The journey to Batumi on the Georgian Black Sea coast took about five hours from the capital city Tbilisi. The train was a very modern double deck multiple unit built by Swiss manufacturer Stadler. Our first class journey cost just under £15.00 each and it was nice way to end our 'coast to coast' journey by rail.

The railway station in Batumi is however around 5 km from the centre of town and you need to take a taxi to reach the centre or good walking shoes. Our hotel, The Admiral, was close to the port area and an easy walk into the central area of the city as well as well as giving easy access to the Batumi Boulevard boardwalk and the cable car station. The hotel was another fabulous place to stay and proved to be good value coming in at just over £60 a night including breakfast.

Batumi is a real seaside resort, but as we were just out of main summer season the crowds had not yet descended on the place. It really was very pleasant and had a very Yugoslav feel about it (but also a bit of New Orleans too) and seemed very relaxed indeed . . . . it also seemed very popular with tourists from Russia.

The waterfront area, or the Batumi Boulevard as it is known, is a 6 km long promenade walk skirting the Black Sea. There are plenty of bars and restaurants close to the central area of the city but these become much less frequent as you get to the end of the walkway . . . . Heather was however desperate to get the full 'Boulevard experience' ticked off the list so despite the temperatures being in the high 20s we did have a fairly long walk to do and an ice cream stand refreshment stop was much appreciated. It was clear from this walk that Batumi is growing with many new tower blocks being built as well as casino style resort hotels also looking like the next big thing to come to Batumi. It looks as though it will be booming for sometime.

We had a stop at the Hilton Hotel Skybar located on the 20th floor of the hotel as well as a visit to the Sheraton Hotel Skybar for comparative/research purposes. The views across the Black Sea were pretty much the same - as were the prices . . . . . . fairly high (for Georgia anyway), but you really are paying for location.

Our few days in the city was a good taster of what the city has to offer and the trip on the cable car to the viewpoint overlooking the city was just one of them. The views were good, the food experience was a little 'so so', they could really make something of the top cable car station too if they tried just a little harder and the beer was fairly expensive at £3.00 a bottle - they clearly could do better. However the two and a half kilometre cable car journey in each direction for less than £5.00 each return was most enjoyable.

The final night of this trip was had at BK (and was not Burger King) a very nice restaurant on Europe Square. The local wine was very good (and the most expensive thing we had on the bill) and so was the food and service so this made for a very nice end to this trip across the Caucasus.

Our trip back to the UK on the Saturday morning was with Turkish Airlines, again flying via Istanbul, to Birmingham. Our flight was scheduled to leave Batumi at 10.15 so that meant that there was enough time for a quick breakfast at the hotel before heading to the airport by taxi. We were back into Birmingham at just after 16.00 local time having regained the three hours time difference between Georgia and the UK.