Kazbegi

Kazbegi is a sleepy mountain town in the valley of the Caucasus Mountains.  We were able to travel here over a weekend with the embassy.  The embassy puts together short tours for their personnel and they are usually pretty amazing!

Enjoying the views from the top

The trip is very short, only 2.5 hours out of Tbilisi and we were able to make it to Kazbegi by lunch time.  We got settled into our room, grabbed a quick bite and headed out to make the accent up the mountain.

The church at the top of the mountain

Maddy loved the church too

Most of the group was planning on climbing the mountain but we felt that with the girls we were better off paying the $8 to hire a car to go up the hill.  The ride was bumpy and jarring and only 5 minutes into it both girls fell asleep.  Not only did we have to try to prevent ourselves from hitting the windows as the car moved down the road but navigate their sleeping bodies too!

View from our hotel

The views from the top of the church were amazing!  The mountain was covered in clouds but the valley and the town were beautifully nestled.  We toured the church and took a ton of pictures from the top.

Originally we had wanted to hike down but decided against it taking the car instead.  I'm so glad we did because it allowed us to have some time to hit up the pool in the hotel which Mara loved!  It also gave us some much needed family time away from the rest of the group.

Exploring another church on the way home

The next day we checked out and headed back to Tbilisi.  We stopped along the way at a small village.  We had originally planned on going to the pass between Russia and Georgia but a landslide prevented our passing.  In the village we toured a small church, garden and ruin.

My little model

It was on to another church/fortress on the way home.  This one had a little more history and "beef" to it as we were able to go inside the church, under the walls and around.  The kids had a blast running in the ruins.

Kazbegi was a great little weekend getaway that I see ourselves repeating in the future.  The views are breathtaking and it was a great hotel to just relax and enjoy the view!