Late afternoon we headed over to the Agra Fort, very similar in design to the Red Fort in Delhi, but on a much bigger scale, and still in use. Only 20% of the Fort is open to the public, the rest is used by the military. One part of the palace inside is built in the same red brick, which was built by the Emperor Shah Jehan, but attached to it is a white marble palace, built by his daughter. The red buildings were also the men’s quarters whereas the lush greenery around the white palace was for women only, with a separate wing for the Emperor’s concubines!
I had an interesting experience with two squirrels, they call them squirrels here but they look more like chipmunks to us! In the evening Raj took us to a lovely restaurant that he recommended where we had, guess what……yes, a lovely curry!!! AND, a glass of expensive wine!
Squirrel feeding!
The Emperors prison, overlooking the Taj Mahal
We were taken to a workshop where artisan craftsmen still carve the stone panels which are used the repair the Palaces and Fort. They inlay finely cut jewels and coloured stones to create flowers and patterns. They also weave wools and silks to make carpets and scarves, on sale everywhere, if only we had a home to carpet!!!
On our second day in Agra, we navigated the local town’s High Street to find a pharmacy, I had forgotten something very important – nail clippers! We walked about 3kms through piles of dirt and bricks, dogs and puppies, cows and ox, every form of motorised and non-motorised vehicles you could imagine and lots of women and children who found it hilarious to say “hi” and “BBC, lovely jubbly”!!!!! Our trip out took us over an hour, we did get a little lost, but found a brilliant pair of nail clippers for the huge sum of 30p!!!!
We also visited the Taj Mahal again, but this time from the other side of the River and at sunset, to watch the colours of the marble change as the sun went down, well, that was the plan…..
The sun took an hour to set and the river mist and city smog took an hour to rise just in time to block any rays from the sun! The smog was created by two funeral pyres, right on the edge of the river! Ironically, the governmental departments in Agra have moved much of the city’s industrial activity out of the city limits to protect the Taj Mahal from pollution but cannot stop funeral pyres being lit right next to it as the mosque is still used daily!
We had fun watching the local starlings perform the night time rituals, right over our heads, luckily, or unluckily for some, no bird poo on us!!
Also met some pretty colourful ladies who were very happy to pose for a photo with me, in payment of 10p each!
Saturday morning, up early, train to catch, you know – the one that took 2 hours to get a ticket for! Tuktuk to the station, ignoring the hassle from porters, went to go through a luggage scanner , “where’s your tickets please?” David looks at me, I look at him. Don’t you have it? No, don’t you? So backtracking to 24 hours ago, I do remember putting the printed ticket “safely” inside a zipped pocket so we search two rucksacks, in plain sight of 20 people queueing behind us, no ticket. FFS, (David mutters) I’m gonna have to empty the suitcases to find it…..10 minutes later, still no ticket, we learn that our train has been delayed by 6 hours anyway! The security man recommends a travel agency not so far away, it’s the only one open as today is a bank holiday, and he chucks us into another tuktuk, telling us to buy a ticket for the next train out, in 2 hours, maybe…. we just about manage to wedge 2 big suitcases, 2 rucksacks and 2 bodies into a tuktuk, my legs are hanging out the side, and off we go.
So the Official Government Travel Agency is blessed with a friendly man called Iffy ?. After listening to David bemoaning his secretary whilst trying to rifle through the suitcase again , spilling toiletries all over the office floor, Iffy offers us a cup of coffee, bottle of water and a seat and says “let me help you.” Two hours later, after confirming that he cannot reprint our tickets (office closed) and the day’s next 4 trains are full, and we are MAD to try to “wing it” with our travel bookings, we plot out an itinerary with him that involves hiring a driver and guides in Rajasthan (the busiest and most complicated area) then trains and flights down the west coast, we pay him and are bundled into a car with Raj and begin our 3 hour journey to Agra.
David struggled with this plan but it proved that we are wet behind the ears simple tourists in a manic foreign country who know nothing, yet! Iffy is convinced that after 6 weeks with Raj we will be much wiser, ha ha ha…….
Short roadside break to watch goats and herons.
Our planned itinerary is for 12 weeks where we end up in Goa in time to meet with some friends Carol and Steve, who we met in Jamaica a few years ago! It was our original plan to head south to Goa and Iffy gently suggested a few more stops en route.
6.30am Walkway to the Taj
An image of the Taj in 1959
Sunrise over the gardens.
Misty morning
Raj dropped us at our hotel about 5pm and said to our horror, “see you at 6.30am, best time to visit the Taj Mahal!!” That evening, after unpacking our bags, guess what we find in an actual handbag, zipped internal pocket, our train ticket!!! It’s been assigned to the “lets not mention this” pocket of our suitcase!!
As you may have gathered, we are not morning people but understood the importance of avoiding the crowds so at 6.45am we were in the queue, purchasing entry tickets to the most beautiful and famous building in the world. The mist was rising from the River, the full moon was still out as the sun was rising, the monkeys were out playing and the birds were whistling around us. No noisy street vendors, just loud Americans and pushy Japanese, but our guide Yogi was great at noting where we were in the queue for the photographic “hot spots” and made sure that we had plenty of poses taken!
The building is stunning, there is no doubt about that. Perfectly symmetrical, pristine marble with inlaid colour of ebony, ruby, amethyst and amber, every carving is symmetrical, every stone in the footpaths and walls cut by hand. As the sun rose, the colours shone and the marble becomes almost translucent. You can understand why the Emperor Shah Jehan created such a beautiful building in memory of his wife, married at 17, who died giving birth to their 14th child, he must have loved her very much to honour her wish (to be buried in a beautiful shrine) and then eventually be buried there himself. It wasn’t all easy going for him, one of his own sons imprisoned him for 8 years in his own Fort nearby, whilst the finishing touches were made to the building so he could only watch it being completed. A grateful daughter ensured he was buried next to his wife and 18 years after the wife’s death, they were finally moved to a mausoleum within the main building and laid to rest. The gardens and buildings are simply stunning, there are no other words to describe it. Peaceful and calm, even the sound of the train nearby resembled a Buddhist chant, calming and warming.
We left the Taj Mahal 3 hours later for a much needed breakfast!
WARNING – WE ARE NOT AT OUR BEST PHOTOGENICALLY, AT 7AM. ?
Nice having someone to take photos of both of us and knows the best spots to stand for them 🙂
And….it was cold at 7am, about 10c, hence the scarf and jumper.
We left the
endless flat prairie land – clapperboard houses with long driveways through the
fields and white log fencing that reminded us of Little House on the Prairie
and headed into Kentucky and Bardstown, rolling hills of greenery and forests,
dotted with roadkill every few miles – deer, squirrels and badgers. It was so green and gently hilly that it is
likened to Oxfordshire and we can see that.
When planning this part of the trip, several web sites recommended three days in the area with a visit to 4 or 5 distilleries each day with a designated non-drinking driver of course. Each visit offers a tasting, and each distillery is several miles apart even though on the maps they look close together so we managed 3 in one day and 2 in another. This was hampered (in a lovely way) by the fact that we had met a lovely couple, he was from Coventry (of all places!) and she was American, and they helped us feel like locals, plying us with alcohol and food at night! Their hospitality went beyond anything we had experienced before, we were introduced to dignitaries in the town and to a chief plant engineer at another distillery that we were then invited to for a private tour, but we really did run out of time….and never got to see him and his brewery.
We stopped a few days in an old town called Bardstown, and on the Sunday night, stopped at The Old Talbott Tavern, built in 1779 and recognised as the oldest western stagecoach stop in America, the hotel part is said to be haunted! European Americans settled here in 1780, Bardstown is the second oldest city in Kentucky, the town was formally established in 1788.
9 Bourbon Distilleries in 1 Town!
In 1789, Baptist minister Elijah Craig pretty much saved the American soul when he developed America’s signature spirit – bourbon. Since the first barrel was produced over 200 years ago, it’s helped build the lives of Bardstown residents who’ve earned their living by distilling America’s native spirit. Established by European Americans in 1780, Bardstown is the second oldest city in Kentucky county.
Today, visitors can tour Bardstown’s nine distilleries as well as enjoying bourbon entertainment, bourbon-inspired dining, bourbon history, and bourbon shopping.
The distillery
tours were all different.
We started
at Heaven Hill, America’s largest family owned and operated distilling company,
home to Larceny, Elijah Craig and Rittenhouse (our 3 tasters) as well as Evan
Williams, Fighting Cock, Georgia Moon, Henry McKenna, Mellow Corn, Old
Fitzgerald and Pikesville Bourbons ; a small batch brewery where they still
regularly roll the barrels in storage and hold a competition to practice the
art of barrel rolling and loading in a purpose built area outside.
Entrance
Rickhouses
Inside a rickhouse
Some of the tasters
The barrel rolling area
At the Jim Beam factory, we watched traditional barrels being loaded into the “rickhouses” where the barrels are stored. We were able to dip our fingers into the “mash” and taste the sweet malty liquid before it is distilled; we watched the distilling control room monitoring the flow of liquid before it emerges as a clear flow of “wine”, it’s then poured into barrels, stored for several years before emerging a deep red colour. We tasted Knob Creek straight from the barrel, before David enjoyed dipping a bottle of bourbon into the red wax to seal it. He picked his own bottle, washed it in watered down bourbon, put it into the bottling plant and collected it the other end, full and stoppered.
Jim Beam is
also home to Basil Haydens, Bookers, Bakers as well as Knob Creek.
A delivery
Some family history
Good old Jim!
Ingredients lists
Tasting the mash
The clear liquid before it is barrelled.
The complete automated process
On to Maker’s
Mark distillery, this was a small scale operation, set in lovely landscaped
gardens and buildings that were established by the owner’s wife (Mrs Burks) back
in 1815 after Mr Burks built a water powered grain mill on the site in 1805. All the processes were visible, all
operational and all original, including printing their own labels! We could taste the mash in a wooden open
barrel, and saw the large brewing vats. The
tasting was interesting, here we learned all about adding a drop of water to
the bourbon, how it changed the molecules and therefore the taste.
Again,
David was able to dip his own bottle, this time the process was heavily “health
and safety” aware!
Next we visited
Barton 1792, established in 1879 and the oldest running distillery in Kentucky,
and distilled with water from its own spring a few miles away. It is called 1792 after the year Kentucky
became an official state of the USA, based on the original distillery,
Ridegwood Reserve, which was also established in 1792. It’s now owned by a large conglomerate which
also produce Glenmore and Buffalo Trace.
However, the most varied tasting was in the “whole county of Kentucky” where David tried every different one he could, whilst he could!
St Louis
We stopped for two days in St Louis, pronounced, St Lewis to us Brits! It’s in the county of Missouri along the Mississippi River. Its 630-ft. Gateway Arch, built in the 1960s, honors the early 19th-century explorations of Lewis and Clark and America’s westward expansion, a fascinating bone shaking tram ride to the top and then a video show and tour of the museum below round off the trip.
Replica paddle steamers are found on the river, and the Soulard district is home to barbecue restaurants and bars playing blues music. The Cardinals (baseball at Busch Gardens) and NFL (hockey) are based here, as well as the America’s Centre, a huge arena full of sporting memorabilia and a Walk of Fame on the pavements outside.
Having returned from our trip to the USA in October and November and letting it sink in as to all the hugely fun adventure we had, we settled in Vilanova I La Geltru just outside Barcelona for a week, not wanting to travel too far just yet!! This was easier said than done!
The Rolls Royce engine on the Dreamliner and below, coming into land at Barcelona
Samson coming out of the storage yard.
Our storage facility had a Dometic engineer on site, one who was prepared to take a look at an issue we had with the electric on board heater not firing up, a fault we had found just before we left for the USA so after we had landed in Barcelona at midday, driven to the storage facility and hooked up the trailer, it was about 4pm. We left the storage place to travel only 15 miles to the local campsite and we expected to arrive half an hour later and get ourselves hooked up and straight before the sun set but we got caught up in the French/Catalan/Spanish demonstrations. The campsite was just a few miles from the French/Spanish border and the main AP7 motorway had been closed by Police that day due to demonstrations on the roads, all traffic had been diverted to parallel roads and told to park up as the Catalans were hoping to keep the road closed for 3 days!! I have never seen so many stagnant lorries, cars and motorhomes, in car parks, garages, service areas and on the edge of roads, all the drivers looked really ‘peed off’, just sitting doing nothing. We eventually got to the campsite at 7.45pm, the receptionist had kindly stayed open for us.
Lorries for as far as the eye can see……
We headed out of the site the next morning, back to see the electrical engineer, thinking how clear the roads were heading away from the border, until 2 miles down the road we hit brake lights! This time a coach, full of older aged French passengers, decided to pull across our side of the road, blocking our exit, with the attitude of “well, if we can’t move, neither will you” until the Police arrived! The Civil Police arrive, the coach driver soon moved and we were on our way. A few hours later, electrical fault identified, we headed south, still shocked at how many lorries were still parked up, probably back as far as 30 miles from the border!
We arrived at a site familiar to us, Vilanova I La Geltru, and signed in for a week; caught up and tried to regulate our sleep as well as eating at the correct times, my stomach was often wide awake at midnight, 6pm USA time!!! We did 4 suitcases full of laundry and found homes for all the extra bottles of alcohol we have imported from the USA!!
Vilanova was a little cooler than we had anticipated, we had to retrieve our jumpers and coats!!! However, the sun was out and the sky was blue, the sea was still rolling and the drinks were still cheap!! And…..one evening I scored 6 in a row when feeding the wild cats!!!
6 in a row at dinner time
One of the site’s pools.
Vilanova beach at sunset
Leaving G22 pitch at Vilanova.
After a
week we moved 200 miles south to Alcossebre, on the Costa Dourada. The change in weather and temperature was
immediate, an increase of 5C, which resulted in David getting his shorts
on!! We stopped at Camping Playa
Tropicana, where all the drinks are free!!!
Fun and Sunshine, there’s enough for everyone!!!
The coastline here is a mix of sand and pebbles, very clean and perfect for snorkeling in the summer, maybe not in November 🙂
We took a drive out one day to Alcala de Xivert, a small inland town with a fantastic 17th Century Moorish church, closed the day we decided to visit as the forthcoming weekend was a religious festival. However, the church tower was open, and we ventured up all 213 steps to the top, for amazing views of the plains.
The views were worth the climb. At 120 steps there was a platform with 7 bells, used for celebrations and holidays, and another tiny staircase upwards. We reached the very top, with several more bells, just as it chimed 12 midday, boy did that hurt the old eardrums being right under them!
Tower steps
View from half way up
We also spotted just across the valley, a hill top castle, Castel de Xivert, so off we went, 5kms drive over dust and dirt and another 1.5kms on the knees and calf muscles! Again the walk was worth the views from the castle. It was part of the Knight’s Templar empire, built during the 11th and 12th Century, but possibly with parts dating later than that, as suggested by an Arabic template on the main outer wall. The castle walls and towers remain, as does several of the small village houses below, but the quietness, and the views were something special.
View of the valley below
Upper area and twin towers
What health & safety???
Part of the lower walls to the village
Orange groves below the Castle
In full bloom still.
As we left the castle and headed back to Alcossebre, we drove through the orange grove valleys, the trees still loaded with partly ripened oranges. The smell was so fresh and fruity.
After several days here, we have decided to move on south, towards an old favourite, Bonterra Park in Benicassim.
A Frenchman near Lyon started a collection of antique motorised vehicles, and after purchasing a Chateau to display them in, opened to the public in 1960.
Le Chateau de Rochetaille-sur-Soane was built in the 12th Century, damaged over time and rebuilt and modified in 1904, and purchased in 1959 by Henri Malatre to display his collection.
The collection is primarily vehicles made in or around Lyon, a City once famous for car constructors that have now disappeared, such as Rochet-Schneider, Luc Court and Berliet.
It does include some original vehicles, a Fort Model T, the Popemobile used during the Popes visit to Lyon, Adolf Hitler’s staff car from 1945, and various famous racing cars.
The Chateau
The Model T Ford was the most produced vehicle in the world (16.5 million) with assembly starting in 1908 in Detroit.
La Papamobile was used by Pope John Paul II during his visit to Lyon in October 1986. The vehicle was adapted to allow the Pope to salute his people.
Mercedes built 44 armoured cars for Hitler during 1939 and 1944. This particular car was seized by troops in May 1945.
One of the first funicular cars from the Fouviere funicular.
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