Author: Louise Riley

Our transport came to pick us up at 9h45 & take us to the airport for our 13h30 flight. We then spent the next 45 mins going round in what seemed like ever decreasing circles getting nowhere. It was a mixture of heavy rush hour traffic plus some road closures. 26th Jan is Independence Day with lots of parades, pomp & ceremony. It seems that from now till then there are lots of preparations to do that involve closing roads. We eventually got out of town & made it to the airport. The international departures is very new & it was a very slick operation getting checked in, through immigration/passport control & into the lounge. I managed to spend our remaining rupees as it wasn’t worth trying to change them into sterling or euros ‘cos of the commission they charge. Technically you are not supposed to take rupees out of the country but I don’t suppose they will miss the few hundred that we have got.
The flight was un eventful & I managed to sleep for a lot of the time, not so Doug who is really too tall for the seat/ bed. We landed at Heathrow at 17h30 & again got through passport control & luggage pick up very easily & quickly. We made it to the hotel at Terminal 5, had a light snack & hit the bed at about 9 pm.
We need to be up early for our 7h50 flight for Toulouse, so here I am wide awake at 3h45 writing this last bit!!! No doubt it will take a while to get back into European time.
Judging from the emails that we are getting, we have had quite a few followers. I’m glad that you’ve all enjoyed our trip & we have hundreds of photos if anyone is interested!!!
Love to all Louise xx

Last night we went to a Restaurant here in the hotel called the Spice Route. It has won awards— Conde Naste for example. it is deemed to be a ‘destination’ restaurant. The idea behind the name is that it follows the trade route taken by the spices through India/Asia—-starting in Kerala & moving on to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia & Vietnam. They serve food from all these places & delicious it was too.
Even more special though, was the decor & we discovered that it took 7 yrs to decorate the interior & that it had been done by a renowned Indian artist ( whose name we can’t now remember). The staff were lovely & after we had finished eating one of them walked us round explaining the concept to us. The whole idea of the place is like a journey through life, from birth to fulfilment following the Hindu concept. Each part of the restaurant represented a stage in life & the decor/materials used throughout were representative of this. There were reclaimed wooden pillars from a derelict Temple, symbols of Sun & Moon, gold leaf, stone pillars & the prow of a ship. It was truly amazing & a wonderful finale to a cultural day.
We had a leisurely start to today & ventured out into New Delhi. Several friendly pedestrians later & a very exciting ride in a tuk-tuk, we got ourselves back in one piece. We have just had afternoon tea in the Atrium & I will have to start packing soon. We will be leaving here at 9h45 tomorrow for a 13h30 flight to London & another night in a hotel. It will be sad leave here but nice to be back in Vaour & It will be good to see Theo’s friendly face on Sat morning when we get back to Toulouse.
I will post a few photos of the hotel.

What a day! We were up & breakfasted early ready to meet our guide, Raj. He arrived a little bit late but off we went with Vikram straight to the Friday Mosque. It is in Old Delhi & is the biggest mosque in Asia & can accommodate over 20,000 people praying. As always we had to leave our shoes outside & I was provided with a floor length gown with long sleeves. Bizarrely, I didn’t need to cover my head. We were both wearing socks but the granite & marble floor is cold underfoot, so I now understand why the people praying usually have a mat. Needless to say, Doug managed to capture my new fashion item!
This mosque was constructed between 1644 & 1658 & is still in use today & the current Imam is a descendant of the Imam from that time. There are certain areas where marble slabs have been placed side by side on the floor. They are decorated with inlay & they each represent a space for one person to pray, facing west to Mecca.
From there we took a walk around the surrounding market area of Old Delhi. We were there just as trading was beginning but more importantly it was clean up time. Raj explained the system to us—-basically everything from the shops is chucked out onto the street. Someone is responsible for clearing a certain section of street & piling everything together. Someone else collects that pile & moves it to another larger one & so it goes on until the rubbish is completely cleared. The streets are so narrow & congested it is hard to see how it could be done any other way. Without the explanation it would have seemed very haphazard, but in fact it was very organised & people are being gainfully employed.
Again, we couldn’t resist taking photos of overhead wires–both telephone & electricity. We took a rickshaw back to the car & immediately became guilty of travelling against the flow of traffic! Our driver had to work very hard— no wonder he was thin. I have to say that Doug wasn’t built for vehicles like that.
We went to see the site of Gandhi’s funeral pyre, with those of Nehru, Indira Gandhi & her son Rajiv close by.
We also saw a building not dissimilar in style from the Taj Mahal but constructed 80 yrs earlier. This time by a Queen as a memorial for her husband. Some say that this was the inspiration for the Taj itself but it is worth noting how building techniques had moved on in those 80 years.
New Delhi has to be seen to be believed. It is so different with wide boulevards & lots of trees. The Parliament building are fantastic & the India Gate an impressive edifice. It was a bit foggy today so we didn’t have the view from Parliament down to the India Gate but think of The Mall in London or Champs Élysées in Paris & just double it in width & length & then take away all the buildings in between & it gives you some idea of the scale. New Delhi was designed by Lutyens & I can only imagine what fun he had with a greenfield site (I think they did some slum clearance first) . He did a brilliant job & it made it all the more spectacular for us by being so unexpected.
After lunch we went to another UNESCO site ( there are a huge number in India & several in Delhi) called The Qutub Minar. This in some ways for me was the most amazing. It is a tower 75 metres high, constructed in 1199. Could this be the 1st skyscraper? It’s worth noting that the site of the tower & the surrounding area had been inhabited for at least 5000 years prior to 1199.
At all the ancient buildings today we have seen fabulous examples of carving, inlay work & construction skills, as well as the huge melange of cultures over the centuries—Mogul & Hindu & latterly European.
A long day but what a day.
Photos later when my phone has recharged!