Day 8: Kutaisi to Batumi

It had dried up a little bit in Kutaisi yesterday evening, but when we woke up this morning it was pouring with rain again. The water level in the river outside our hotel was really high.

There were quite big waves in the river!

We had a driver booked at 10am to take us from Kutaisi to our final destination for this trip: Batumi. Compared to the other journeys we've done, this one was comparatively short; around 2.5 hours. For the first half of the journey it continued to rain, but as we got closer to the coast the weather began to clear up and by the time we arrived in Batumi it was positively sunny. We got our first glimpses of the Black Sea and the tall buildings of Batumi from the taxi.

It was around half 12 when we were dropped off in front of our hotel; obviously too early to check in. I'd asked in advance whether we could leave our bags at reception while we waited for our rooms to be ready, which the hotel had said was fine. When we went in, things were better than I expected because the receptionist said that the rooms were being cleaned, but that they're be ready in an hour and we could come back to check in properly then.

The hotel is in the old town, so having left the bags we had a stroll along its little streets.

We soon found ourselves somewhere which felt like it was trying to be a square in Italy.

This is Batumi Piazza. It has a very large clock tower...

...and a very large mosaic, which tourists were posing for photos on.

We sat in a cafe in the square and had coffee and pancakes for lunch.

From the edge of the square there was a beautiful view of a Greek Orthodox church in the foreground, plus a glimpse of one of Batumi's more unusual buildings - the Alphabetic Tower - in the distance. More photos of that later!

Around half one we went back to the hotel to check in properly. The hotel wanted payment in cash, so I had asked whether we could pay in Euros, as the cost of two rooms for three nights was quite a big amount to change into Georgian lari. The receptionist said that was fine and offered us a discount if we cancelled the reservation on booking.com. Obviously not strictly above board, but we saved about £40 and a bit of inconvenience in changing money!

The rooms are fine and we were excited to find we had some Azerbaijani tea bags. We tried them and they were quite nice

After unpacking and having a bit of a rest, we set out to explore some more of Batumi.

Almost immediately we got a view of another famous building in the distance; the Batumi tower.

We were walking towards a place called Europe Square.

It's... slightly odd. In the middle is a grassy area with grass and palm trees, which looked pretty in the sunshine.

On the other side is this Astronomical Clock Tower, which was apparently built in 2010. 

It looks a bit like it's trying to rip off somewhere in central Europe - maybe Prague?

The rest of the square was pleasant though and it was so nice to be seeing it with a blue sky after all the rain of yesterday!

We walked towards the coast and the skyline which makes Batumi known as the Dubai of Georgia.

From here we got a better view of the Batumi Tower, one of the highest buildings in Georgia, which has a small ferris wheel embedded into the side of it. The reason for this is not clear.

Further away, we could see the Alphabetic Tower, so called because the letters of the Georgian alphabet spiral around it.

We also found the Radisson hotel; looking at this one makes you feel like you might have drunk too much Georgian wine!

We walked down a wide boulevard, lined with fountains.

There were some really nice bits of park; this area had a huge plantation of bamboo.

And we even found some swing chairs to relax in

We passed what seemed like a fake Parthenon...

...and then we were finally at the Black Sea!

The beaches here are very pebbly. I definitely don't think you'd want to lie down and sunbathe on them!

There's a promenade along the sea front though, which we walked part of the way along.

There were all sorts of things to capture our attention, from a playground that seemed to feature a Transformer...

...to what we think is an "I love Batumi" sign in the Georgian alphabet.

Mom took a picture of me and Helen with it

As we got further along the promenade, we could see the Alphabetic Tower more clearly.

I was very excited by it, so Helen took my picture with it   

In the distance we could also see a lighthouse and a giant Ferris Wheel.

When we reached the end of this section of promenade, we got to a famous statue called Ali and Nino, which depicts a local pair of star-crossed lovers. The statue is unusual in that it moves.

So here you can see the pair getting closer...

...then completely merging into each other...

...before the figures start to move out the opposite side of each other...

....and are soon far apart again.

The figures don't move constantly, so it was just a pure fluke that we were there at the right time to witness them! 

This part of the promenade was rather noise; it felt more like the Blackpool of Georgia rather than the Dubai. There were various men trying to convince us in Russian that we wanted to go on their yachts. And very loud party music blaring out. We decided to do something spontaneous and bought tickets for the Ferriss Wheel.

The views as we slowing moved upwards were amazing. In one direction we could see the Alphabetic Tower...

...while in the other we could admire the Black Sea coast.

We could also see over the Piazza Square with its strange tower where we'd had our pancakes earlier.

From this angle you could perhaps see a bit more why Batumi gets its "Dubai" label.

I had a fun time anyway

Getting on and off the Ferris Wheel was a bit of a challenge but we managed it, then used the tower in Piazza Square as a landmark to navigate our way back towards the hotel.

Batumi is definitely an interesting place - I'm looking forward to exploring more of it tomorrow