Agra, India

Aunt Becky is seen here all smug because she is a week into her kid free vacation and the only person she has had to take to the bathroom is me.

She was pretty comfy in Dehli and took a lot of good pictures, but we had to go and catch a train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal.

Christina, despite losing her lugage, was a trooper and found some great Indian clothes, including this shirt that I would have liked to have for myself.

So we took an early morning train to Agra, India. We were dropped off at our hotel and then picked up by a very memorable guide.  This guy, with is 5 inch rattail, knew EVERYBODY.  It was like going around Archbold with Uncle Kevin or trying to go to the Chief with Grandma Seibert.  He took us to the Taj Mahal and explained to us about the gate.  It hid the Taj like a veil over a pretty woman's face.  You couldn't see the Taj until you went inside.

Like I said, he (in the pink fadeaway sweater) knew everyone including this "professional"photographer that goes by the name Wiskey. 

It was very lovely and a wonderful day to visit.  But there were a million people there.  I can only compare it to visiting Washington DC on spring break while the cherry trees are in bloom and every senior class and group of Japanese tourists are in town.

Lots and lots of pictures of the beautiful ladies.

Aunt Becky was being a cheese ball and going along with the Tour guide's demands that he takes pictures of all of us.  We think he just wanted to play with our cameras.  When I had my iphone out a couple of times to take pictures (because my camera battery died), he insisted that he take my picture a million times.

We had to remove our shoes at this site and many others.  I liked this sign and was thinking I would hang it in our hallway so the kids actually put their shoes away every now and then.

The grounds were lovely and very well maintained.

Tourist sites.  Security.  Heck.  Even the guy guarding the atm had a shotgun.  I never felt unsafe.

By the time we walked up , things were getting very crowded.  As part of our tour, we had the "expensive" forienger tickets which allowed us to skip the lines.  If you were Indian, you got in for 10 rupees, but had to wait in line.  This was another place that I felt like an American target for getting ripped off and having my picture taken against my will.

the entire thing is carved out of white marbel and had inlaid stone flowers all over it.  When it was initally built, all the inlay was precious stones. Then the Brits came and chiseled out all the good stuff and replaced it with plain old granite.  Still impressive, but another instance of the Brits pillaging around the world.

Another one of my artsy-fartsy pictures.  I was just avoiding being around people because I had a pollution head cold (we did stop a pharmacy and I bought cold medicine that was 50 rupees--$1 and consisted mostly of caffine.)

After a lengthy visit to a resturant that served ok food with vegetables carved into flowers, but very nice restrooms and then a stop at the marble inlay factory, we went to the Agra Fort.  We finally saw some monkeys up close.

Another impressive stone fort with all kinds of crazy carving and 10 foot thick walls. 

Inside the fort, there was a palace that was quite nice and ornate.

This dome used to be gold, but then the British came and replaced it with brass.  Sigh....

These were medicinal herb gardens and all the sections were different back in the days of the palace.  It was still very nice to look at.  Remember, it was winter there, so there wasn't much in bloom or growing.

More about the palace...carving, kings, concubines....At this point, I just wanted to catch up on some sleep.