Gremi

We left Telavi after one night’s stay, having a quick look round the farmers’ market. The only thing there that we’d not seen before was tilapia, a pressed flat thin solid concentrate mainly made from apple, pear, plum and pomegranate. It is quite sour and used as a flavour for meat soups.

Our next stop was at Gremi Fortress, with a round fairytale-like turret, dating from 15th century and perched prettily on a hilltop.
Queen Catherine, the warrior queen, who was also a saint in both thecatholic and orthodox churches, governed from here. She married the king at 14 and was a widow at 16. She wanted to emulate King Tamar and had Battles with the Persians, was captured and taken to Istafan, tortured and killed. (St Catherine wheel). For some reason her body ended up in Goa but the government there won’t releas3vit back toGeorgia. The church there had some beautiful original frescoes.

It wasn’t far to our visit to a winery as we were still in the wine producing area. This was a large outfit, using both modern methods- steel tanks - and the traditional clay jars. They export mainly to China, Germany, Canada, USA, Holland but not UK. We tasted a dry very thick amber coloured white from the traditional method and a dry red, as well as a very sweet but thin white and a sweet red from the modern method. I think they were an acquired taste.

Next we visited a family for lunch. It was the usual aubergine stew, tomatoes, cucumber, a bread like ciabatta, with pork cooked dry for the meat-eaters, followed by Turkish coffee and Apricots.

The others said goodby to Alix - I hope they gave her a good tip as she’s been excellent. We, along with John and David, transferred to a very posh taxi for the ride to the border, accompanied by Alix. We’d gone no distance when we hit a dog which had run out in front of us. The car stopped and the driver and Alex quickly got out. Not to look at the dog (no doubt beyond help given the thunk as we hot it then ran over with the back wheels - no, to quickly check the posh vehicle had no damage).

We reached the dreaded border crossing which was fast and straightforward. However we did have to pull our bags 1/2 a km from leaving Georgia to get to the Azerbaijan checkpoint. Not a problem except it was 45 degrees. After 30 minutes the new minibus and local guide arrived then we set off for Sheki and the “luxury” of a 5* hotel, with WiFi that won’t work properly, but there is a spa and a swimming pool full of blow up toys and children. Thankfully the aircon is efficient!