India, Part 1. London to Delhi

Ruby the campervan is safely parked up at my Dad’s house, and we are over 5000 miles away, in Delhi, India! So excuse the non motorhome posts for a week or so, we are still on wheels though, just not Motorhome wheels!

Monday 3rd April and we travelled from Newark to London on the train. We had a particularly lovely journey, helped by the fact that by chance we were sat by two individuals who had just come back from India! Behind them was a couple who had done the Great Rail USA Coast to coast, like us, and so we spent 1.5 hours talking about all things travel. Perfect.

We had a few hours to kill in London before our flight so headed towards the National History museum for a wander. It was enjoyable although it is starting to look a little dated unfortunately. Nonetheless, we enjoyed our visit and after a couple of hours made our way to Heathrow. We were travelling separately to the main group, as we didn’t fancy the dual flight when a shorter direct flight with Virgin was available. They left a few hours prior to us, yet arrived only a couple of hours before, so we felt it was a worthy upgrade. We also got to travel on the stunning Virgin Dreamliner aircraft, which was just that, a total dream. Less than eight hours later and we were touching down, or rather bouncing down (turbulence 😱) at Delhi. We were met by private transfer who whisked us to our hotel where we met our tour manager Ian, and had the afternoon and evening at leisure. A welcome two hour nap, and an hour at the pool followed! 

Wednesday dawned and we were up early. We were out on a full day excursion of both Old and New Delhi today. First stop, The Jama Masjid, which is one of the largest Mosques in India. The courtyard can accommodate more than 25,000 people! Delhi is actually the second largest populated city in the world. This mosque was gorgeous. We (the ladies) got given traditional gowns and the men who were wearing shorts got given skirts to wear. 

After this we went on a rickshaw ride around the tiny crammed streets of Old Delhi. What fun this was, we both were in stitches laughing. The roads were mainly pot holes, and at several points our driver had to get off and push us- well, we did have thirds fourths at the Indian buffet last night! We saw monkeys about the street and the electrical wiring has to be seen to be believed. The streets were crammed with people going about their daily duties, carrying fruit, hay, gas bottles, you name it, people cooking biryani on the floor, colourful flower displays, it was fantastic attack of the senses. I loved it! 

Our coach then took us to Gandi’s memorial site, a nicely landscaped, but very understated memorial made of marble along with an eternal flame.
We were taken to lunch at a carpet shop, lol, we were tempted until we realised that the smallest one not much bigger than a bath mat was almost £1000! The tea we were given was delicious, a green tea with cardamom and fennel seeds. After this we went to Qutb Minar, a UNESCO site, that is the worlds largest rubble masonry minaret. It has ruins with beautiful carvings surrounding it. One funny thing here, we got mobbed! Don’t panic Mum and Dad, for some reason the Indian tourists are FASCINATED by us westerners, and therefore we are finding we are being asked for selfies everywhere! At one point I had an entire Indian family of 10 fighting who could stand next to me for a selfie! Our guide tells us it’s because they are fascinated by our fair skin. Move over Brad and Angelina! Lol

Our final stop of the day was Humayun’s tomb, the Mughal Emperor’s tomb, built by his wife, and now a UNESCO site. We love the red sandstone and symmetrical designs. 

After a full on day we returned to the hotel. The Oberon Maiden’s Hotel in time for happy hour. Hurrah! We enjoyed the Indian buffet again for dinner, before evading to bed, tomorrow we head to Agra to tick off a bucket list item- The Taj Mahal. 
Until then 

Lx