Mtskheta Jvari Monastery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jvari_Monastery Samtavro Convent : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samtavro_Monastery a wooden cross representing the one that was placed on to of the hill this church stands on today to symbolize the victory of the Christian faith .
Zedazeni Monastery : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zedazeni_Monastery Saint John of Zedazeni and his Twelve Disiples Shio - Mgvime Monastery : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shio-Mgvime_monastery http://orthochristian.com/131370.html this is a very interesting read , with pictures https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szio_z_Mgwime King David who had the Founder of Shio-Mgvime Monadtery built Shio-Mgvime Monastery King David the sponsor to have Shio-Monastery built the Wine Chamber
oops got ahead of myself Museum of Santavio Convent this museum is mostly about St. Gabriel the Confessor https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2017/11/saint-gabriel-confessor-and-fool-for.html Gabriel the confessor's Grave After many miracles that were credited to him his remains were exhumed . Gabriel's body was found incorrupt . His remains were transferred to rest in a the Church of Transfiguration in a new tomb some heads of the Convent Armazi : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armazi
Bebris Fortress : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebris_tsikhe 4 minutes love the music https://www.adventurous-travels.com/posts/vardzia-georgia-cave-monastery-carved-in-rock lots of pictures “Bebris Tsikhe" is an early to mid centuries castle in Kartli. It used to block the north side road of Aragvi ravine, this road went to Mtskheta. Vakhushti Bagrationi called it 'Belta Fortress.' The main part of the fortress was a citadel, which was surrounded by a triangular yard. There used to be three castles at three angles. There is archaeological evidence that there are antique and feudal age layers. According to legend, this castle once belonged to a noble man named Simon. Simon had two children. One of his children was the beautiful Makrine and the other the heartless Mamuka. After the death of Simon, Mamuka charged local peasants at a high tax rate. Makrine felt sorry for the peasants, and asked Mamuka to lower their tax rate. Mamuka became furious at the request and locked Makrine in the castle. One day, while some very watery and tasteless soup was being made for the peasants, a group of crows fell into the saucepans. Peasants poured all the soup away. Mamuka became very angry at seeing the waste of food. Mamuka began to chase the peasants. Suddenly snakes came out of the saucepans and began circling Mamuka. Mamuka feared for his life, and called out to God: “Help me and I will build you a church!” Makrine witnessed this entire episode and began to pray. God heard this prayer and Mamuka and Makrine began living a religious life. Makrine became a nun and Mamuka became a monk. Makrine ended up dying at 70 years of age. On the day of her funeral, a white bearded man visited her body, kissed her forehead, and said: “My sister, we have fulfilled our promise!” After saying these words, he fell down and died. This is why this fortress is called “Bebris Tsikhe,” which means “The Elder’s Fortress.” That's the legend of Bebris Tsikhe. forgotten outdoor theater at the foot of Bebris Tsikhe castle Vardzia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardzia 5: 12 minutes informative good film making
Hi there, I wanted to add a little side trip to the north of Greece before we wrap this up if it's allowed ;p (I never dared interrupt Schmett and Cyrrena) There are 2 places I really liked in north of Greece. The first one is the small town of Metsovo. It is a winter resort as it's in the mountains near some of the few ski stations in Greece. It is known for it's embroidery and wood carving and for a local cheese (that one is for the ratongas around). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metsovo https://www.visitmeteora.travel/metsovo/ http://www.drazos.com/travel/metsovo-epirus-greece/ The Metsovone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metsovone The Metsovo mountains And wood carving You can also find nice furs there: One hour away from Metsovo, you can find the Meteora which are a massive complex of Orthodox monasteries, all built on top of peaks. It is a pretty impressive area and it fit well with all the religious visits that Schmett just posted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora Geologically speaking, it's kinda weird. Usually, this type of erosion is triggered by several type of rocks, one being harder and creating the plateau, and the other, softer, washing away to form valleys. From what I'm reading, it's seems that everything is uniform conglomerate and that fault lines created in a plateau made this very localized erosion possible. You have a nice page with impressive photos here: https://www.thousandwonders.net/Meteora and here: https://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/Greece/Thessaly/Trikala/Meteora/ And a last one with a couple paintings (mostly linked below): http://justfunfacts.com/interesting-facts-about-meteora/ The climb is pretty steep, but the nice thing when you reach the top if to find monks waiting for you with Raki ;p (anise-flavoured alcohol). Great Meteoron ossuary
post away Whilhelmina I thought about putting together a slide show of our trip together in Greece and Italy Church of the Dormition Queen Tamar and her father King Georg ll left of the door , both were considered saint by their people and Tamar is still revered . Queen Tamar both Oueen Tamar and her father King Georg lll are pictured in the church together . And because Queen Tamar is all over Georgia and was the first female ruler, here is another post for her Queen Tamar of Georgia or should I say mepe ( king ) a title that was awarded to her for doing a great job ruling . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamar_of_Georgia and yes her father was important too so here is his wiki post https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_Georgia#:~:text=George III (Georgian: გიორგი III,Georgia from 1156 to 1184. she is so beloved that she is even a character in a video game " Civilazation 5 and 6 rise and fall - Georgia " Oueen Tamar and king Georg lll of Georgia
ok the time of the festivals and new expansions is upon as , so I will wrap it up with a view more things in Batumi and resume the trip through Turkey when we return to Europe . We are going to look at some left over things in Batumi tonight we will watch a performance of the legendary folk dance and song group Erisioni 1 hour 42 minutes . Georgia's answer to ( River Dance ) Wow some of the dances were at neck breaking speed , I got tired just watching , wile the woman floated gracefully over the stage like beings out of a fairy tale . 4:30 minutes here is a much shorter promotional video just to give you an idea Casinos in Batumi the Golden Palace the President : Casino Batumi Leogrand Hotel& Casino: Intourist Palace Princess Casino Euphoria Hotel & Casino Apart Hotel & Casino
Not to put a damper on things, but ! If you are in the hurricane strike zone, you should be in shelter on high ground. I am in one of several rain zones, But I don't have to watch out for flying ships, tossed about tug boats, nor bouncing across the yard travel trailers. Good Luck out there ! edit: So my Internet may go out due to the rain and some wind. Got plenty of supplies, so no problem there.
good luck to you Geroblue and hold on to that foundation would not want to end up like Dorothy Here it's dry , calm , sunny and cool , ( welcome Fall ).
So far just a slight dampness on my head when I went outside earlier, but it is predicted to rain tremendously in my area, sort of. They keep changing the prediction. Note that several years ago the weather people in my area predicted 1 to 4 inches of snow. We got 5 to 10 inches of snow. A town south of me got more than that. There were, shall we say, jokes heckling the weather people making the rounds for at least a day after that.
Yeah, here we are waiting for our first Mediterranean Storm of the year, they still have no clue when it'll rain or where it'll rain and the intensity of the rain (somewhere between Saturday and next Wednesday). Those are always very hard to predict but this one is worse than usual. There's less planes and they use planes data to predict weather so it doesn't help. Those Mediterranean Storms (Épisode Méditerranéen) are massive storms that occur and stay stationary for a couple of hours and can yield a rainfall intensity of 100 to 400 mm (3.9 to 19.7 in) in 2 to 4 hours in a very limited zone resulting in flash floods. Considering the fact that we get 629mm of rain a year, the amount of "instant water" a specific area gets is impressive. Anyway, I wanted to conclude Italy with the nice castles around Parma. There are a lot of little castles in this area and we toured them when we went to visit my husband's remote family. You can find a list here: https://www.parmawelcome.it/en/home/explore-the-area/museums-and-places-of-interest/castles/ or here http://www.parmaitaly.com/castellik.html I went to Pisa too as it isn't far, I must say that climbing the tower was one of the most horrible experience I had (like falling down from the glass ramps in Sol Eye). I have a very pronounced vertigo and I felt I was falling all the time. It was highly disturbing. The most impressive castle in the Parma area is the Fortress of Bardi. Here's the official website: http://www.castellodibardi.info/ According to the website, it was, as expected, constructed to control the valleys around it. The first text dates it to 898 to prevent an invasion from Hungary The castle of Montechiarugolo was entirely reconstructed by Pomponio Torelli in 1406. The castle of Pellegrino Parmense isn't that interesting visually, but I did love the way the walls are angled. It was build by the Pallavicino family in 981 and rebuilt in 1198. It withstood several attacks until 1428. I'll conclude with the castle of Roccabianca which was built in 1450 by Pier Maria Rossi. It's once more the same type of castle. It was originally surrounded by a moat. You'll find a (very ugly) website in Italian with a lot of photos from Italian castles by area here: http://www.preboggion.it/Castelli_Base.htm
Rain all zoomed off to the east and northeast of me. So the drizzle we got on Wednesday was it. The coastal areas got 30 inches of rain. Weather channel has photos and video.
It's nice to see some castles that are still all up , unlike in Turkey , where for the longest time stuff was just left to rot and only in the last decades did they begin to restore if not even rebuild buildings , but only to get tourists to come . In Georgia it was the Soviets that just did not care some things they built are nice but I think I will link some of their really ugly buildings. So thank you Whihelmina for the nice castles .
Hey, glad it all went well for you, Gero! Yeah, the Italian castles are nice and most are still in good shape (and with interiors), those we have here are too (especially the Cathar castles but for those most are in ruins and only the shell remains). Glad you liked them and you're most welcome!
Batumi 6 May Park Nobel Brothers Technological Museum Zootopia contact zoo A little zoo for small animals
And as a preview , Batumi Winter Wonderland And yes , you can go skiing in the near by mountains of Batumi
