Here are some highlights from our business trip to Batumi. It rained most of the time so nothing spectacular about the beaches (big pebbles) or sitting in cafes enjoying the view.
The drive takes six hours along a reasonable road, (no motorway, and single carriageway (one lane each way) most of the way. We had lunch in a cafe by the roadside (excellent food, nice outside seating by the river, awful toilets). I don't know its name, but it's located where the road runs through a valley in the mountains which divide West Georgia from East Georgia.
On the way we commented on the lack of agriculture, which was a bit surprising and the lack of wild flowers, like in Greece where they would be wonderful at this time of year (or more probably dead from the heat). But the scenery was very green (and wet) without that brooding gloominess that Bosnia (and Herzegovina) has.
Eventually we drove along the Black Sea coast from Poti, admiring the rain, and realising it was the usual British Public Holiday (wet) weather. We checked into our hotel, Hotel David, pretty much like Hotel Hecco in Sarajevo (see post here). 12 rooms, more or less empty except for the five of us. Good free internet, not much English and scarcely adequate breakfast. All for an overpriced 80 dollars. 45 Euros (like Hecco) would have been reasonable. Still, very comfortable.
For dinner we went to the Old Ship restaurant for some traditional Georgian food (we were 3 Georgians, 1 Brit and 1 Greek), and since it was Independence Day, some dancing and singing. The restaurant is in an old wooden ship, on two levels and the food was excellent. Here was how the main course and desert were served:
The grilled meat, fish and mushroom pyramid of sword sized skewers was hard to dismantle. The fruit arrangement with its swan cut from an apple was an original.
