Olympic bicycle ride 2008

Leaving Tblisi on Saturday morning was an event. Joint by local racers and their excellencies the Lithuanian and Polish ambassadors on bicycles there were about 50 of us being escorted by Police over the urban and suburban highways out of the city.
The direction is now northwards into the Khaleti region which is famous for its vinyards and monasteries, a combination known from the river valleys of western Europe. To get into the Alazani river plain, the Gombori mountains need to be crossed and on Sunday we made it over the highest pass of the entire journey so far: 1600m, at chilly 6 degrees of temperature. The previous night one of our bicycles fell victim to theft, but was brought back by police after a short time, even though damaged.

Elevation profile Tblisi - Telavi

In Telavi I had the pleasure to meet Beso Kirvalidse who, just stopping his car and wondering about us foreign looking guys turned out to have spent many years working in Tampere and during our conversation thanked God many times to meet someone who could speak Finnish! Besides Jumala he also remembered Perkele, Nokia (the town, not the company) and a couple of other very Finnish things.

Likely this is the last update before Baku (April 13). If you want to be notified about updates, please subscribe to this blog (see right).

There are two things in Georgia that symbolize Georgians hopes: The blue EU flag and of course the Georgian flag with its five crosses. Both fill important gaps left behind by Soviet ideology. Another one, and rather closely linked with Georgian national feeling is the religious revival manifesting itself in the reestablishment of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate. I think of the (now also changing) role of Catholicism in the political changes in Poland or the new alliance between political power and Orthodox religion in Putin`s Russia when seeing how Georgians are creating a completely new national sanctuary for themselves in the Holy Trinity Cathedral overlooking the city. The building is in fact a whole complex including a ring of chapels and is pretty busy already although still under construction (started in 2003).
Positive or negative development, I can't tell - according to S Huntigton's Clash of Civilizations negative - but certainly Tblisi has another important sight on it's list of attractions.

Brand new Holy Trinity Cathedral dominating night view of Tblisi

What a reception: the vice mayor of the Georgian capital and the combined ambassadors of Poland, Lithuania, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands together with numerous journalists awaiting us in the Town Hall of Tblisi! Lonely me: Finland doesn`t have an ambassador to Georgia (the Dutch diplomat told me; I really wouldn`t have known...) So instead of educated small-talk more time for me to indulge in the buffet with even more delicacies than during yesterday`s dinner hosted by the Georgian bicycle federation.
This is how nationalities are currently represented in our group:
Poland 6
Lithuania 4
Greece 2
Netherlands 1
Italy 1
Germany 1 (no German diplomat either present at the reception)
Finland 1

For pictures and video, check
http://www.tbilisi.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=GEO&sec_id=344&info_id=7163

For track and more photos since Turkish-Georgian border:
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=17169.
Please ignore the elevation data, because again I had to `repair` some missing parts by hand.

Half a rest day in Mtskheta, because it is located less than 30 km away from our destination of the day, Tblisi.
Mtskheta. A good opprtunity to study a little more the religious and architecturl traditions of Georgia, where Mtskheta is an ancient centre of pilgrimage. Church architecture seems to be a blending of western romanesque elements (massive walls, round arches, basilica type of nave and the Eastern Orthodox building tradition (cross-shaped outline cupola and iconostas that never reaches up to the ceiling like in the Russian churches).

Vault in the Sioni Church in Tblisi

Route of the day: Gomi - Gori - Mtskheta, 108 km.
Starting from the camp in Gomi was a little delayed when the school children discovered us on their grounds. First they offered a nice bunch of spring flowers to everyone and then they started to line up for photos and signatures in their school notebooks. Being a star for 15 minutes!
Gori would have all the archeological and and historical attractions that many of the other towns in Georgia have, but in Gori everything really is about Iossiph Vissarionovich or Stalin. And locals do nothing to change the image of their son that has changed the course of world history like few personalities have. The Stalin statue is still in place and so is the "museum" where nothing has been changed since 1979, making it a museum of Soviet propaganda rather than a place to learn about the Soviet dictator. I would like to assume that the image of Stalin is not currently an issue between Georgia and Russia.