We were up before dawn to see the Taj Mahal as the sun rose. By the time we reached the entrance, there were already many people there, mainly locals, but we were through the ticket barrier and entrance gate by the time the first rays of sunshine appeared on a hazy morning.
The Taj is as magnificent today as the time that I first saw it in August 1969 nearly 49 years ago. It has recently been cleaned and sparkled in the morning sunlight. We wandered slowly around and although there were already many visitors, the only time we felt crowded was when we were in the centre of the mausoleum itself – very different from my first visit when there were but a handful of people around.
Then it was back to the hotel for breakfast and a swim before the rest of the day. Later we were off to Agra Fort; an amazing structure of which we only saw a small part with some lovely gardens in the inner courtyards.
From there to the Jama Masjid, a mosque not far away from the Red Fort which we got to partly by tuk tuk and partly on foot through very crowed streets. From there to a delightful lunch spot; we felt our early start earned us a Kingfisher beer particularly as we have a hour or so after lunch for a snooze!
Later in the afternoon, we went to visit the Tomb of Itmad-ud-Daulah built in the 1620’ties and known as the “Little Taj”; it is indeed a little Taj and was used as the inspiration for the Taj Mahal started a decade later. At distance, it is a lovely building but close up, it is apparent that it needs restoration and this is now planned together with restoration of the gardens and water features which is already under way.
We followed this by a visit to a rather run down mausoleum where boys were playing cricket nearby.
Our last visit of the day was to the gardens on the other side of the river for a sunset view of the Taj Mahal and the two pictures below show what we found.
Tomorrow we drive to Delhi in the morning to arrive around lunchtime.