While many folks chose to travel during Gandhi's birthday weekend, we decided to stay home and explore Delhi. With two big trips scheduled for November, it seemed like the right thing to do. Our four day weekend was a mixture of adventure and relaxation - a great balance!
On Saturday, we had one of the school cars/drivers for the day and the family, along with Colleen, Graeme and Kate, hit many of Delhi's landmarks.
Our first stop was
Humayun's Tomb, not too far from our house. The tomb was commissioned in 1562 AD by the widowed wife of Humayun, a Mughal Emperor. For foreigners, entrance fees should have been Rps 250 ($5) but, with quick thinking on Colleen's part, we showed our school IDs and ended up having to pay Rps 15 (38 cents) per adult. This happened at a few other of our stops throughout the day.
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Street dogs are everywhere
in Delhi |
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View of tomb outside the walls
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| A game of cricket outside the tomb |
Our next stop was
Purana Qila, also known as Old Fort. It is the oldest known structure in Delhi whose inhabitants included Hamayun. Despite having a rich and interesting history (which you can read about if you want), we found it is also a place where teenage love birds choose to show their affection for each other.
After finishing up at Old Fort, we headed to the
International Dolls Museum - Drew's favorite stop on the tour. In a nutshell, the museum is a large collection of dolls from throughout the world. No pictures allowed.
To describe Old Delhi as frenetic would not do it justice. Entering this part of Delhi is like walking back in time. An adult trip was scheduled for Monday to this part of the city so we had Maxwell drive us through Old Delhi and close to the restaurant we would be eating at. Seeing Old Delhi from a car, although an experience in itself, is nothing like walking through the maze of streets or from the back of a bicycle rickshaw, which will be the subject of our next post.
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| Everyone in this parade was painted pink to celebrate Ganesh, a Hindu God |
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| Old Delhi Cheesehead |
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| Why, hello there Mr. Goat |
Lunch at Karim's in Old Delhi was delicious. It's a Muslim restaurant and the first segregated restaurant we've been to. Tourists eat upstairs; men eat in one section of the downstairs; and, mixed company have their own section as well. This is where Quinn's nasty cold really caught up with her and she started to fade fast. What a trooper to keep going without any complaining!
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| Quinn's not looking so happy. She usually LOVES Indian Food |
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| This guy cooked our lunch. I like his shoes. |
Right next to the Old Delhi neighborhood where we had lunch is
Red Fort. This magnificent fort built with red sandstone was constructed in the 1600s for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and served as his palace. Red Fort is within the original walls of Old Delhi.
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| A little crowded |
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| Still hanging in there... barely |
On the way home most of the group decided to go to the Gandhi Memorial while Quinn and Drew went home so she could rest. This is the same place Liv and Drew visited a couple months back and posted about in an earlier
blog entry. Seems like a fitting way to end the first day of our Gandhi's Birthday 4-day weekend.
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| The spot Gandhi was martyred |
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| Time to go home |
We will write post our other day of exploring later on in the week.
