Day 5: Khor Virap, Noravank monastery,Yerevan walking tour, Republic Square

Day 5: Khor Virap, Noravank monastery, Yerevan walking tour, Republic Square

Today was our last day in Armenia.

We visited Khor Virap Mountain, monasteries and cave.

First we visited the Khor Virap monastery. Here in the chapel, there is an underground cellar where Saint Gregory was imprisoned for many days. We can climb down by a ladder( below Pic)  positioned on the wall.

 

 

 

There were many covered Christians at that period  when the Rulers were all Muslims.The King killed or deported them all. Gregory the Illuminator was also imprisoned as he was a covered Christian. Then later King fell ill and could not recovery for many years. Queen had a vision 1 day that Gregory can only saw the King. So King finally accepted Christianity as State religion.

Also there is another underground cellar on the other side in the same chapel, where the mausoleum is seen.

We can see a beautiful view of Mount Ararat. Also we can see the borders of Turkey from the monastery view.

We visited the second Monastery-Noravank .This monastery complex was quire unique in many ways. The first monastery that had 2 storeys. The ground floor is a mausoleum and the 1^st floor is a church of Mother Mary. Also the steps are so steep, that one can easily climb it, but to get down, it is a challenge. The steps were built to depict that reaching a height in life is easier than falling down back.

There is an underground cellar here too. The tombs of mausoleums are buried on the way to chapel similar to other monasteries to serve the people who come to pray.

Also there are many khachkar here with different designs. There are small separate buildings in this complex.

After visiting the monasteries, we went to visit the Areni Cave. There are excavations going on still in another nearby cave too. We can see places where wine was made and also stored inside the cave. Also sandals made in cloth and other things excavated here can be seen.

Lunch was included in the tour. Cooked veggies were served for vegetarians with salad.

After Lunch we visited the same winery that we visited 2 days back during Tatev visit. So we spent our time walking on the roads seeing all the shops as they were selling fruits, honey, jams and many other things. We finally had a good laugh at a shop where the 2 Armenian women spoke to us in sign language explaining their honey and we bought 2 bottles again, so totally we bought 3 bottles of honey from Armenia. Honey cost was 2000 AMD per big bottle. Also the taste of the honey we bought 2 days back was not that sweet, but these 2 bottles were good.

We finally reached Yerevan. We sat at the park near Opera House, had our packed breakfast that we didn’t have in the morning as our lunch was not that great, dinner was going to be late .We rushed fast to Republic Square by walk to join the Free Walking Yerevan City tour organised by Yerani Travel. The tour started at 7 pm under the clock tower. It was an hour tour. We started from Republic Square, walked through the roads explaining all the ancient buildings, statues.Then we passed through Moscow Cinema and Opera House and finally concluded the tour at Cascade Complex.

The above  drinking water is made in the design of Sun dial.

Now again we walked near Moscow Cinema for Souvenir shopping. We were told by our guide to buy souvenirs in the shops on this street. We bought few souvenirs and left to Republic Square to see the singing fountain show. It was around 9 pm when we reached there, so the show had already started. We were told the show goes on till 11 or 12 pm.

 

After seeing the beautiful show for 15 minutes, we left to exchange money   opposite India Palace restaurant. But the exchange was already closed. We wandered around to find any other exchange but no luck.

There was a Beeline  outlet there on the same road. So we went there to enquire about my connection as the mobile data again stopped working. They re-inserted the simcard, did some changes to the settings and mobile data started working after that.

We decided to walk a bit to find SAS Supermarket (I had seen 1 nearby the other day while going in the taxi), as I had read in internet, that we can exchange money there and that we get good rate there. We needed Armenian Drams to pay at the Aghababyan’s hotel as we will be checking out the next morning and also they will not accept US Dollars. Just after walking a bit, we found a SAS Supermarket. The exchange counter is in a small corner near the exit. We didn’t know this, first we stood in the billing counter in the entrance, later in the billing counter in the exit. Finally as the queue moved further, we found this exchange counter. It was open at 10 pm.

We came out and booked taxi and left for the hotel.

We bought some grapes to take home. We packed our bags. We had dinner in the room.

Next day we checked out from hotel. We left for the airport.