Saturday we got out for a walk after having breakfast in the hotel. They had a decent selection of hot and cold items so we managed quite nicely. We wanted to walk near the shore, so headed straight out from the hotel to the waterfront.
You get four for the price of one in this shot. A lovely dolphin leaping as well as the alphabet tower, ferries wheel, and the Chacha tower. There is a lighthouse behind all if these things but just not in the photo.
We walked up to a park near Nurigeli Lake where we saw this interesting fountain. There was enough water to give the illusion that the water was holding up the rock as one does not see the support inside the tower of water. Pretty neat.
This lady on a bicycle is one of our favorite sculptures. The water is forcing both the wheels to spin adding a sense of reality to the piece. Marty has taken many shots of this piece during two visits to Batumi and when we return, she'll take more.
There are lots and lots of green spaces in the city along the waterfront. And there are many gardens and fountains. It is a great place to just walk and lots of people do just that. Walk, sit, and enjoy. The city has many rent-a-bike stations throughout the tourist area, similar to ones we see in European and US cities, but that doesn't discourage competition from local entrepreneurs.
There is a small bird exhibition with ducks, geese, swans, peacocks and others and of course, with nice sculpture. We have enjoyed the birds a lot and on Sunday we got a display by the Peacocks (two of them) most likely trying to look their best for the peahens in the yard. You might ask, why? Why show the rear end of the peacock? Well, for one thing you can see how his feathers have been trimmed to prevent him from flying off! Also the feathers that are below the long ones. We suspect that these more densely spaced feathers help to support the much longer ones. At least, that's our speculation.
There are different varieties of peacock but we have no idea which this one is. He was just strutting and showing himself off and all of us who were watching certainly enjoyed seeing both this one and the other male. They were also vocalizing which made it not just showy, but noisy.
Near the bird enclosure is the Veterans Club. On a nice day there are many older men sitting both inside and out playing a variety of card or board games. Quite a nice place for them to be sure.
And there are gardens and landscaping everywhere in this part of the city. This was just one of many large beds of flowers in full bloom.
Our dinners both Saturday and Sunday evening were at a restaurant called Heart of Batumi. It is a wonderful small place with great food. Nearly all the travel rating sites put this as one of the best restaurants in the city. It is by far one of the smaller places as well.
Two servings of salad below. The one of the left is the traditional cucumber, tomato, onion, salad with walnut sauce and the one on the right is the wonderful eggplant salad stuffed with crushed walnuts.
Below is the dish David had on our first dinner there (Saturday). It was even better than it looks in the photo.
Breakfast Saturday morning was at a very tiny restaurant called The Chocolate Coffee House.. It was just a skip, hop, and jump from the hotel and we sat outside and enjoyed the cool morning air. We both had omlettes of one kind or another and the food was excellent.
Below is Marty's cheese omelette and the carrot side was slightly spiced with Korean type herbs and spices giving the dish a most wonderful exotic flavor. We asked the owner about it and he said that they had Korean friends who gave them the recipe which they then toned down for the non Korean palette.
As we walked around the city we spotted a large fountain dedicated to Neptune. This is a replica of a fountain in Italy, maybe Rome. Neptune was okay but the mermaids on each corner of the base were what fascinated us, Yes, the water is coming right out of the breasts of the mermaids. We've never seen anything like this before. Okay, little boys with water coming out of their penises but never water coming out of breasts.
Here's Marty on the roof top terrace of our hotel (President Plaza). The room was excellent, except for facing the street that became local hot-Rodders used late into the night to race back and forth.
We couldn't resist doing a panorama from the terrace giving a nice view into the square and the nifty buildings that surround it.
As Monday morning arrived we both found ourselves not feeling quite up to snuff so after breakfast and a short trip out for coffee we remained at the hotel until it was time to go to the train station. We boarded and since we had business class tickets, we were on the upper level of the two level car. The car was numbered "4" and there was also a "3", "2" and "1" but the first car was 4. We suspect that the train doesn't get turned around so the first and last cars are also "engines" and the car number order might be assigned based on departure from Tbilisi not Batumi.
There's David on the left in the blue shirt headed toward the doors of car number 4. We rode on the upper level on the same side as what we had been on for the trip over to Batumi. This is the same side we were on for our previous trip in 2014. One of these days we want to see the other side's landscapes. This is a smooth ride for sure and although it takes five hours, it was comfortable and we have no complaints for having paid 26 GEL for business class or just under $11 one way. Train travel in Georgia can be comfortable as well as priced very reasonably.
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