Along the road to the highway, the bus passed through streets lined with small private homes and a few small commercial centers housing the usual grocery and liquor store and several others we couldn't identify despite their large signs. Once on the highway we traveled on a nearly empty but divided thoroughfare for an hour or more. Then it ended, and the traffic increases over the very long stretch of old, two-lane highway that passed a few towns and farms on the dry plains. The traffic continued through the few mountainous parts where it made the going rather slow, especially when the road became serpentine as it climbed to the summit of a pass. Altogether, the trip took about five hours.

The ride deteriorated soon after leaving Zugdidi and beginning to travel faster on the open highway. We were sitting two rows from the back of the marshrutka, and I almost immediately began to smell an odor which I soon realized could only be exhaust from the vehicle's engine. The smell dissipated whenever we passed more slowly through a small town and rose again when our speed did out on the highway. When we stopped for a break near the half-way point of our journey, I inspected the vehicle and immediately saw that the rear doors to a tiny luggage comparment behind the seats was pock-marked with rusted holes which were admitting the fumes from the exhaust whenever the vehicle's speed produced air flow that trapped them just behind to the door. Fotunately, I sat sat at a window, the day was a warm one, and I quite intentionally kept that window wide open throughout the trip. The strong draft from the window provided enough fresh air that the fumes became far less concerning.

We were quite surprised on reaching Tbilisi when the marshrutky passed by the chaotic Didube scrum where we had begun days earlier and where we expected to return. Instead, the vehicle kept moving toward the center of the city. Eventually, it stopped, and we quickly figured out that we were at Tbilisi's main railway station. We knew that the metro also has a stop there and asked how to find it. We soon found the stop, on the opposite side of the railway station and again deep underground, and we rode the metro back to the stop nearest our first hotel. Tbilisi felt familiar, but there was yet more that we had not seen and much that we could not get to.

The Anchiskhati Basilica, located along a sidestreet near the old town, was built in the 6th century. It is the oldest surviving one of the many Georgian churches that were razed by one of the region's many invaders and were then rebuilt ... over and over through the region's long and violent history. Today its huge weathered stone blocks show its age. The nearly windowless interior is quite dark and is filled with the lingering scent from centuries of burned incense. Its walls are filled with very old icons and other religious artifacts. It is like none of the chuches we saw in Georgia, but no photographs are permitted inside, so memories alone must suffice.

The Gabriadze Theater, near the basilica, is a rather unique attraction. It is a puppet theater which presents original comedy, historical and political satire puppet dramas (fully booked during our stay). At the theater's entrance, the theater's impresario has indulged his whimsical nature to build the "Crooked Clock", a clock tower propped up by a large wooden beam and hosting a Big Ben like clock that dutifully strikes the hour. It is perhaps the most photographed structure in Tbilisi.

The theater's owner has also established a very good restaurant next to the clock, and we ate there on our last two evening in Georgia. The main attraction for Regina is her go-to meal: grilled salmon preceded by a large salad with plenty of red-leaf lettuce and spinach that provide the vitamin K that she requires.

We had decided to return home via a different route than the one we had originally reserved. Rather than go all the way to the Lufthansa office at the Tbilisi airport or to try talking English to someone over a poor phone connection, Google maps showed me the location of a Lufthansa office relatively nearby in downton Tbilisi, and I decided to see a bit more of the city by walking there. (Regina preferred to remain at the hotel.)

I set out walking to the metro station, accompanied by a young unversity student who worked part time at reception in our hotel and who was leaving work for classes at the university north of Tbilisi's center. She planned to graduate in the spring and to then go abroad to study international relations. We had a pleasant conversation until I left the train at the Rustaveli metro station.

Leaving the station on foot, I followed Google to the spot it showed on its map. The route took me uphill through narrow and sometimes cobbled streets that are lined with tall apartment buildings. Unlike the decrepit buildings near the Old Town, these were all relatively new and were among tall shade trees. It seemed a very propersous and comfortable neighborhood. After a walk longer than it seemed it would be I got over the hill and to the indicated location and ... no Lufthansa.

I entered the nearby Apple store and found English speakers, as I had anticipated that I would. They didn't know of any Lufthansa office, but said that Google's map mark was shown on the wrong street. Following their directions to the location didn't get me to the office either, but I found young students outside a school who directed me again. That next location, on a leafy backstreet, also turned up empty of any airline office. I managed to communicate with one of the two workmen at that building who told me to return to the main Restaveli avenue and look near the Opera. That was quite a way and when I got there I again found no Lufthansa. I tried to ask locally but was unable to communicate with anyone near the Opera. Finally, I saw a travel agency and stopped in to inquire there. A very helpful, English-speaking woman didn't know of any Lufthansa office nearby, but she tried to phone the number listed in a directory that she had. There was no answer. Thanking her, I decided to retreat back to the hotel, as it was very nearly time for lunch. Although I didn't ever find a Lufthansa office, I certainly did see a lot more of Tbilisi than I had previously seen, and I got a good workout doing it.

As I entered the hotel, I mentioned my odessy and its purpose to the clerk. He immediately begain trying to reach Lufthansa by telephone. The first few numbers he tried were as fruitless as the travel agents, but he eventually managed to connect with a Lufthansa agent somewhere in the world. The agent's English was passable, and I was soon able to make the changes that I sought, taking us home the next day through Munich rather than back through Istanbul as we had originally planned.

Lufthansa flies one plane each day on its Munich-Tbilisi route. That plane arrives at 04:30 am, far too early for us and the main reason that we chose to stop over in Istanbul before proceeding on to Georgia. That flight turns around and leaves Tbilisi at 05:30 am, so we were obliged to wake, prepare our packs and meet the driver at 03:00 am for the trip to the airport. Despite the early hour, the airport was quite busy with more than our flight that departed about the same time.

Our early morning flight to Munich was uneventful, and we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived there. The Munich airport is much more passenger-friendly than the sprawling, chaotic jumble of concourses and gates that is Frankfurt's. After a couple hours' wait we boarded the flight to Denver, again an uneventful one, but neither of us was able to get any sleep. On arriving in Denver we were quite exhausted, having then been awake for nearly 24 hours. The day was a very long one given both our early start and the 10 hour time difference that we had traversed. But we had made it home again with another interesting journey in our memories.