The town of Akhaltsikhe

Akhaltsikhe is one of the towns where you think: "What a hicksville" when entering. One reason is surely its surrounding of bald hills. This however leads to no expectations and it is therefore a pleasure to find out that it is has nervertheless some nice areas.
There is of course the massive castle wich dominates the town. The ramp to it is lined with nice renovated houses. You can also find some restaurants and shops there. The bus stop is in front of the now unused railway station. Opposed to it are some of these new buildings in the special architecture from the last 10 years. It is interesting that most of the police stations I have seen so far are in a new building with green, reflecting windows.

The ramp to the castle.

The modern center with a fuel station,
a large supermarket and the police station

One of these buildings with the special new architecture.
I like this style.

View from the castle to the west along
the Potskhovi river.

View from the castle over the upper town.

Another view from the castle.

The inner city ist south of the Potskhovi river. For a small town of only 20.000 inhabitatns there is much life going on. There are crowded parks, many shops and also quite a lot hotels and guest houses. So finding accommodation is a very easy task.

The pedestrian zone.

The main square.

The municipality building.

The Amaghleba church.

Along the Potshkovi.

Interesting that every room has its own
chimney instead of chimneys on the roof.

All in all the ideal town to start exploring the surrounding area by day trips. Due to its height the climate is quite mild despite you won't find much shadow in summer.