Tbilisi is a wonderful. Western Turkey was very European and EasternTurkey was different in agriculture and architecture but Tbilisi is like a French town with interesting additions. On the evening we arrived, we went into the central square and to a restaurant. They took rather a long time to face the fact that there were 12 of us but when we were seated, the food and beer were first rate. I had beef stew with walnuts and bread (ubiquitous round here). Then walked back to the hotel up a very steep hill.
Next day we had an excellent tour of the city. It was Maundy Thursday in the Orthodox Church and there was music issuing from every church. They seem very religious in Georgia. The houses were charming, brick facades with ornate wooden balconies. We were bussed up to the top of hill to exclaim over the view and then to lunch. A French patisserie of all things with nice rolls and nicer cake.
Bronze doors to church
After lunch to see the hot water baths and then to Gori to see a rock city. Quite frankly, I could have done without this. But the city of Tbilisi is worth seeing, just walking around and stopping for a Turkish coffee. I agree it was a lovely day and I am therefore biased. But I could relocate here no problem. It is such a strange mixture of old, elegant, brash and new. They have had fun with modern buildings including a theatre complex consisting of two large glass bottles joined together.
Note the modern foot bridge just below the theatre complex.
One of the old baths. Tbilisi was known for its natural hot baths centuries ago.
And now to the highlight of the trip so far. A visit to the Silk Museum. This is not open to the public and is in a very sad state of repair.
It was built and organised in 1895 and is a mine of information. For instance, they had a large number of exhibits showing the cocoons of different species/variants of silk worms. A lot of tools, information on silk production in different countries. And masses of samples from round the world. Silk laces, silk scarves, embroidered silks and so on.
We were also taken to the library where they had wonderfully bound books lying out for inspection. One, in particular, was an album of early photographs of silk production. This was bound in padded green silk velvet, without any title. The 'end papers' were green moire silk wrapped over thin card ( not glued) and the card stuck down to the covers. This did have the title on it and the date 1900. The photo had to be at an angle because the book was so large. I could hardly climb on the table!!!
All in all, a wonderful day and I have lots of photos to prove it. I cannot put all the photos I have taken on this blog but I think I will get round to creating a website When I get home and having documents that people can read. If anyone has strong views I would like to know whether people would prefer to read on line or download a pdf file.
The icing on the cake was that they had a poster up for a class in marbling -long past and, when we inquired about buying a copy of the poster, they took it off the wall and gave it to me!!! The point is that the background is a spectacular marbled paper.
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