Home Sweet Home?

No, this is not the image from a jail cell. This is where we are sleeping until our things arrive. Hopefully, soon because the teak wood floor is killing my back despite the mattress. Luckily, these mattresses fold up into nice little chairs for the daytime.

Here is the view from the second floor terrace. It's not a view of the Taj, but it will do! It's actually quite nice and we do not hear the sounds from the dogs below. Yes, that's right, the dogs on the street can be quite noisy. It's actually interesting when you are walking home late at night, you need to look at the ground to make sure you do not step into a hole, or rather a hole with a dog sleeping inside.

Bath

While Paul was at work in Brighton, I decided to take a day trip out to Bath. Bath is a beautiful spa town with lots of historic sites and quaint streets.

The Roman Baths . . . and yes . . . they still work!

Bath Abbey. . .
Cute street in Bath . . .
Gay Street (No. 25) where Jane Austen lived for a short while in Bath . . .

Pulteney Bridge . . .

A lovely garden where I enjoyed the view as well as a brie and cranberry baguette . . .

Now, we travel back home to India.

Brighton

Here we are at the Royal Palace at Brighton. No photos were allowed inside, but the actual interior was fantastic. The entire building was done in the "Chinoise" style though none of the architects had ever been to China.


The gardens leading away from the Royal Palace . . .
Sunset walk along the Brighton Pier . . .

And yes, Paul and I felt compelled to include this final photo (sorry Mom and Dad!). . . what in the world is this all about? Only in England would you find something like this!

London Calling

Here we are in London! Now, many of you will be bored to tears with the exorbitant number of photos in this blog posting, but some of you I know are interested, so just to warn everyone there are quite a few photos of Paul and I lallygagging around London. Nevertheless, here is our day trip to London.



Our first stop was at Big Ben . . .



Then, we moved on to Westminster Abbey . . .



Next stop -- Buckingham Palace . . .

Here we are in Westminster . . .

St. James's Park . . .
Now, I could not resist taking photos of these street signs in London. Where else would you find a Poultry street?

Now, here is Cheapside and Gracechurch Street for any and all who know Pride and Prejudice.

View of Big Ben and Parliament on a walk to the Tower . . .
Yea, the sun FINALLY came out!

Another view of the Thames . . .

Paul and Melissa against London Bridge . . .

The Tower . . . What made this really fascinating was that I was reading a historical fiction novel by Phillipa Gregory while in London and most of the book takes place in The Tower. I guess it was fitting that I was reading the book at this particular time, but purely happenstance that I was in the middle of reading the book while we travelled to London.

Then, we hopped on the night train back to Brighton.

Happy Birthday Pauly

Happy Birthday Paul! We celebrated Paul's 30th birthday tonight. Of course, after working 12 hours one does not feel like going out to party, but he had cake and flowers, and we went out to a nice dinner. We were staying at Le Meridien Pune at the time which is why the odd background in the photo. Tomorrow, we leave for London where Paul is excited to have a good pint and any type of meat product!

Well, it was supposed to be a quick 3 and 1/2 hour trip to Mumbai from Pune. But of course there was a traffic jam. Luckily, our driver was able to come up with some quick maneuvers and we went through the quiet, resort town Lonavala. I was very excited to see a rooster protecting a doorway.
When we passed out of Lonavala and made it back to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, we saw that we were still in a massive traffic jam. Observe the photo below. We later learned that an accident caused a backup for more than 8 hours. Luckily, since we cut through Lonavala we were able to make our flight to the UK on time.

Here are some trucks trying to squeeze pass one another in the mad rush to get down the mountain.

On our way down the mountain, through the traffic, we encountered some little friends. These little guys were hoping to grab a bite to eat from the passers-by.

They are cute, but I will admit I would rather just see them in the zoo and not inches away from my car window.

Luckily, we were not attacked by monkeys and made it to the airport on time to catch the flight to London.

Aga Khan Palace

Aga Khan Palace - Only a hop, skip, and a jump away from our flat in Kalyani Nagar! We decided to visit the famous palace one day as we were driving by it on the way home from Ishanya Mall. Some of you may recognize it from the movie "Ghandi" in which parts were filmed here on site, and this is where he stayed in real life.





It really is this massive, impressive building. You can use me as a reference point.




The exterior and grounds are impeccably maintained.


More of the gardens outside of the museum . . .