Day 11 - Saturday - In the Caucasus Mountains - Churches - Lunch at a local's home - cemeteries with picnic tables

We woke to this view of Mt. Kazbeghi (16, 600 ft.)

Looking down the valley where we came from

Looking up the valley toward Russia

Diane at breakfast

Our room is the balcony on the third floor, far left before the windows.

Merab Piranishvili, is a local artist who is carving famous people out of large stone right by the roadside.

Jesus, made of travartine

A Georgian Poet

Madonna (Mary) and Child (Jesus)

Jesus

Granite

Electricity runs to this which powers his tools.

Next we climbed a serpentine mountain road to visit Trinity Church 14th C (7,000 ft.).

 

I tried to photograph "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" as we made our way down the mountainside back to the valley:

Another little church and monastery up the other side of the valley just above our hotel. These tiny little churches all have monasteries attached to them where the priests live. The Georgian Orthodox don't have Orders like the Roman Catholics, nor do they have Bishops or a Pope. They are very "local."

The monks live in the buildings with the red roofs

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Monk's huts with St. John the Baptist Church

St. Nino's Cross

St. John the Baptist Church

Church with separate bell tower

For lunch we drove up the valley (toward Russia) to the village of Tsdo, to learn how to make Khinkali, a Georgian specialty, and eat at a local's home. Khinkali are meat dumplings, though we also made some with a potato/cheese mixture today. We also had Chacha, which is like moonshine made from grapes (back to the day drinking)

The view out their front door

His grandfather and uncle

Jimshir

Chacha

The bowl on the left was the best beef stew!

Khinkali (with beef)

Khinkali with potato/cheese

Tsdo village cemetery. Georgian cemeteries have picnic tables by the graves. Their tradition is that on Easter Monday, the family puts together a feast and takes it to the cemetery to celebrate that their loved ones who have died are in a better place as they've just been reminded of and celebrated the resurrection.