Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal – 28 December 2010

Visiting the Taj Mahal for sunrise was not an option as the winter fog meant that it would be an exercise in futility. The guides even suggested that we did not make the Taj Mahal our first visit as it would be too crowded with “all the other tour groups there”. What logic drew them to that conclusion, and whether or not it was correct, we will never know but because they were in charge we followed the plan and set off for the Agra Fort.

This imposing structure was built in 1565 and ended up as the location where Mughal Emperor Shahjahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal spent his last 8 years, under house arrest, gazing down the river to his beautiful creation in honour of his favourite wife: The fog prevented us from enjoying that view.

Finally, we arrived at India's crown jewel; the Taj Mahal, which translates to Crown Palace. Regardless of the fact that you may have seen hundreds of photos or documentaries of this building, to walk through the gate and catch your first glimpse of this place is breathtaking.

Naturally everyone is jockeying for the central spot to take the symmetrical photo and everywhere you think there may be an interesting angle or reflection to exploit there is someone standing there ready to point it out to you in return for rupees: A most annoying feature.

Also totally crowded is the “Diana bench” with every man, women and child ready to adopt the pose for family or professional photographers. And there are always those using perspective to pose with them holding up the dome between finger and thumb. Snapped, a little off-centre, they appear quite stupid.

It is a great shame that Shahjahan's son arrested him and prevented him from building his matching black Taj on the opposite bank for his own mausoleum, they would have made an exquisitely stunning pair. But one is certainly better than none and the Taj Mahal truly ranks as one of the world's great sights.

The designers left nothing to chance, even canting out the four minarets by 8” so that they would fall outwards in the case of an earthquake rather than inwards and disturb the tomb.

Reluctantly dragging ourselves away we fought off the trinket sellers and made our way back to our bus for the short ride back to the hotel and lunch. Our (Italian) Tour Manager confirmed what we had read on the web that the cafe in the hotel foyer serve fantastic coffee so we waited an inordinately long time for some coffee to be delivered; one of the worst cups of, supposedly, cappuccino we have ever been served, anywhere.

Still, the waiting filled in the time until we set off for the afternoon excursion to Itmad-Ud-Daulah.
This mausoleum, completed in 1635, three years before the Taj Mahal, was the first building in India built completely in marble. While exquisitely detailed it is considerably smaller than the Taj Mahal, earning it the nickname “Baby Taj” and is thought to be the inspiration for the second and more well known marble building.

Off to Agra – 27 December 2010

The first scheduled stop in Delhi at the ruins of an old mosque was abandoned at the gate because of the thick fog, so we settled in for the 6-hour coach trip to Agra. The first stop was a rather smart restaurant where we enjoyed a light lunch.

As compensation for missing out on the fog-shrouded Qutub Minar, we stopped instead at Sikandra, the mausoleum for Emperor Akbar, built by his son. It has an interesting mix of Hindu (flowers) and Muslim (geometric designs) architecture. The water features no longer contain water, but considering it was completed in 1613, it is a remarkably well preserved monument. It is very dominated by the number 4 or multiples thereof in the towers, gates, rooms and so on. The only exception being that it has 5 floors,

Agra was only a short distance away, but soon after leaving Sikandra, the traffic jams began in earnest. The population here is 2.5 million compared to Delhi's 18 million, but they also can create serious traffic jams.

Our Hotel was the pleasant Clarks Shiraz, and after an tasty Indian meal, we could still hear the car horns tooting outside on one of the 'quiet' streets in Agra. I suspect they may go all night!

Welcome to India - 26 December 2010

Flying overseas on Christmas Day is a good value option, provided you have a friendly taxi driver living next door, as there is no public transport.

After all the snow chaos of the past week, Heathrow was looking very calm and organised. We boarded in good time, but didn't actually leave on time as we had to wait for the ground staff to compete the de-icing. However we landed in Delhi on time; swapping ice for fog.

As Kiwis, we were "privileged" to partake in an Indian 1-year trial system of getting a visa on arrival rather than posting off our passports ahead of time. Also, it was slightly cheaper – what could possibly go wrong?

We found the Visa on Arrival desk very easily, good start; and there was no queue, very positive, so we began. What a performance! We had filled out a customs arrival form on the plane and now we had another two-sided, very poorly laid out form to fill in. If they had posted this form on their website we could have been all prepared. If they had told us on the website we needed a photograph with us, we could have been all prepared. All they had said was that we needed $US60 per person; which we had duly brought. However, money man one came along and demanded $US61 per person, there being a $1 transaction fee as the money had to be converted to rupees. Why not tell us to bring rupees as none of the countries that can use this new system actually use $US?

After a little “discussion” we settled on $60 and eventually money man two came back with the rupees which we handed to money man three. Meanwhile two gentlemen behind the counter were laboriously transcribing the details from our forms into huge bound ledgers and handwriting receipts etc. The whole process took 45 minutes and we could then see the reason that they had provided seating for about 50 in the area in front of the Visa on Arrival desk. The only positive was that at the end of the procedure we were personally escorted past all the other people queuing at the immigration check-point desks. Fortunately the baggage handling was equally inefficient as the visa process so we did not hold up the rest of our party.

Out hotel was about 30 minute's drive from the airport and we had a few minutes to freshen up before we needed to leave for the tour of Delhi. The urgency was that the Jama Mosque we were to visit closed for prayers at 4pm.

Delhi traffic is everything anybody ever said about it in terms of chaos, especially once you cross from New Delhi to Old Delhi. Suddenly there are Sunday street markets and people spilling out on to the road to further impede the flow of bicycles, rickshaws, tuk-tuks, taxis, cars, trucks and buses,

We duly made it to the mosque before closing and all the women, regardless of their dress style, had to don gaudy “hospital gowns” before entering. The sole purpose of this seemed to be to embarrass the westerners as the locals were no more or less modestly dressed than our party. Although the mosque is the largest in India it is really quite disappointing compared to the Moorish mosques we have visited.

Our next stop was a large park where Gandhi was cremated in 1948. It may have looked more glorious in the past but on a foggy evening in 2010 it seemed a little tired.

Also very tired were two weary travellers and as soon as we could, after returning to the hotel, we slipped away from our group and went to bed skipping dinner as we had no desire to fall asleep with our head in a bowl of soup.

Snow in the countryside - 19 December 2010

The snow finished on Saturday as abruptly as it began, and left a thick white blanket over the whole Greater London area. Surprisingly, the trains out of London were all running, so we decided to head for the countryside by train, to enjoy the snow.

Sevenoaks is a pleasant town, south-east of London, just outside the M25. The fast train got us there in 30 minutes from central London, and after looking around the snowy town, we enjoyed walking around the National Trust property of Knole. The large Tudor mansion was closed for winter, but the park is open to visitors, and it was brilliant to walk around some of the park, watching the deer apparently oblivious to the cold, trying to find some nourishment beneath the snow. Families were out with sleds and toboggans, enjoying the wide open slopes.

A hot pub meal was the perfect way to fortify ourselves for the train trip back home.

Boots and ballet pumps – 18 December 2010

10 to 20cm of snow was forecast to arrive today in the Greater London area. We had a behind-the-scenes tour of the Coliseum booked at 11.30am, so made sure we arrived early just in case the transport system broke down.

The snow was very slight as we started the tour, but by the time it finished an hour later, there was nearly 10cm settled on the ground. The tour was really interesting, as we have attended many performances at the Coliseum over the years. We learnt the interesting history of the building, constructed in 1904 and the story behind unique features of the original style of entertainment. The aim was to bring ancient Rome to London, so the shape of the theatre and the lavish decorations reflect that.

After the tour, we enjoyed walking around central London as it continued snowing. The normal Christmas crowds were not in evidence, so there was plenty of fresh, clean snow.

The novelty had not worn off when we headed back to the Coliseum for the matinee show, but it was good to head into the warmth. We've never considered boots to be suitable footwear for the theatre before, but were very glad we had been sensible and, not surprisingly, many people seemed to be there in walking shoes.

But onstage, it was all ballet pumps, and the fun of the Nutcracker. We had seen a modern interpretation previously at the Coliseum, but this year's production of the Nutcracker took a more traditional approach; both versions were very enjoyable.

Touring the fens – 12 December 2010

The previous evening's red sky proved right, and we enjoyed a circular tour around an area of the fens, north of Bourne. It was easy to see that this area had been snow bound recently, and as we did the tour, many minor roads still had icy snow covering them. Fortunately others had travelled them already, so we felt confident to follow. A white ribbon of road seemed much more picturesque to follow, than endless grey.

The first cute village was Irnham, with lovely cottages and a frozen village pond. From here we drove north to Sleaford, which has the oldest church stone spire in England, and excellent coffee! Nearby is Heckington, which has the only eight sailed windmill in the UK.

Travelling around the fens we came to the church in Gosberton where one of the gargoyles is an elephant. We wondered how they even knew about elephants when this was built. The vicar wasn't able to help us with the age of the gargoyles, but did direct us to the back of the church to see an unusual decoration. He didn't explain what it was, so it took some searching, but we found it - a man mooning, the stone mason must have had a sense of humour! A grotesque in every sense of the word.

The highlight of the day was a visit to see Belvoir Castle decorated for Christmas, but on the way we detoured to revisit the Clipsham Yew Hedge. The has an annual clip in September, and consequently was looking even better than our last visit Easter 2006

The castle looked marvellous in the gloom of a late winter afternoon, mainly lit with the twinkling lights of many Christmas trees. There are many stunning rooms in this large castle, but our favourite would have to be the ladies drawing room; this elegant room looked really appealing. Choirs were performing in many rooms; combined with the lights and Christmas decorations, it was quite magical.

Bridges & Churches of English counties – 11 December 2010

Everywhere we visit in England is steeped in history. This weekend we kept meeting references to Hereward the Wake and also King John. There are names like these that we have heard of, but would be hard pushed to give a synopsis of their lives.

We took the scenic route on our way to Stamford for the weekend. Stamford is a delightful stone town at the northern end of the Cotswold Stone seam and is much loved by period film directors. The route we took passed through several similar styles of towns, although on a smaller scale. First, Titchmarch, with it's stylish church surrounded by a ha-ha, normally seen around a country home. Then Oudle, a lovely town with a prestigious boys school owed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers, many cafes and today a street market selling country delights like rabbit or game bird pies.

The final town in this series before we arrived at Stamford, was Wansford. A curving stone bridge unites the two halves of this picturesque town.

From Stamford we drove a circular tour along the edge of the fens (large flat areas, where the frequent church spires stand out like beacons), to Crowland. We have previously enjoyed visiting this lovely old town with two special items of interest; the remains of a triangular medieval bridge, and the abbey. The current church is in one isle of the old ruined abbey. It is this church that had the first peal of bells installed in about 986, the ropes are the longest in the country and these bells were the first to be broadcast on radio in 1923.

We really enjoyed our delicious lunch in the 'Old Copper Kettle' tearooms in Crowland where they quote an airman who met his girlfriend there during WWII and said it was a “place where we both felt secure and could be ourselves”.

Not far from here is another abbey incorporated into the present church at Thorney. The town has the main street lined with model workers cottages built by the Duke of Bedford to house his workers.

We finished the day in Stamford, enjoying exploring the narrow streets and shops decorated for Christmas, and were inspired by the sunset to rework the old saying – red vapour trails at night; motorists delight.