast turret which meant shells skidded off rather than be caught in the angled bits and explode. I’ll spare you the interesting info on all the other bits of old metal.

Then we drove to Garni for the gorge walk. We had been told it went steeply down but even more steeply back up for 300m. One of the group had 2 sticks so kindly loaned me one. I had no stick and had to wear my walking sandals as my bag had not arrived yet. The basalt rock formations were stunning. Much more impressive than in Northern Ireland. Unfortunately one of the group rather under-estimated the challenge of the 1 in 3 gradient in such heat and the local guide was so concerned he phoned our guide to get her to speak to the very large lady in question. She insisted on carrying on. Mr C and I managed with no problems thankfully. There’s an advantage in living in the hills. Though she did live in NZ.

At the top we reached the Hellenic temple which hundreds of others can reached by bus. It was built in the first century then used as a church from the 4th but destroyed by an earthquake in the 18th century. Restoration was started in 1960s. It looked imposing on top of the cliff when we were in the gorge looking up, but once we reached it, well, just a replica. Having visited Greece and Sicily it wasn’t so impressive. Neither were the few bits of mosaics. A bus of 50 Chinese were out for the same day as us, not to mention the French, Germans, Italians and Iranians. ( a large group of young people, dressed in western style with great English - they asked me to take a photo and we had a chat).

We had lunch in a lovely garden. Salads and barbecued trout which was tasty, then a walnut soaked in honey, very sweet.

Next stop was a fabulous church complex hewn out of the the rocks called Geghard Monastery, surrounded by mountains. It dates from 4th century housing several churches in one of which runs a spring allegedly giving water with curative properties. We needed our head torch to go through a passage dug out of the mountain to reach one of the churches which had the most amazing acoustics. Choirs came to record there. While there 2 young women stood to sing. It was quite an emotional experience as it was so beautiful.

We drove back and were dropped at the flea market which we had a quick walk through. There were some interesting things but we are not allowed to take anything bought in Armenia into Azerbaijan. Much to Mr C’s relief.