“Georgia🇬🇪 ~The Capital City of Tbilisi Old and New ~Days 4 and 5 Marvellous!”

• May 30, 2021
• By Pen
• 0 Comment

Tbilisi, Georgia🇬🇪 Day 4 

Another fun day of exploring this interesting city. We are not huge amusement park fans, but we were intrigued by the trip up the mountain to get there, as well as it being an 80 year-old Theme Park. We just had to go! AND we did ride the huge Ferris Wheel.
The Park did not seem to be fully open. It is not their busy season till June.

The wide angle on my iPhone distorted the shape of the wheel. It is perpendicular, just so huge, I had to use this setting to get it all in. 

Mtatsminda Park is a famous landscaped park located at the top of Mount Mtatsminda, overlooking the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
The park has carousels, water slides, a roller-coaster, dark ride, funicular, and a big Ferris Wheel at the edge of the mountain, offering a splendid view over the city.

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After the theme park, we tried to drive to the Narikala Fortress on the hill, by car this time (we did do the Tram to the fort), but the narrow roads and the fact people park their cars in said roadway, and walk away, made our attempt to get there, by driving, a big fail. By this time, we were in on some other fun, and did t think much more about this Fort. There are other Fortresses in Georgia, so no problem. We will see more. 

⬆️ For dinner, we made our way back down to Old Town on Jan Shardeni Street and enjoyed delicious BBQ Pork, and Carrot Cake There are many old cobblestone roads here, and lots of steep hills, so driving an automatic is a bonus.

⬆️ From our hotel room, we can see up at the Amusement Park. Lights on!

We only got a few hours of sleep last night, on night two of what started out as a quiet stay, on night one. The hotel is not busy at all, and there are four floors. When a family with two small children arrived late at night, and they put them right next to us. Those two kids were bouncing off the walls; screaming, slamming doors, running up and down the halls! By 12:30AM Daryl was on the phone with the desk. He was told they couldn’t do anything! What? Ha! It was about 3:30AM when it quieted. By 8AM the two kids woke up screaming and crying…at least till we left. They only stayed one night.                                                                      We got an upgrade out of it, so we changed rooms, before we left to explore. Looking forward to sleep tonight! Such is life in hotels. Oh, btw, we got our negative PCR tests back. We are compliant now, to be in Georgia. 

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Tbilisi, Georgia🇬🇪 Day 4

Today, we hit up the Royal Baths. Ancient baths like the Hammams in Turkey. Time for some pampering, Georgian 🇬🇪 style. We tried to make a reservation, but the front desk confirmed for us their phones were out. So, we will go see if we can get in. We decided to leave our rental car parked, and do the taxi thing. Far less stressful for the big guy. Their traffic laws are very hard to understand, as the city is full of U-Turns to get around. We got dropped off at the Royal Baths and we were the only guests, so the reservation was not necessary. For $40, we got one hour in a private room, with Chai Tea, Sauna, Hot Natural Sulfa Spring pool, cold dip pool, hot/cold showers, and the marble table to get a massage and the scrub. No longer than five minutes at a time in the Hot Tub. Without first dipping in the cold water, the hot was far too hot to get in.  Soon we got into a routine; back and forth, till it was time for our scrub and massage. It was great, and we plan on doing some more, when we return at the end of our time in Georgia.

Historic Bathhouses with pools of hot, sulfur-rich water, with optional private rooms and massage.

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King Vakhtang Gorgasali founded Tbilisi, some 1550 years ago, and named it “Tbilisi,” meaning the “site of warm springs.”And, right at its “Abanotubani” quarter, the most historical area of old Tbilisi, is where the sulphur springs bubble up.

There use to be over 60 public baths during ancient times. Obviously, a favorite tradition among Georgians!                                                       Today there are only a few public baths left, and the “Royal Bath” is one of them ⬇️

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We will try this bath house on our next visit. ⬆️ “Orbeliani Baths” has a building front that looks like a Persian Isfahani mosque, with beautiful blue tiles and two small minarets.

We thought maybe these ladies were visitors from neighboring Azerbaijan 🇦🇿, as it is a predominantly Muslim country, unlike Georgia 🇬🇪 

On our final day in Tbilisi, we depart to explore the rest of the country. We will spend one month in Georgia, so we have plenty of time, and we love road trippin!

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