The breakfast in my hotel in Delhi is brought to my room as they don't have a breakfast room but it's already an hour late. If I hadn't already paid, I would have left sooner. But at half past ten I'm on the bike anyway and since today is an easy ride, it will go quickly. I thought. Traffic in Delhi is stuck in many places and every traffic light is a challenge to get past in one piece. At a red light, all traffic piles up as close as possible to each other in front of the intersection and then, honking loudly, conquers a place on the road again when the light is green.
An hour later I'm driving on the motorway anyway and there follows a long boring ride on toll roads with almost no traffic. Sometimes tasty. On the way I receive a message with directions from the hotel I have booked. But that is strange: it is in a different place than indicated in the Booking app. I had looked for a hotel outside the city, but now I'm going (again) into the city of Agra. Fortunately not in the busy center so I take a chance and it works out well. It's not crowded and the hotel is okay.
I am the only guest and when I come to the breakfast room in the morning, the cook is still sleeping in a corner on a mattress. Fortunately, someone else makes the 'bread omelette' with tea and I can get back on the road in time. However, it does not look attractive from the outside; it is gray, foggy and with 14 degrees it is not warm on the engine. Today I spend almost the entire route on the highway again and a few times I stop to stretch my legs and have something to eat or drink. There is no heating because, just like in all hotels, there is no heating anywhere. Almost every break I meet people who want to know everything about me and the bike and I like to talk to them.
Fortunately, later in the day the fog disappears and I drive into the city of Lucknow accompanied by the sun. The guesthouse is once again well hidden in a fairly quiet neighborhood and has the company name of an architectural firm as its sign. Very handy. Good thing I had seen the photo of the property on the internet beforehand, otherwise I wouldn't have found it so quickly. Just checking in and then I can just explore the neighborhood before it gets dark.
The next day I visit the Ambedkar Memorial Park. This gigantic park was opened in 2008 in honor of the Prime Minister of Law, Ambedkar, for the sweet sum of 7 billion rupees. That is also a lot of euros. Park is not a very good description because everywhere you look and walk, almost a square kilometer, there is marble. The 122 stone elephants on the main avenue are also worth seeing. It's all so beautiful and grand, it must have been a very important man in government.
