Kutaisi

The morning after our arrival in Batumi we left with our hosts for the second largest city in Georgia, Kutaisi were I fell in love with this fountain. Any city that designs a fountain after earrings worn by a queen is awesome.

These were the earrings-obviously though much smaller

We rode to Kutaisi in their armored fortress but once there we were given into the care of their other driver who toured us around the city for the day and was also on hand the rest of our stay to take us wherever else we wanted to go.

From the park we saw this church and Roma, our driver, asked if we would be interested in visiting it. We went gladly as the church turned out to be on of the main sights in Kutaisi and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Bagrati Cathedral seen from below in the city

My idea of going to visit a church at the top of a hill was that we walk back to the car and Roma drive us there. However as we started walking towards the church and not the car I realized that was apparently not the plan. At least the walk was pretty.

Bagrati Cathedral

 

Pretty until we got to the stairs leading (part way) up the hill. Why are there always stairs? At least the view below was pretty so I managed a couple semi legitimate stops to see the view of Kutaisi from above.

Another church we walk to

Finally we reached the Bagrati Cathedral. Built in the 11th century by, appropriately, the Georgian King Bagrat III (way to be humble dude) was rebuilt in 2012 to repair heavy damage sustained over the centuries and is, according to Wikipedia, "a masterpiece in the history of modern and medieval Georgian architecture."

I'm not going to argue with that assessment, I'm just amused. It was really quite nice and the view of the area was wonderful.

Once we (slowly) made it down the hill we meandered around until we found another church, the same one I photographed through the trees. I was more impressed by the inside of this one than I was by the interior of the Bagrati Cathedral.

See pretty!

Blue!!

And trumpeting angels! Why don't we make churches like this anymore? So pretty.

I really appreciate the reverence Georgian's have for their religion and for churches. We often were not the only ones in the bazillion churches/monasteries we visited but it was always quiet inside, always peaceful, and above all, always prayerful. KMac and I joked that, after Turkey, it was nice to be in a Christian country for the pork if nothing else (and they do pork really well in Georgia), but it was certainly nice for other reasons as well.