Day 4

We left Yerevan at 9 am and drove south. The first stop was the Khor Virap monastery, which is only 30 km from Yerevan, but it took us over an hour to get there because of various detours and road constructions. Khor Virap is located 8 km from the Turkish border and has the best views of Mt. Ararat. According to the legend (or the Bible???) Noah landed on Mt. Ararat after the deluge. Khor Virap’s original monastery was built in the 6th century, but it was rebuilt many times after that. It’s where Gregory the Illuminator (the person who is responsible for making Armenia the first Christian nation in the world) was kept in a dungeon for 12 years for his beliefs. Of course, we had to climb down (and up) a VERY steep ladder to see it. From there we drove another 2 hours to the region called Vayots Dzor, a beautiful, very mountainous area to see another spectacular monastery – Noravank. It’s newer (13th) century, but spectacularly located among red rocks on a high mountain top. On the way there, we stooped at a winery in the village of Areni. In this village archaeologists recently discovered evidence of wine making dating back 3000 years. The local grape is called Areni and it’s supposed to be one of the oldest in the world. The winery, however, is all new and modern. They are very proud that they meet all the stringent EU standards, which allows the to export their wines to the EU. We tasted 3 of their wines – 2 reds and one white – all excellent. We also bought some to enjoy later. Then we drove for another 1.5-2 hours through curvy mountainous roads to a spa/resort town of Jermuk. We should also mention that along the way we passed at least 40 military trucks full of soldiers... Anyway, our first impression of Jermuk wasn’t great – some soviet-looking dilapidated buildings, one main bumpy road and not much of a town. But after closer inspection, when we walked through the natural paths into the spa area, we changed our mind. There are some beautiful spa buildings here – sanatoriums – with all kinds of health facilities and lots of happy clients, most seem to be Russian. The setting of town is also lovely – surrounded by mountains, which are now in full fall splendor, with mountain streams and little lake in the middle. The city is famous for its mineral water, which is said to be similar to that in Karlovy Vary. Since we hated the Karlovy Vary water, we didn’t even try to taste Jermuk’s. After walking through Jermuk, we were hungry so we started to search for a restaurant. Finding one wasn’t easy since most people here stay in sanatoriums which offer full board. Finally after multiple enquiries in Russian, some people pointed us to one end of town where there were 2 restaurants, and a group of elderly ladies pointed us in the opposite direction where, they said was a café with the best home-made food in town. We opted for the restaurant, but after a disappointed small meal, we decided to try the home cooking for dinner. The lady cooked us two kebabs, grilled eggplant with tomatoes, home fries and a salad of parsley, basil, dill and onions. It was all fresh and delicious. We also tried her home-made wine, which alas was not as good as the Areni winery’s.