Yesterday was quite the full day. We woke early, around 6:00am, and had a lovely breakfast in the lounge in our coach, now transformed into a breakfast car. The best news of all is that Marina is feeling much better – those antibiotics really do work – so we are relieved to have her amongst us again.

We saw so many things that I don’t think I’ll write in detail about them, other than to give you a brief overview here:

Albert Hall – ornate building named after King Albert that we just looked at but didn’t enter (now a museum)

Hawa Mahal – elaborate building that is mainly a facade with no real building behind, where the ladies (who were otherwise not allowed out on the street) could look out at the goings-on at street level .. .it’s full of small windows where they would peer from

Amber Palace – a combination fortress/palace up on a hill … this is where we got the treat of elephant rides up, and jeep rides down … saw where the king kept his twelve wives and learned about the queen who wore so much jewelry they had to wheel her around in a wheelchair (not sure what the relationship is between the queen and the twelve wives) … some very aggressive peddlers here as well, selling all kinds of goods, from the International Herald Tribune to small jeweled elephants to photos of You on Your Elephant

Stone polisher – a demonstration and purchase opportunity at a polisher of precious and semi-precious gems, which apparently is a large industry here in Rajasthan … we have many purchase opportunities on this trip, whether we want them or not!

Lunch at le Meridien – a lovely, five-star hotel in the middle of nowhere

Jantar Mantar (Astronomical site) – built in the 1700’s, this was an amazing place where they built large and ever larger sundials to get accurate time measurements, and to do more elaborate astrology

City Palace Museum – saw textiles with about a half a million other tourists seeing textiles … also the world’s largest piece of silver, an urn. (The square around this Museum was being set up for an elaborate function later that evening … perhaps a wedding … quite a grand place for a wedding!).

Carpet/fabric factory – another demonstration and, of course, buying opportunity … this time we saw them making hand-knotted rugs as well as hand-printed fabric. I bought some silk material to make a jacket once I’m home, and Joan ordered one for them to make and deliver to the Palace on Wheels train later in the week.

The evening dinner was on the train, which had already headed out for our longest overnight voyage on the trip.

A few notes on the train …. It is really quite comfortable. The staff is fabulous – friendly and quite attentive. Umesh is our main guy, and he’s very accommodating. The cabins are small, but manageable. The dining car is lovely, with nice china serving-ware, and the food very tasty. The bathrooms are pretty tiny, and there is not a lot of hot water, so one needs to get wet, turn off water, soap up, turn on water to rinse, quickly turn off. (Marina doesn’t like this part much!).

The movement is pretty strong when the train is running. It doesn’t go very fast, but it still sways a bit. I struggled to sleep the first night, but last night got a great night’s sleep, so I think I’m adjusting.

I need to get going for our new day of touring!

-- Donna