Oak Barrels, a Street Sign, and a Staircase

July 29, 2011

A line of huge oak barrels in Tsinandali

Street signs at Signaghi

Soft morning sunlight illuminates a winding staircase

My recent visits to the Republic of Georgia in South Caucasus in late 2010 and early 2011 probably contributed the most number of photos to my collection. This was not only because I made it a commitment to visit as many places and take as many pictures whenever possible but also, to a greater extent, because I found a lot of photo-perfect scenes in this beautiful country. I have published most of my colored photos in my HubPages site but still found a lot of beautiful, mostly unpublished photos in my folders. Some of these photos look best in sepia or black and white so I’m publishing a series of blogs in this category.

A line of huge oak barrels in Tsinandali

“Oak Barrels” / Georgia 2010 [Tsinandali, Kakheti Region]: The Kakheti Region of Georgia is famous worldwide for its long wine-making tradition and the Georgian Wine. I had an opportunity to visit the Tsinandali gardens also in Kakheti which featured, among others, 14th Century wine cellars where the much sought Tsinandali Wine was born. In this photo, huge oak barrels line a section of the Tsinandali winery.

Street signs at Sighnaghi

“Street Signs” / Georgia 2010 [Signaghi, Kakheti Region]: Also in Kakheti Region is Sighnaghi, a cold and quiet, recently refurbished city surrounded by medieval walls and sitting on a mountainous portion of the region thus giving a magnificent view of the surrounding plains. Aside from being a prime tourist destination; Sighnaghi, sometimes called the “City of Love”, is a sort of a vacation destination for Georgians. This street sign points to the general direction of the city’s major landmarks.

Soft morning sunlight illuminates a winding staircase

“Twirl” / Georgia 2011 [ Batumi, Autonomous Region of Adjara]: The Tower Restaurant along the coast of Batumi features, yes, a tower that provides a good view of the Batumi coastline and the surrounding parks and buildings. My Georgian colleague and I arrived too early and the place was not ready to serve breakfast but they allowed us to climb the tower to take photos. This one is a shot of the winding – not very symmetrical – staircase.