Day 1 : Saturday, Feb 14th - Delhi

What better Valentines Day gift than to wake up in Delhi, India with my Mom visiting me from America?! (Well, maybe Michael visiting me, or my other Valentine - Dad, but this was very cool too).
The three of us girls got up on Saturday at the Park Hotel in Delhi. After a delicious breakfast we decided to go sightseeing for the day. The hotel gave us the suggestion of hiring a driver for the day to show us the sights and sounds of Delhi. We agreed to that and were introduced to the wonderful driver we came to know as Gansing. First stop; The Red Fort!
Gansing took us along the streets of Delhi, which were pretty busy, and we got to a sidestreet in the middle of what seemed like nowhere. Gansing directed us to get out of the car and go the rest of the way on bicycle rickshaws; apparently cars were not allowed to get as close as we needed to go. I thought this was great since I had not been on a bike rickshaw yet. We hopped right on and turned down the street to head towards the Red Fort. Before we got to the Red Fort though, we turned a corner and up ahead we could see perfectly straight in front of us Jami Masjid; the largest Mosque in Asia. It was built in 1656 A.D. Even from a distance it was beautiful, so I didn't doubt that close up it would be even more magnificant. We walked up the long pathway to its long grouping of stairs that led us to the open meeting space in front of the mosque. Before we went in, a man at the gate informed us that my outfit was inappropriate apparently by grabbing me and wrapping me up in this gi-normous moo-moo looking over-dress. Mom and Mrs. Holmes thought this was hilarious as we made our way into Jami Masjid. The space was so large and all the buildings were beautiful. You can't even describe the views from places like that, you could see the whole city. There were people praying there and we made our way around the complex before heading back out. Then we got back on our rickshaws and went to the Red Fort.
The Red Fort was the palace for Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan's new capital, Shahjahanabad. (He had moved his capital from Agra to bring prestige to his reign, and to provide ample opportunity to apply his ambitious building schemes and interests.) It was built in 1639 A.D., and on August 15th 1947, India became an independent nation. This was marked by Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Prime Minister, unveiling the flag of independent India at the Red Fort. So, it's a very important complex. We got on the "foreighner" ticket line, paying 250 rs while Indians pay 5, but that's ok. We walked through the gate and into a Bazaar. Here people were selling scarves, brass statues, paintings, basically anything you could think of. We went straight through and to the grounds of the fort. It was an even larger complex than I imagined, with beautiful greenery, trees, lawns, fountains. We walked around admiring the jali- the marble screen work - and the flower carvings in the marble. We even saw the "Pearl Mosque", a Mosque built inside the complex which was all white marble. After we finished seeing the site, we made our way back outside and to our rickshaws. When we got back Gansing was waiting for us and we left for lunch. We stopped before lunch at the memorial park for Ghandi. Here is where he was cremated, and at that spot they had a large black marble raised plate with flowers. People left flowers and said quite prayers. We joined in and then walked around the area which was filled with flowers. It was a really beautiful area and you could see how much he was loved in India by the care that is taken for a place like that.
We stopped for lunch at a small but really nice restaurant. We all had something Indian, and it was delicious.
After all that we stopped at the Indian Crafts Museum. This was a museum dedicated to the handicrafts which began and still thrive in India. We saw Mughal paintings, and tribal statues; we saw hand woven tapestries, and marblework. After we walked outside where people were demonstrating and selling their crafts. It was really nice to see that these people really still do these crafts and amazing to see they live off their talents. By this point we were all really beat, but we decided we should see one more sight, so the Lotus Temple it was. And boy, am I glad we decided to do that! I have never seen a structure so amazing as that (well, NOW I have coughTajcough, but at this point I hadn't). I have never seen a building built like the Lotus Temple and it just caught you up in its magnificance, and I just starred at it, for a long time. Mom and Mrs. Holmes finally started moving towards the stairs so I followed. We walked inside, where you had to be silent for a short prayer. A man got up and did some sort of musical chant, and it resonanted so beautifully you could never hear a sound like that again. The inside was just as beautiful. We walked around it and then back outside to view the area around which again was full of gardens and trees. We left at the perfect time, sunset. We saw the orange Indian sun setting behind this awesome structure.
Now we really were beat! We headed back to the hotel where we enjoyed a Valentines Day dinner and talked about our Valentines back home, but we were all happy to be in India. It couldn't have been a more perfect first day in Delhi!