Another Monastery

Left our Soviet era sanatorium on the shores of Lake Sevan for the Georgian border. After leaving the lake we drove through a tunnel to reach a different landscape. Less pines and more deciduous tress. We could still see snowy mountains as we descended to a pretty village, almost Alpine in appearance. We wandered down a recently restored street with wooden houses/hotels, then it was a long journey down tree filled narrow valleys, made longer by extensive roadworks. No heath and safely here. As one bit of a digger swung round, a car would shoot under in before the bucket returned. The road was an important route through Arme Mia from Iran to Georgia and had fallen into disrepair after the fall of the Soviet Union. We paid a quick visit to Haghpat Monastery, set high on the hill overlooking alpine meadows and the copper works, now disused since Soviet times, at Akhtala.

After the usual salad lunch served with boiled cabbage and another green veg a bit like spinach, we headed for the border. Instead of doing a group collection for out guide some people wanted to do their own, so we are all giving individually, which is unusual for Explore. (Most of the others have not travelled with Explore before.)

The border crossing was very quick, and our new guide Alix met us for the 2 hour drive to Tiblisi. The city isn’t as attractive or elegant as Yerevan. We are in the old town, which has narrow, steep, crowded streets. We leave early in the morning but should have time to look round when we come back in 10 days.

We’ve been told we can’t take anything from Armenia into Azerbaijan, not even a fridge magnet or a coin, on pain of deportation. The last group even had their wallets checked, and the bag searches took ages.

( Yesterday was a more interesting day but I had to post it today too as the ex-Soviet sanatorium where we spent the night had no WiFi)