Fatehpur sikri

 Another 07.30 start saw us stumbling on board the coach like extras from Night of the Living Dead, although in fairness, a couple of members of our party have looked like that since the beginning.

Today's target: Agra, a journey of around 240km which was scheduled to take us the best part of 10 hours with stops. (and you thought we were enjoying ourselves....) 

On our way out of Jaipur, our we stopped briefly to get a photo of the famous (and rather apt given our curry diet) Palace of Winds. It appears on the front of many guidebooks, including our own.

Imagine our disappointment then, to discover that it's just a façade. A mockery of a sham you might say. And say it we did.

Anyway here's a picture.

An enforced visit to a jewellery shop, a lunch stop and many hours of driving brought us eventually to Fatehpur Sikri, a fortified city founded in 1571 by the Mughal Emperor Akbar. It was the capital of the Mughal empire until 1585. Now it's a (drum roll....UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE).

The afternoon was blisteringly hot and our guide, perhaps shaken by the sight of the shambling wrecks that most of us have become, decided to arrange electric golf carts to ferry us up to the main palace.

Sighs of relief moved quickly through the coach until we realised that we had a 10 minute walk to actually meet the golf carts.

Being British however, we soldiered/lurched on and eventually reached our transport which whisked us up the hill to the main palace.

We had a good poke about, generally acting the giddy tourists (a role we've perfected over the course of the trip) until it was time to get the golf cart back to the coach.

Here then, for your viewing pleasure (or possibly not), are some of the (hard won) views of the palace.