Today we walked a lot. We ate breakfast and decided to take a walk through the Shah Jahan park from the Taj Mahal to Agra Fort. Yesterday we saw the end of the path as we walked passed so we looked on Google maps and it showed the path as a direct route to the Fort.
The path was great for the first part. It lead us to the river and a temple playing really loud modern music through huge speakers. There were not many people there and we have no idea why the music was so loud. We continued along the path until ... we found several locked gates. We could see the beautiful park inside and the path but there was no way in. It would have been a nice walk but not today! We had to continue towards the Fort along the main road where every auto rickshaw driver wanted to take us somewhere. We eventually reached the Fort and took photos before heading to the train station for refreshments and to stand in the reservation queue.
We filled out the necessary forms and were called forward at the foreign tourist desk.We managed to book lots of trains in advance, which is great.
Walking back we took a different route through the back streets of Agra. Here we found the real part of the city where people stopped and smiled and said hello. It was so different to the tourist areas of Agra where every person is touting for business. This area is so different to the India we know and doesn't even feel like ... India!
On the main road near the big hotels we found our first Indian McDonalds. We had to see what they had on offer. They don't serve any pork or beef products plus most of their range has totally different names to ours in England. Feeling guilty for standing and studying the menu for 10 minutes, we decided to give the Aloo Tikka burgers a try. They tasted great and we finished off the extravagant meal with a delicious ice cream cone.
There was a huge mall next door but most of the shops seemed to be closed either for the night or closed permanently. It had seen better days.
We followed the map back to our hotel via some fairly dark alleyways and picked up some fruit for breakfast because we have an early start tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise
The path was great for the first part. It lead us to the river and a temple playing really loud modern music through huge speakers. There were not many people there and we have no idea why the music was so loud. We continued along the path until ... we found several locked gates. We could see the beautiful park inside and the path but there was no way in. It would have been a nice walk but not today! We had to continue towards the Fort along the main road where every auto rickshaw driver wanted to take us somewhere. We eventually reached the Fort and took photos before heading to the train station for refreshments and to stand in the reservation queue.
We filled out the necessary forms and were called forward at the foreign tourist desk.We managed to book lots of trains in advance, which is great.
Walking back we took a different route through the back streets of Agra. Here we found the real part of the city where people stopped and smiled and said hello. It was so different to the tourist areas of Agra where every person is touting for business. This area is so different to the India we know and doesn't even feel like ... India!
On the main road near the big hotels we found our first Indian McDonalds. We had to see what they had on offer. They don't serve any pork or beef products plus most of their range has totally different names to ours in England. Feeling guilty for standing and studying the menu for 10 minutes, we decided to give the Aloo Tikka burgers a try. They tasted great and we finished off the extravagant meal with a delicious ice cream cone.
There was a huge mall next door but most of the shops seemed to be closed either for the night or closed permanently. It had seen better days.
We followed the map back to our hotel via some fairly dark alleyways and picked up some fruit for breakfast because we have an early start tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise