Today was our first day in a a few days which wasn't simply about getting to the next place,and hoping the scenery would be interesting on the way. Instead, we had an actual planned stop at the rather obscure but very interesting Unesco site of Mount Nemrut.

Today was quite an eventful driving day as we finally left the Caucasus region and made our way back into Turkey via a different route to the one we came. Before any of that though I got up bright and early to have a run around Akhaltsikhe. As usual, this was a great way to see a city, and it was interesting to see how newly developed the place is, with lovely paved paths to run down.

Today was supposed to be the day we reached Baku, but with all of Azerbaijan's land borders firmly closed, we have changed our itinerary from Tbilisi and are heading northward instead of eastward.

Today we did the free walking tour in Tbilisi, which as well as giving us information about the city, also allowed us to finally learn a bit more about Georgia and its history too. The tour started in the closest thing Tbilisi seems to have to a city centre, at the bottom of Freedom Square not too far from the river.

Before I talk about today, I need to break the news that we unfortunately aren't going to make it to Baku, Azerbaijan, which was the original furthest point of our itinerary. This is because the Azerbaijanis still haven't opened their land borders since the pandemic, and are not reviewing this policy again until at least September 1st according to newspaper articles.

I can't start the blog today without saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUCY! Lucy turned one today, so we of course made a huge fuss of her throughout the day, gave her some presents, and got some balloons and cake to celebrate in our hotel room.

When we woke up this morning we cautiously looked out the window and were very pleased to see that the weather forecast had got things completely wrong for a second day in a row. Rather than thunderstorms, there was bright sunshine and mostly clear skies, with the storm forecast pushed out to the mid afternoon. This meant we headed straight to see Vardzia after breakfast.