Georgia: To Gudauri

Today we drove to the mountain town of Gudauri, stopping several times along the way. Our first stop was at the Jvari Monastery, an imposing structure atop a hill overlooking the confluence of the Kura and Aragvi Rivers.

Our next stop was the town of Mtskheta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the cathedral there which allegedly houses the robe in which Jesus Christ was crucified. The cathedral was first constructed in the 4th century.

We continued driving and our next stop was this lovely old church:

We then made our way up the mountains to a fourth and final church of the day. The views were spectacular!

We then made our way to the hotel for the night.

Georgia: David Gareja Monastery

Today we visited the David Gareja Monastery, which was founded in the 6th century. The monastery was located a few hours' drive outside of Tbilisi, so it took awhile to get there over bumpy roads. The scenery was gorgeous!

The monastery was built into sandstone rock, and later fortified.

After visiting the monastery, we had a picnic lunch on the way back to Tbilisi. The ride took just as long to get back into town. We had a little downtime before dinner.