Georgia and the crossing of the Caucasus

At the Black Sea we made our travel plans in Turkey and realized that we needed a lot more time to drive the planned tour, with all countries. According to our calculations, if we let Armenia away, we would have to drive 180 km daily on average. This means to have rest day and time for sightseeing we have to drive a multiple of it. Alright, let's go ... On 14. 05 we crossed the Turkish / Georgian border at the Black Sea. It was a bit chaotic as Lena had to leave the car to walk across the border - unfortunately with the vehicle papers in her bag. All this cost us three hours. The car insurance costs 13 euros, sim card is especially for tourists. To recover a bit from the exertions of the ride and the stress of recent times, we headed for a campsite near Batumi. The coast on the Georgian side is much less populated. The small campsite "blackseacamping" is currently under construction and is made by very nice people! The weather was lovely and you could see the snowy mountains from the beach. Behind the beach were tall conifers and palms, and when the cows came to the beach it felt a little like Goa. On 17. 05 we went to Tiblis. The ride was impressive because to the left of us the small Caucasus, and to the right of us the big one was to be seen. Partly you drive through mountain valleys indenen where you can see the beautiful old monastery facilities on the rocks everywhere. Kutz before Tbilisi, we visited in the evening sun, an old rock city that is said to be 3000 years old and hosted up to 20,000 people. It had its heyday as a trading city of the Silk Road. At the foot of this complex we stayed overnight on a beautiful full moon on the river. The next day we spent in the capital. Tbilisi (1, 4 million inhabitants) is located in a valley on the mountain slopes beautiful old and new buildings can be seen with 400 m difference in altitude. In the center there are some very nice modern buildings that are picturesquely situated on the river. In the old town are many small niches with a restaurant at the other where you can sit outside with music and people can enjoy while strolling. In the evening we then pissed there 2 bottles of wine and review the previous trip. We had found that the trip is scheduled but very tight and we disciplined in the future get up early and have to leave early so we can bring days off. This schedule was not what Walter had imagined and that's why we parted ways. The next day we drove the very beautiful old army road through the Caucasus towards Russia. One often felt reminded of the Alps and had fantastic views of the 5000 m high snow-capped mountains. In Russia, the Caucasus then ran very fast into a plane. In conclusion to Georgia, we would like to say that we will come back to see more of the country and also Armenia. This is quite possible because there are cheap flights and rental cars. The Russian border was then an experience in itself. We were allowed to hold one-on-one talks about our intentions and, after some torture, received our customs documents for the Eurasian Economic Union. The Russian officials were extremely friendly and interested. We also fully understood that Russia needs to check who and why someone is coming to the country and we crossed the border in a conflict-laden area. After about 30 km came Tchechenien ... The car insurance for three months cost 90 euros and a sim card is available in large supermarkets.