LAST DAY IN DELHI - FEBRUARY 23

After a nice breakfast in a nearby coffee shop where we had our dinner last night, we set for our day tour of Delhi. We meet Jassi right at the beginning of Main Bazaar, we don’t want him to drive again among all the stalls, cows, rickshaws on the street, that is not really meant for car traffic. Jocelyne does not come with us, as she feels tired. It was quite noisy all night long and very difficult to sleep.

We first set for the Mosque, a magnificent building. Entrance is free, but there is a hefty camera ticket…. Most tourists do have a camera, so they have to buy that ticket…and it would be a pity not to take pics there.

Pigeons are fed there, there is corn all over the ground, I don’t think it is good, as they grow in numbers very quickly and they destroy the buildings.....

Then, we visit the Gandhi Memorial, a peaceful place amidst a huge park that is kept very green. There are also magnificent dalhias.......
..Then, the absolutely beautiful Humayun’s Tomb. It is a complex of buildings of Mughal architecture. The tomb of Humayun was built in the 16^th century and it took 8 years to complete it. It is built in red stone and is surrounded by green lawns.. There are many groups of scholars who visit it, it is noisy and very funny to watch them in long processions......

............................................................................................................... ....................The smaller mausoleums on the sides are not so well preserved.......................................
Then we drive to the India Gate, one of the landmarks of Delhi. It was built from 1921 to 1931 to commemorate the Indian soldiers who were killed in WWI and the Afghan wars. The roads right around the monument are now closed to traffic, due to threats of terrorism.
After so much sightsseing, we ask Jassi to drop us near Connaught Place to start our shopping. We walk the whole afternoon and find quite a few things to buy.
In the evening, we take the metro from Connaught Place to the Railway Station. One can't get into the metro without a bag search first. It is very busy in the metro, but we luckily only have one stop. At the Train station, we try to figure out which way we need to go out to reach Main Bazaar, that is just in front of the station. It is dark now, the station is HUGE and we get lost. And numerous people want us to take a taxi or a rickshaw and give us wrong directions. We ask a police officer and he gives us the right exit. We have to walk all through the station and it is very busy. We think that we would not have managed travelling by train. It seems to be very stressful, the crowds are endless, the noise...
We have a dinner on a roof terrace, Bernadette gets her beer in a tea pot (in many restaurants, alcohol is not permitted and is sold in a discreet way). Christine offers us cute elephants as keyrings...
And our dinner is once more fantastic.....
Yummy dishes! .......................... Incredible India! We feel very sad that we have to leave tonight...
Jassi picks us up at 9.30 pm, as we'd like to be at the airport one hour later. We leave Christine behind, as her flight is tomorrow. She will spend one more night in Delhi, on her own. Bye bye, Christine, see you soon again!
It is about 10.30 pm when we arrive at the airport and there are endless queues right outside the airport. Luggage security check, check-in, safety check, passport control, another check before getting to the plane.... It takes us about 4 hours to do the whole process.... Always endless waiting queues...