We had two great days in Agra. Driving from Delhi on Oct 23rd, we stopped in Mathura, the birthplace of Lord Krishna on our way to Agra. The Krishna Janmabhumi temple had the highest security we’ve ever seen at a religious place, even topping The Vatican which we’d visited recently.
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It’s been a little above a month since we updated the blog, so sorry for the delay, but a lot happened in between that kept us away from doing so. We came back from our three week long eventful trip to Sangla Valley, Lahaul-Spiti and Ladakh 10 days ago.
The trip got extended by 6 days due to a snow storm that we were stuck in. Mom and Dad both have a bad case of frost bite and are recovering. They won’t be able to continue the trip with us till they heal, but Ruchi and I move on and leave for Uttranchal today.
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The last few days in Chandigarh have been quite hectic, but we’re finally done with all the preparation for our road trip to Ladakh via Sangla Valley. The road to Ladakh via the route we’re taking just opened up today, it was blocked due to post-monsoon landslides for more than a week. We’re lucky, else the route wouldn’t have been as adventurous.
The vehicle we’ve bought for the trip is an SUV, a 2007 Mahindra Scorpio. For us, we’ve bought oxygen cylidnders for any high altitude issues, if any were to arise and plenty of spares recommended by travelers who’ve done this journey by road before.
Ladakh happens to be one of my favorite places in India, so I am certainly quite excited. Having been there once before by air, driving all the way up from Chandigarh is going to be quite a thrill.
We reached India on the 31st of August, after completing our 5 week long Europe trip. Our 5 month long road trip of India starts now, beginning with the the Himalayas. We leave for my home town, Chandigarh, tomorrow and starting driving to Ladakh on September 5th.
The Europe trip was amazing! We traveled 11 countries in total, in peak tourist season, but totally enjoyed each moment. We haven’t uploaded pics after Rome, so lots coming tomorrow after we get around to clean up my artistic mess.
And yes, we’ve been pigging out on home made Indian food at Ruchi’s parents house. Goodbye Pasta, Pizza and cheese sandwiches for a while
We’re finally getting around to post the final batch of our Italy pics. We stayed in Rome for 3 days and visited the usual highlights, including Vatican City. St. Peter’s Basilica was definitely the highlight for us- truly amazing!
The Roman Forum and other ancient Rome structures are spread within the city like a parallel world that still exists, but just happens to be over 2000 yrs old.
Our hunt for the best coffee in Italy finally ended in Rome as well- Sant’ Eustachio! The best espresso you’ll ever have. They’ve been at it for over 100 yrs, and the process is a well kept family secret.
Food in Rome was a let down, but our B&B was great and made up for the deficit.
We’ll post pics from Venice, Slovenia and Budapest soon.
We left Budapest, Hungary today after staying there for two days. Budapest was good fun, walked around the two cities “Buda” and “Pest” with a local Hungarian guide, who really wanted us all to know each detail about the Hungarian history and the post-communist situation in the country.
We arrived in Vienna at noon today and so far it seems to be a really nice city. They have a festival in July-Aug, so we got to catch some of that today. We’ll be here for two more nights before going to Salzburg.
Using the wireless access in our hostel in Slovenia, here are some pics from our last week’s visit to Pisa, Florence and Tuscany.
Finally got a stable internet connection, so we’re uploading a couple of sets of pictures. In French Riviera we stayed in Nice and travelled to Monaco, Antibes and a few neighbouring towns in the area.
French Riviera pics are here
Cinque Terre villages were awesome. We spent 2 nights and 3 days there.
Cinque Terre pics are here. More pictures from Italy soon.