Just a quick note picking up from yesterday…after we left Geghard we headed for Lake Sevan where we climbed a squat hill to the two monasteries there. The view from up there was magnificent, and the whole blue lake was spread out before us. The weather has been ideal, about 75 degrees, with a bright yellow sun and blue skies, and I could have sat there on a bench watching the fishermen on the lake for hours. It was peaceful and beautiful, about as much as you can ask for a place to deliver.
We ate lunch at a restaurant near the lake and enjoyed raw vegetables and lavash bread (becoming a favorite of mine), and then platefuls of freshly caught lake Seven fish. We drank some Erebunie beers (also superb) and enjoyed the fish and vegetables and lavash bread with a delicious yoghurt sauce and the whole scene pretty much kicked ass.
We then drove back to Yerevan and headed out to the monastery at Khor Virap, which is out in the countryside and sits (in most pictures anyway) in front of the looming face of Mount Ararat. It was too bright and hazy to see Ararat very well, but I climbed a hill overlooking the monastery and a cemetary and took a panoramic photo, which I will put together and show in the future.
Khor Virap was very cool, though, and rich in history, as it is said this is where St. Gregory the Illuminator, who brought Christianity to Armenia so long ago, was imprisoned.
So, heading out now into the city. More later.