Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category
Holiday in the Caucasus (12): into Armenia
July 18th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
The tour moved on to Armenia, the third and last country of the holiday and the 88th nation that I have visited. Armenia is the smallest of the three countries in the Caucasus. It is just under half the size of the other two nations. With just 3M people, it is also the least populated […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (11): Sighnaghi, Georgia
July 17th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
It was a slower day with less travelling but still quite a long day. Again the weather was milder with a maximum of 28C. We left Tbilisi and spent the day in the eastern region of Kakheti which is Georgia’s premier wine-growing area. First, we visited the Tsminda Nino Monastery where the female Saint Nino […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (10): Gori, Georgia
July 16th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Next day was a long one with a lot of travel, but the weather was milder. We set off at 9 am and travelled south on the same winding road that had brought us to this part of the country yesterday. At first, the mountain tops were capped with white clouds and the hillsides were […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (9): Georgian churches
July 15th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
After two nights in Tblisi, we were out of the capital for a night (we will return to Tbilisi for another two nights). It was very much a church day as we visited no less than four such locations. First, we travelled north to the town of Mtskheta where two rivers join for a scenic […]
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Holiday in Caucasus (8): Tbilisi, Georgia
July 14th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
The capital of Georgia is Tblisi – the name means ‘the place of warm springs’ – which has a population of about 1.5 million that is 40% of the country’s entire population. The city lines the banks of the Mtkvari River. Since the main VJV group was recovering from an overnight flight, I spent two […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (7): into Georgia
July 13th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
It was a second consecutive travelling day because our holiday moved from Azerbaijan to Georgia. Leaving our hotel in Sheki at 8 am, it was a two hour drive to the border crossing at Postbina. We had to carry our luggage up a long passageway to the Azerbaijan crossing and then down a similar length […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (6): on to Sheki, Azerbaijan
July 12th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Our fifth day in Azerbaijan was largely a travelling day, positioning us to enter Georgia tomorrow. So we travelled north-east from Baku to Sheki, a journey of 300 km (almost 200 miles) in pleasant weather. There was one major and two minor stops during a day of green countryside and our first view of the […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (5): more out of and in Baku, Azerbaijan
July 11th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Our fourth day in Azerbaijan was a mixture of out of Baku locations and a couple of Baku museums. Again the temperature was not excessive (28C) with a cooling wind. First, we drove due south to Gobustan. This is the site of a wonderful collection of petroglyphs which has received UNESCO World Heritage status. Before […]
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Holiday in the Caucasus (4): Absheron Peninsula, Azerbaijan
July 10th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
After two days in Baku, we spent a day in the Absheron Peninsula which stretches north and east from Baku. The name means ‘salty water’. As a change from the city, we visited three very different locations. First, we went to the village of Mardakan, a name which translates as ‘place of brave people’. Here […]
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Holiday in Caucasus (3): more Baku, Azerbaijan
July 9th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Our second day in Baku involved a further walking tour with a prolonged visit to a museum. Among the sites we saw were the building which housed the brief democratic government of 1918-1920 and the large statue of Nizami who was a revered 12th century Muslim poet. Our museum visit was supposed be to the […]
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