It's an interesting experience sleeping on a train parked in the railway station of the capital city of a country. I slept well in our train parked in platform 4 of Tbilisi station and enjoyed the experience. Breakfast was served from 7.30 to 9.00 a.m. and I allowed a little time for observing the train movements at this busy station.
Tbilisi Station, Georgian Railway: Two imported modern Electric Multiple Units, one double-decked.
Just after nine, we all met on the platform and made our way to the coaches waiting outside the station. We'd been offered a choice of tours - I'd elected for the one outlined below and it proved a good choice.
The 'Golden Eagle' Train: Cabin in 'Day Mode', set up for working on my laptop computer.
The coaches took about two hours to reach our first destination - the Tsinandali Estate in the wine-making area of Eastern Georgia, Kakheti. The estate comprises a garden, park and former family home of Prince Alexander Chavchavadze (1786-1846) now turned into a museum with furnishings and effects either from the Chavchavadze family or similar. We had an interesting conducted tour of the house but I'm afraid photography was not allowed inside. There's a website here.
Tsinandali Estate, Kakheti, East Georgia
The coaches then drove us to Mosmieri's Winery, a modern establishment producing red and white wine using 'European' methods. One side of the factory building was glazed, allowing us to view the massive, gleaming tanks in which fermentation occurs. The winery also produces an 'amber' wine using the traditional 'Georgian' method. Normal white grapes are used but fermentation takes place in a number of large clay pots called 'Kvevri' similar to a Roman amphora, which are mounted underground and sealed. In this method, grape skins are also used in fermentation, producing a potent wine (around 13% proof).
There are interesting articles on Wikipedia on Georgian Winemaking and Kvevri (with yet further links for the oenophile). To make the Mosmieri Wine Centre a suitable destination for general tourists, wine tasting for parties is offered, followed by a Georgian-style lunch.
Wine tasting at Mosmieri Wine Centre, East Georgia.
After tasting the three varieties of wine produced there was, as you may imagine, a very merry lunch. The Mosmieri Wine Centre has a web site here.
The Restaurant at Mosmieri Wine Centre, East Georgia
We then drove to Signagi Royal Town and our briefing notes promised "breathtaking views of Kizikhi area". We stopped to walk around Sighnaghi Old Town. The briefing notes offered a "walk in narrow streets of the town in shadow of wooden balconies richly decorated with the lace of carved ornaments". They didn't mention the steepness of the cobbled streets but, despite that, I made it to a brick viewpoint tower built on the remains of an old church and battlements from which the views were, indeed, stunning.
Signagi Royal Town, Kizikhi, Georgia: View of the town from the car park where our coaches stopped. The brick viewpoint I walked to can be seen top right, built on stone battlements.
Signagi Royal Town, Kizikhi, Georgia: Looking across the town from the brick viewpoint.
With everyone safely back on the coaches, it took over two and a half hours to drive back to Tbilisi and our waiting train but we had all enjoyed the visits during the day and the weather had remained sunny and hot.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 'Golden Eagle' Caspian Odyssey trip, starting with Travelling East.
Clicking on the 'Next report' link displays the post describing the next events. In this way, you may read about the trip in sequence.
Next report
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Caspian Odyssey reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Caspian Odyssey reports.
My pictures
The 'Golden Eagle' Train from Yerevan.
Tbilisi, Georgia.
Tsinandali Estate, Georgia.
Kakheti Vineyards and Mosmieri Wine Centre, East Georgia.
Signagi Royal Town, Kizikhi, Georgia
All my pictures taken in Georgia are in the collection Georgia.
[Signagi description corrected 4-Oct-2018: Links to pictures added 6-Oct-2018: Pictures embedded 24/25-Oct-2018: Winemaking references added 27-Oct-2018]
