Blogs from Alaverdi, North, Armenia, Asia

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Asia » Armenia » North » Alaverdi September 18th 2023

I Day 13 Armenia. Debed Canyon, Monasteries, Mikoyans and MiG 21s, and Fidel Castro. It’s a two hour drive from Lake Sevan to Alaverdi, the Debed Canyon. We savour our homely breakfast at the Lavash Teahouse. The selection this morning is omelette, frankfurters in a spicy gravy, pasta, dill salad (Marion’s favourite), tomato and cucumber salad, semolina, yoghurt, figs, stewed grapes and berries, quince in syrup, prunes, cake and bread. Lots of Germans in the restaurant this morning on a coach tour. It’s been a pleasant friendly place. A hardworking team of men run the catering, a harder working and smaller team of women do the laundering and bedroom changeovers. An ever hungry posse of good natured dogs hang about and try to scrounge food. We didn’t see a single cat in Armenia until six or ... read more
Debed Canyon
Sanahin Monastery Shaft of Light
MiG 21 Mikoyans Museum

Asia » Armenia » North » Alaverdi September 18th 2022

Day 9 Georgia and Armenia. Sunday 18th Sept. All churched out in Armenia I can’t remember why I ended up booking a private tour for today’s trip to Armenia, maybe it wasn’t much more expensive than a group tour, maybe only a private tour was available or maybe I just couldn’t be bothered to mix with other people every day. Who knows! Either way Irakli, our guide for the day, was on time this morning and we were soon heading to the border. We passed some washing powder shops on the way where Armenians stock up as it is so much cheaper here. We also heard stories of mixing between Georgians, Armenians and Azerbijanis. Apparently the latter not drinking is a problem…..and their not eating pork….. Not sure how he’s going to take to having a ... read more
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Asia » Armenia » North » Alaverdi September 18th 2022

As Armenia isn’t that far from Tbilisi, we decided to go on a day trip there, as neither of us had visited it before. Our guide/driver, Irakli picked us up at around 9am, which goes to show how close it is because of the late start! Irakli explained that there’s a lot of animosity between Georgians and Armenians due to culture clashes and nationalism. People love their own country so much, they believe that’s it’s the best at everything and have disdain for others. That sounded VERY familiar! His father in law for example refused to try Armenian brandy, but our driver convinced him to try a sip and little by little, he drunk it. Now our driver says that though Georgian wine is better, Armenian brandy is superior. It took him all night to get ... read more
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Asia » Armenia » North » Alaverdi June 26th 2018

Drove along the apparently historic Debed Canyon (this is what the guide book says, but we didn't spot any of the churches that are supposed to line the valley). Very different scenery, green tree covered hills. Very steep and long canyon with a lot of old Soviet industrial factories along the way. Our destination of Alvaverdi town, a very ugly big town that is full of semi-derelict factories, a decrepit looking cable car and two UNESCO world heritage monasteries, Haghpat and Sanahin. Haghpat we felt was the more interesting of the two. Both are from Medieval times with libraries and great stone work. Sanahin was known for the illuminators of manuscripts. The town of Sanahin is the top of the cable car from Alaverdi and is where the factory workers lived, the cable car was for ... read more
Inside Sanahin monastery
Haghpat monastery
Debed valley from Haghpat

Asia » Armenia » North » Alaverdi September 19th 2012

We had a lazy start in the morning as the hotel cook doesn't start until 9am. This is what holidays are all about - not rushing anywhere. It was the usual breakfast of bread, preserve, eggs, cheese and sour cream. We loaded up the car but Saro discovered that the battery was flat. While he phoned a friend to help him, Rod and I went for a walk in the other direction from the previous day. We found a lovely looking theatre that was being used as a furniture shop and an abandoned playground, another relic of the soviet times. Once we got back to the hotel, Saro had got the car started and we were on our way. His friend invited us for coffee at his home. This is very common in Armenia and it ... read more
Theatre turned furniture shop
Road to Hvenank
Hnevank Monastery




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