Crossing from Azerbaijan to Georgia took over two hours as both passports and customs checks were undertaken by each country separately on either side of the official border, but once the stamp was in the passport we were then in country number 75 for our list. Woop, woop!

Admittedly, the rural parts of both Azerbaijan and Georgia looked fairly similar with goat/sheep herders on horseback and a fair few dilapidated cars running around, but the difference between the two capitals cities was visible. Tbilisi just looked more run down with many more closed factory complexes and crumbling buildings to be seen as we made our way slowly to the main station.

The best laid plans to use the metro to get at least part way to our hotel was thwarted as it turned out a strike had closed the whole network. The staff were seeking a 45% wage rise we later found out and the city, unsurprisingly, could not afford this. After escaping all of the taxi touts at the station we still had to jump into a taxi to get to our hotel, that said the 10 GEL (Georgian Lari) fare that we agreed on was less than £3.00.

Our hotel was a great place and being at the top of a hill gave us great views over the city and our suite was just over £65 a night including breakfast. After a shower and freshen up we walked to the funicular railway (about 10 minutes walk) that took us up to Mtatsminda Park which gave us even better views over Tbilisi - there was a decent restaurant complex at the top of the funicular railway and also a rather bizarre amusement park which was very 'eastern' in its style. Heather managed to try one of the local dishes at one of the restaurants - a bread boat filled with cheese, butter and a raw egg (not to her taste) - and I tried a local spinach filled pasty (which was very nice).

Once back down from Mtatsminda Park we called in at a local coffee shop where they were serving draft beer for less than £1.00 (always a winner in my book) . . . and decent coffee (a winner in Heather;s book) before having dinner at the hotel.

Our second day in Tbilisi saw us make it to the city centre which was about a twenty minute walk from the hotel and all downhill too. The city had a certain faded or crumbling charm about it and some areas of the old city were fabulous, others certainly had great potential just waiting to be tapped into. Tbilisi was somewhere we quite liked after our day of exploring and the roughness around the edges was nice and it made the city feel far more real and lived in than Baku - it certainly was not as polished as the Azerbaijani capital.

Baku seemed like good value, but Tbilisi was really excellent value and our lunch in Rike Park, for less than £2.00 each, was gut filling and very tasty. The refried bean filled pasties were stunning and freshly baked - the beer was good too although not quite as cheap as previously experienced.

We managed a fairly decent walk around the old city area of Tbilisi including around the sulphur baths areas before heading back to Rike Park for another journey up a hill to get a view over the city but this time by cable car.

After taking the cable car from Rike Park to the Narikala Fortress we walked along the hillside ridge and made it back to the hotel for our final evening meal in Tbilisi.

The following day we headed off to Batumi on the Black Sea coast, a five hour journey by train, to complete our Caspian Sea to Black Sea adventure.