Trabzon, Rize, Batumi (Georgia) - a celebratory trip with friends

  I'm close to turning 40, and since I didn't want a big party, my wife suggested that I take a trip with close friends and celebrate that way. So we did. We visited Trabzon, Rize, and Batumi. Sumela Monastery was definitely a highlight of the trip. Excellent food was also important. Most important was the fellowship of friendship which allowed us to share things temporal and eternal.

SUMELA MONASTERY and its environs

The view from the trail to the monastery

Outside the entry to the monastery

The monastery buildings

View from a distance (by the church)

Melchizedek and Abram fresco

St. George and the Dragon (I think)

The walls were covered with the biblical narrative, starting with the creation at the top. The monastery seems to have functioned as a school of biblical training to some extent. The frescoes do not seem to be standard icons, to my uneducated eye.

More of the biblical narrative in frescoes

The view from the parking lot. Technically you can walk to the monastery from there, but it was apparently 4 kilometers, most of which was at a steep angle. We paid the $1.50 to ride the bus; the driver kept it interesting.

A stream near the parking lot

TRABZON

The view from a beautiful breakfast restaurant

Gravestone headpiece explanations for Ottoman-era tombstones, which often include the headgear of the deceased on top to indicate the deceased social status

The seraphim and the four beasts around the Throne. This is the central ceiling fresco in Trabzon's Hagia Sofia church building, converted to a mosque, converted to a museum, now converted to a mosque again.

Historically the four beasts before the Throne are linked to the four gospel accounts (Matthew with the man, Luke with the bull, John with the eagle, and Mark with the lion.) 

Jesus teaching at the Temple as a youth

exterior of the Hagia Sofia (Trabzon)

column designs still fascinate me 2 decades after World History 101

The Last Supper fresco - the use and non-use of halos was interesting to me.

Christ as Judge (Pantokrator)

Trabzon city walls / fortress

Trabzon city walls / fortress from a distance

RIZE

 

Rize panorama

Rize at night, notice the massive tea cup on the left

BATUMI

 

Georgian side of the border

delicious Georgian food

 Panorama of Batumi

The Grand Gloria Hotel looked very impressive, at least from the outside.

a small, quite new church building by the border