Pyatigorsk - and Mount Mashuk

We took the tram to the top of Mushuk today.   It was great to see an overview of the entire city and surrounding area.  Our room overlooks Mashuk, will try to post a photo of the view tomorrow.   

Mashuk is in the background.  We took the tram to the tower.

The other tram going down.

So the city of Pyatigorsk's name is derived from the fused Russian words "пять гор" (five mountains) and the city is so called because of the five peaks of the Beshtau (which also means "five mountains" in Turkic) of the Caucasian mountain range overlooking the city. It was founded in 1780, and has been a health spa with mineral springs since 1803 (Thanks to Wikipedia for this piece of info.)

View of Beshtau

When we arrived at the top, we were greated by a Donkey.  This guy was feeding him some food, and I swear the donkey was smiling.

The spring flowers on top of the mountain were really great as well.  The Virgina Blue Bells (although they don't call them that here) were huge.  I have never seen them close to this big.  Some plants were almost a foot tall!

Virginia Blue Bells

These were about 1" high and looked like miniature Lupines

Tiny little blue flowers not a 1/4"

View of the City from the tram ride down.

In case you are wondering, I also included a map below of where we are currently located.

We are located in the southern part of the Stavropol Krai region.

When we got to the bottom, we took a hike into town to have a late lunch.  I know, here we are at Russian Spa Camp with free meals, but I tell you, you can only eat so much carrots, cabbagge and beets before you need a meal that is not so healthy.  We had pizza and it was so good!

We decided to walk up to see the city Mascot  - the Eagle.  On the way, we came across this crazy fountain.  It was really cool.

Last time we were here, the gold domes of this church were still on the ground.  It's nice to see it being finished.  It was bombed during WWII, and was replaced with a swimming pool during Stalin's time.  It is just now being rebuilt.



The Eagle overlooking the City.

 And last but not least, Dave finally gets his wings.