We have breakfast in the guest house and then pack up and load up the truck and bid our farewell to the owners of the guest house, leaving Kutaisi at 9 AM. We then drive for the rest of the morning, heading towards the Black Sea. We have lunch by the side of the road and then arrive in Batumi just after 2 PM.
We are staying in the huge Intourist Hotel in the center of town. It is actually quite well kept (the best so far) and we are pleasantly surprised to see the halls filled with fit, young ladies in short skirts. We soon discover that the Batumi Ladies Tennis Open has just started - this gets the single men in the group very excited.
We check in and drop off our bags and then head out to explore the town. We are given the directions to the internet cafe and they are remarkably accurate - we easily find our way. We spend a short time at the internet cafe and then head out to see some of the sights. We wander through some of the streets and lanes in search of the Museum of Art. Along the way we stumble upon the Museum of Achara, but it does not look to interesting, so we skip it. The Lonely Planet directions are hopeless, so we end up heading here and there trying to find the Museum of Art. But in the end, our perseverance pays off.
It is located in an interesting elegant old building that used to be the Museum of the Revolution. We seem to be just about the only people to visit it today. They let us in after we pay our admissions fee and only then are the lights turned on and we can see something. The building has a large central room that is over two stories high, with a central staircase that goes up to an internal balcony that encircles the entire floor. The art work is primarily modern - with a few gems spaced in amongst the mostly mediocre pieces.
From the Museum of Art we head to the Black Sea and the pebble and rock beach that runs along the entire shore front. There are a number of people laying on the hard stones catching a few rays. As usual, we attract the attention of the locals and some of them come up to us to speak to us and find out where we are from.
Nearby is the tennis complex, so we decide to go and see if we can get in and check out what is happening. Today is the opening day. As we approach the gates, we just pretend like we are important and have business in there, and just walk right in. We find a few seats and sit down to watch some of the tennis. The quality of play is mixed, but the quality of the women is not. That is why a number of the single men from our group have spent the afternoon hanging out there watching the women players, ops, I mean the tennis. We spend about half an hour there, watching a few of the games.
From the tennis courts, we wander down the promenade that parallels the beach. It is quite a nice area to hang out and has been kept well. We then swing back into the town itself and go look for a grocery shop that sounded interesting. Along the way, we wander by various streets that have very heavy security - not sure what is going on there. We find the Gastronomi shop and head in. What they offer is very basic, but the setting of the shop is not. It has an elaborate oriental interior decor that is quite stunning. We check to see if they have anything interesting to buy - in the end, all we can find is some vodka that is going for the usually ridiculous price of less than a dollar for a half liter of stoli and other brands.
It is then back to the hotel after having completed a full circuit of the town. Back at the hotel, we relax in our room for a while before washing up for dinner. We have a group dinner in the hotel on a balcony overlooking the promenade. It is a great setting and they were smart to put us out there - we made lots of news with all the toasting and so on.
After dinner, a few of us decided to head out for a night cap. We wandered over to the bungalow bar on the beach. But it turns out that it is quite quiet. Most of the tennis players must be having an early night - all the men in the group are disappointed. After one drink, we head back to the hotel.