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Day 1: In and around Yerevan, Armenia

Map of the Southern Caucasus tour

We flew Austrian Airlines LHR two and a half hours to Vienna, four hour layover, then three hours to Yerevan. We came in across the Black Sea, and along the border between Georgia and Turkey to get here and arrived at our hotel at 5:30 this morning……

That stop/start travel, plus the three hour time difference, meant I got 90 minutes sleep last night so forgive me if today’s post is all a bit laboured! Breakfast at 8:00am and a full day’s sightseeing…..

Here are a couple of pics from my hotel bedroom window which although poor quality should give you an idea of the higgledy piggledy array of architectural styles in Armenia’s Capital City:

If you had the energy to read the ‘Route in Detail’ you will recognise the Cascades on the first pic stretched diagonally across the frame: here’s a link to what I said about it Cascades.

Aside from the cascades you can see examples of soviet era apartments and on the skyline, not very clear, soviet era statuary. That’s mixed in with twee little bungalows and grand houses of a more recent era, plus posh apartment blocks and quite trendy looking commercial property. The effect is really quite bizarre!!!

So our first stop was the Cascades which we walked to… Armenians luvvies seem to like their sculpture on a grand scale as you can see from the pics taken on the way up to the Cascades themselves.

This one, right at the foot of the Cascades, is Alexander Tamanyan who was the City Architect of Yerevan and is regarded as the guy responsible for creation of this Central Square area of the capital, although not for the Cascades themselves.

Given he died in 1936 we can’t really hold him responsible for the mess shown in the other two pics!

Here are some more examples of the large and bold sculptures that line the walk up to the Cascades and alongside the Cascades themselves:

Working from the top left, you are looking at:

  • Sculpture of Armenian Warrior
  • Sculpture of Thinking Philosopher
  • Sculpture of Drowning Man #1
  • Sculpture of the same Drowning Man #2
  • Sculpture entitled Kiwi by an American artist
  • Sculpture entitled Smoking Lady by a Columbian artist
  • Sculpture made of stainless steel and old tyres by a South Korean artist, entitled Lion
  • Untitled stainless steel sculpture by a Chinese Artist

Here are a couple of slightly more delicate efforts: first one shows leaping deer, the second three human divers:

So, having wallked all the way to the top, this pic shows what i found….. a whole extra level at the top of the Cascades that seems to be an abandoned building site!!!

Of course the tourists never see this unless they DO walk to the top,,,,,

I then decided to walk down the inside of the Cascade and take advantage of the downward escalators… Exhibits inside where interesting but far from overwhelming, this is the only one i thought worthy of sharing with you.

It’s called The Giant Orchid by Peruvian born British artist Maylee Christie. Probably doesn’t look all that impressive here, but bear in mind it’s about 15 feet wide…..

Here are three pics of some modern buildings put up alongside the Cascades, all of which I like: they seem to me stylish and not beholden to any particular architectural fad…..

…and a final picture taken from the Cascades showing the view down into the Central Square.

Although it’s still a Work in Progress I did enjoy the Cascades!

Given I am potty about cars, here are a couple of ‘fun’ pics for you:

The first is a Yerevan hire car…. I still have not figured out what the second is, but it seems to have Merc logos on the wheel hubs. Probably nicked…..

This pic is of the legendary Soviet era composer Arno Babajanyan…. not loved by everybody as a work of sculpture, aside from any politics.

It sits in a famous park in Yerevan, but we like it because the representation of his proboscis bears a striking resemblence to that of our wonderful Tour Leader, Dario…. He’s of mixed Italian and Ethiopian heritage and cool enough to acknowledge the likeness!!!

For completeness, here is a pic of the rather wonderful Arno Babajanyan Concert Hall in Yerevan…..

Sorry folks, it’s almost 10:30 here and I am feeling truly Christmas Crackered, so i will include pics of the Armenian Genocide Memorial in tomorrow’s episode….. and tell you a little about our first Armenian dinner!

Tomorrow we leave Yerevan and head south towards Goris and the medieval Monasteries of Noravank and Tatev…..

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