Day 13

Our hotel is in the Abanotubani district famous for the sulfur baths so we went and looked at one of the baths (Gulo’s). He showed us 4 different bath options – all have a hot pool, cold pool and rest area, but they vary in size and some have saunas and some don’t. Prices vary from 100 lari to 30 lari per hour. We wanted to try a bath, but decided to book it later. Then, we took the city tour. It was a little shorter than normally because due to the city celebration, streets in the old town are closed. It didn’t bother us because we’ve walked the entire old town several times. We were glad the tour went to places we had not seen before. It was a slow double decker bus and was very nice and informative. The city has beautiful architecture, both old and modern. In the afternoon, we took a tour to the old capital, Mskheta. It was the worst tour. We stopped at 3 churches, and hardly had time to walk through the town of Mskheta. I (this is Al’s complaint) have been in more churches this trip than when I toured Rome. The best part of the tour was the view from the Jvari monastery, high up on a hilltop, onto the towns of Mskheta and the confluence of two rivers – Aragvi and Mtkvari. When we returned we went to the Gulo’s, but the baths were all booked. We scheduled a visit for tomorrow morning.