Sept. 14, 2011
We landed at London's Heathrow Airport on time at 7:10 am. The flight was smooth and we managed some good sleep during the crossing. We had a 4 1/2 hour layover, so even though it was technically after midnight to our body clocks, it was early morning in London...time for breakfast. Darrell led us to the Harlequin Ale House & Eatery for a good British wake up meal. A few among us, who shall remain nameless, actually had an ale with breakfast.
With another 3 plus hours to go before our flight to Tbilisi we kept busy poking around the numerous Heathrow Terminal 1 shops. Harrods could have easily liquidated a few credit cards.
Our next flight left at 11:30 am on BMI. After 6 hours flight time we made a refueling stop in Baku, Azerbaijan, which lasted 45 minutes, then it was a quick 45 minute flight to Tbilisi. We landed at 10:10 pm Georgian time, about 15 minutes early. It was off to the carousel to get our luggage and then meet with our ride to the hotel.
We checked into Hotel City, Tbilisi's newest boutique Hotel, dumped our luggage in our rooms and headed for the observation deck on the roof where Darrell opened a bottle of Georgian champagne. We made a toast to our guide and new dear friend Nick (Niko) Erkomaishvili who would lead us for the next five days. The views of Tbilisi at night were spectacular and it was great to relax a bit perched atop this beautiful city.
Scenes of our night time arrival