We woke this morning to another overcast, wet, day, even colder than the day before with a forecast (and actual) maximum temperature of just 8 degrees.
We departed from our hotel at 9:00am, not in our large bus but in a fleet of small taxis to the Church of Saint Elishe, also known as the Kish Albanian Church because it is located in the district of Kish (Kiş) and was established in the 3rd century by Christian missionaries from Albania.
I felt I won the lottery when I not only managed to get one of the two Ladas, but front seat! The church, which is now a museum nominally under the authority of the Georgian Orthodox Church, is claimed by some to the oldest church in the world (although the current building dates from the 12th century). It was built on the site of a former Zoroastrian temple where the Albanian Christian missionary, Saint Elishe, built a church and recited a liturgy in the 1st century.
We returned to Sheki Fortress by car (this time in an old Opel for me), to see a demonstration of making patterned stained window glass in wooden frames that use no glue or nails. The elderly man who demonstrated his skills was indeed impressive, having picked up skills that were largely forgotten during Soviet times and who was now teaching these skills to young Azerbaijanis so that this important facet of national culture would hopefully not be lost again.
From the Fortress, and still under heavy rain, we drove to the town’s large local market – the highlight of my day despite the cold, wet conditions. The markets housed a vast array of household objects and open-air meat, nuts, fruit, traditional sweets, etc. It was colourful, welcoming, informative and highly photogenic.
After spending about an hour at the markets, we returned to the centre of Sheki for lunch (focussing on plov) at a local restaurant called Sheki House.
Leaving Sheki, it was a short 50-minute drive to Gakh (also known as Qax). Although the rain was starting to ease, our planned hike to the Kurmukhi Church had to be abandoned because the hiking trail was too slippery and muddy, so we went directly our hotel, the Hotel El Resort to the north-east of the main town. We were pleasantly surprised to find huge, spacious rooms with access to a pool and sauna.
That gave Di and I the opportunity for a one hour walk towards the town and back, admiring the martyrs’ signage beside the road and the nearby huge sign showing a portrait of the President.
We had dinner at the hotel at 6:30pm, enabling a much-needed (fairly) early night to enjoy our large hotel room.
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