Day 5 (July 15, 2022): Off to the Black Sea!

Today was a transition day, from Tbilisi to Batumi, a bustling resort city on the Black Sea coast.  The seven-hour time change continues to hinder us - whereas we are usually up at 7AM on touring days, we slept in past 9AM again today!  Oh well… it is vacation, after all.  And we were still able to make the Marriott’s delicious breakfast buffet.

The day held one last Tbilisi activity before heading for our flight:  a visit to the National Museum of Georgia, where we were most taken with the recounting of the Soviet occupation from 1921-91.  Those 70 brutal years saw untold murder, torture and repression in Georgia, as it did in all the countries of the former USSR.  

After the museum, we returned to the Marriott to check out.  After a Georgian-inspired lunch, we took a shuttle to an airfield 23km north of Tbilisi, where a small airline called Vanilla Sky took us to Georgia’s Black Sea coast and a resort city called Batumi.

I do need to note an incredible discussion we had with a wonderful couple from Belarus as we waited for the flight.  Alexei and Nina, a young professional couple working in the IT sector, left everything behind in March and moved to Georgia, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  Our hearts were heavy for them, and their young son, as they ponder where to make a new home.  It was one of those rare and deeply moving discussions one encounters at the least expected moment and which carries a deep impact.

Back to the day, we landed in Batumi at 6:30PM and made our way to the Sheraton.  The sheer magnitude and opulence of this city’s resort infrastructure made our jaws drop.  We can only describe it as a cross among Las Vegas, Disneyland and Miami.  As we explore it over the next couple of days, we will attempt to show you what we mean.

Alas, we are partaking in this resort extravaganza for a short while and are enjoying our amazing Sheraton room overlooking the Black Sea.

The National Museum of Georgia contains an impressive collection of hominid skulls, uncovered in Dmansi, an archaeological site in southern Georgia.

The National Museum of Georgia has an astounding collection in its treasury of gold jewellery collected on Georgian soil.  This gold spans many centuries B.C.


This wooden chariot, unearthed in Georgia, dates back 24 centuries B.C.- unbelievable! 

The National Museum of Georgia houses the Museum of Soviet Occupation.  It details the takeover of Georgia by the bolsheviks in the 1920s and continues up to 1991, when the Republic of Georgia was declared following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Above is a partial list of those shot during the Soviet occupation.  80,000 were shot, and another 400,000 were deported, where most were retried and then shot.

1921-26 saw the clearly-planned extermination of the elite of Georgian society, including the aristocracy, clergy, intellectuals and rich peasants.  Let me make that a little more real:  above are four men, all shot in 1937.  Clockwise from the top:  a painter; a poet; the National Opera conductor, and a drama director. 

 

This map at the National Museum of Georgia shows the two areas of Georgia that are Russian-backed breakaway states, as a result of the five-day war between Russia and Georgia in 2008.  The red territory above represents 20% of Georgia’s territory.

One last observation from the National Museum of Georgia. Josef Stalin, whose paranoia was behind the killing of eight million people in the USSR, came from Georgia. The museum does acknowledge his atrocities, but only in passing. That is perhaps because, as the “home town boy”, many Georgians look past his murderous legacy and revere his memory. 

At 2PM, we checked out of the Tbilisi Marriott and then enjoyed a wonderful lunch of four Georgian dips at the hotel, before heading to get the shuttle to the Natakhtari Airfield, 23km north of Tbilisi.

One last moment, enjoying the Tbilisi Marriott.

This massive bicycle art installation is incredibly quirky, as it heads in both directions!

Enroute to Natakhtari Airfield, we passed Jvrari Church, high on a hilltop in the countryside.  For many Georgians, this spot is the “holiest of holies”, as it is where King Marian erected a cross after his conversion to Christianity under Saint Nino in the fourth century.

The following six photos show the topography of Georgia from the air, heading west from the middle of the country.  The Caucasus Mountain range runs the width of the country, to the north, along the border with Russia.  

A Czech-made Let L-410, operated by Service Air for Vanilla Sky Airlines, took us from an airfield 23km north of Tbilisi to Batumi on the west coast of Georgia. Here, we have just finished the one-hour flight, arriving at Batumi International Airport.

A view of the Sheraton Batumi, where we are staying, from the beach.

After dinner, we took a walk along a section of the beach and wide walk-way that runs the length of Batumi’s beachfront.  The width of the pebble beach took us aback - we had no idea how large this beach is!