Day 2: Part 2 - New Delhi

... unfortunately lunch wasn't part of our agenda and we kind of forgot that this was our holiday and that if we wanted to stop for lunch we should have just asked! I think the guide must have been waiting for us to mention it and vice versa. Luckily I always carry 'snacks' with me so we munched away on the trip back to the New Delhi area.

On the way we drove past the Raj Ghat, the memorial site where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. It was a kind of now-you-see-it now-you-don't kind-of visit as we were on a main road surrounded by buses, trucks, cars, motorbikes, rickshaws, bicycles and cows and there was nowhere to stop!

Humayun's Tomb was our penultimate destination. Humayun was the second Mughal Emperor - Shah Jahan's great-grandfather - and this wonderful building is very similar in its architecture to the Taj Mahal, which would come later. As you walk through the arched entrance gate, the beautiful ornamental gardens and fountains spread out before you leading up to the tomb. Made of red sandstone and white marble with a large dome on the top, the tomb is an impressive example of Mughal architecture. What I find appealing about the Mughal style is the symmetry of the buildings and chambers, and the decoration which has a perfection and attention to detail which is amazing.

Our final visit of the day was to the Qutab Minar, a five storey tower made of brick which stands almost 73m high. It was started in 1193 however the original builder only got as far as the first storey! Successive rulers added to the tower and it was finally completed in 1368. What is interesting about this tower is that you can see the different kinds of architecture as it developed over the years. The tower sits on the ruins of a previous structure, all that is left are some intricately carved red sandstone archways.

We got back to the hotel tired but went to bed happy that this experience of Delhi was much more pleasant than the last, and glad that we made the decision to go back to visit India. Not having unpacked we did not have much preparation to do for our trip the next day. We were going by road to Agra via the Delhi-Agra highway. On our itinerary it said it would take 4hrs. Not bad we thought, we'll be there by lunchtime ... O dear, we soon learned that the time estimations on our itinerary were not always very accurate!