Up at 6.30 - I am waking up with the light at the moment. I spent a while writing my blog over breakfast while waiting for Alan.
We eggs and porridge for breakfast and then walked the short distance from the hotel to the Sikri. It is a world heritage site. Wikipeadia can describe it better than I can:
Fathehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built near the much older Sikri, the historical city of Fatehabad, as it was first named, was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570, in honour of Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chisti, who lived in a cavern on the ridge at Sikri, and foretold the birth of his son, who was named Prince Salim after him, and later succeeded Akbar to the throne of the Mughal Empire, as Jahangir. Fatehabad later acquired the name Fatehpur, and gave rise to present name Fatehpur Sikri.
It was the first planned city of the Mughals and also first one in Mughal architecture, an amalgamation of Indian architecture, Persian and Islamic architecture, and served as the Mughal Empire's capital from 1571 until 1585. Though the court took 15 years to build, it was abandoned after only 14 years because the water supply was unable to sustain the growing population. and unrest in the North-West. Today, the complex of buildings, including the extant royal palaces, courts and the Jama Masjid is a popular tourist attraction, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The site itself is a ghost town, though the city has a population of 28804 as per 2001 census.
We wandered round for a couple of hours. Alan fulfilled his usual role as guide, reading out from his guide book as we walked and I fulfilled my role of taking photos :-) Traveling with Alan has worked really well.
The mosque was the most impressive part of the complex. Very cool. There is a white marble building in the middle. It was worth a visit but I would not stay that it is really up there on my must see in India list. I am almost all "buildinged" (yes I know it is not a word) out! Probably bad timing as going to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow.
Johnnie was visiting Delhi over the last few days and suggested that we meet up in Agra (only a 3-4 hour drive). He left Delhi in the morning and met me on the side of the road in a car 13km from Agra (latitude on Google is fab for meeting up). He kindly took mine and Alan's bags so that we could race into town. We beat Johnie to Taj Mahal by about 30mins - getting across town on a bike is so much quicker. It was so nice not to be carrying the weight.
We meet for a coffee and chocolate cake at Coffee day just outside Taj Mahal. Very civilised. I realised how hot it actually is in the middle of the day when leaving air conditioned Coffee Day to go outside at 3pm. There is a breeze when cycling along and so I don't notice it too much.
We took the bikes down to the river to take some photos with the Taj behind.
A Lady boy wanted photo with me....
Faffed for ages trying to find a hotel without rats that Johnnie would be happy to stay in - strange thing "standards"....
After at least 1 hour I found a room for him. There appears to be nothing mid range in town - only cheap (£10) or expensive (£200). The place I got had views of the Taj from the garden. According to the staff Bill Clinton had stayed there - Ho Ho!
Went for a meal with Johnie and Alan at roof top restaurant with awesome views of the Taj. Unfortunately, there was an electricity cut and so the Taj was not lit up and the food was probably the worse in India!
Both Alan and me had slightly dodgy stomachs from something we both ate over the last 24 hours and so we were not in a party mood and the restaurant only served warm beer and no other drinks....
So much for celebration meal!
I am very excited about visiting the Taj tomorrow now.
We eggs and porridge for breakfast and then walked the short distance from the hotel to the Sikri. It is a world heritage site. Wikipeadia can describe it better than I can:
Fathehpur Sikri is a city and a municipal board in Agra district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Built near the much older Sikri, the historical city of Fatehabad, as it was first named, was constructed by Mughal emperor Akbar beginning in 1570, in honour of Sufi saint Shaikh Salim Chisti, who lived in a cavern on the ridge at Sikri, and foretold the birth of his son, who was named Prince Salim after him, and later succeeded Akbar to the throne of the Mughal Empire, as Jahangir. Fatehabad later acquired the name Fatehpur, and gave rise to present name Fatehpur Sikri.
It was the first planned city of the Mughals and also first one in Mughal architecture, an amalgamation of Indian architecture, Persian and Islamic architecture, and served as the Mughal Empire's capital from 1571 until 1585. Though the court took 15 years to build, it was abandoned after only 14 years because the water supply was unable to sustain the growing population. and unrest in the North-West. Today, the complex of buildings, including the extant royal palaces, courts and the Jama Masjid is a popular tourist attraction, and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. The site itself is a ghost town, though the city has a population of 28804 as per 2001 census.
We wandered round for a couple of hours. Alan fulfilled his usual role as guide, reading out from his guide book as we walked and I fulfilled my role of taking photos :-) Traveling with Alan has worked really well.
The mosque was the most impressive part of the complex. Very cool. There is a white marble building in the middle. It was worth a visit but I would not stay that it is really up there on my must see in India list. I am almost all "buildinged" (yes I know it is not a word) out! Probably bad timing as going to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow.
Johnnie was visiting Delhi over the last few days and suggested that we meet up in Agra (only a 3-4 hour drive). He left Delhi in the morning and met me on the side of the road in a car 13km from Agra (latitude on Google is fab for meeting up). He kindly took mine and Alan's bags so that we could race into town. We beat Johnie to Taj Mahal by about 30mins - getting across town on a bike is so much quicker. It was so nice not to be carrying the weight.We meet for a coffee and chocolate cake at Coffee day just outside Taj Mahal. Very civilised. I realised how hot it actually is in the middle of the day when leaving air conditioned Coffee Day to go outside at 3pm. There is a breeze when cycling along and so I don't notice it too much.
We took the bikes down to the river to take some photos with the Taj behind.
A Lady boy wanted photo with me....Faffed for ages trying to find a hotel without rats that Johnnie would be happy to stay in - strange thing "standards"....
After at least 1 hour I found a room for him. There appears to be nothing mid range in town - only cheap (£10) or expensive (£200). The place I got had views of the Taj from the garden. According to the staff Bill Clinton had stayed there - Ho Ho!
Went for a meal with Johnie and Alan at roof top restaurant with awesome views of the Taj. Unfortunately, there was an electricity cut and so the Taj was not lit up and the food was probably the worse in India!
Both Alan and me had slightly dodgy stomachs from something we both ate over the last 24 hours and so we were not in a party mood and the restaurant only served warm beer and no other drinks....
So much for celebration meal!
I am very excited about visiting the Taj tomorrow now.
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