Ed in India - Days 4&5
Day 4
Finally our first day at the cricket had arrived!
We headed off from The Claridges and The Imperial just after midday for the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi with a lot of excitement to see the England stars in action. When Jos Buttler won the toss there was even more anticipation for what was hopefully set to be a great day for England following on from their recent win against Bangladesh.
Afghanistan batted well and set a competitive total for England to chase. Unfortunately the chase that followed was no match for Afghanistan’s bowling attack, meaning that England had suffered their second defeat of the tournament, with this one being a bit of an upset.
That being said, everyone had enjoyed experiencing a day at the cricket in India, with a large local crowd supporting some of the IPL stars on show, including Jos Buttler, Harry Brook and Rashid Khan. A lot of us staying at The Claridges met in the hotel bar afterwards to dissect the England performance and to discuss our train journey to Agra the following morning.
Day 5
We started our day aboard the Gatimaan Express to Agra. This was a relatively short journey but a nice change to the coach travel that was to come on day 6.
Once we arrived in Agra we were greeted by our friendly driver who took us to the first hotel, the ITC Mughal in Agra. Here we had a coffee break before heading off to Agra Fort for our first sightseeing stop of the day.
Agra Fort itself was very impressive.
The architecture was amazing and there were lots of photo opportunities for our travelling party! We even got a sneak preview of the Taj Mahal that we would be seeing later in the day.
After our Agra Fort visit, we had a bit of time to get ourselves checked in to our hotel.
Once picked back up, it was time to head to the Taj Mahal. Having had a sneak peak from Agra Fort earlier in the day, this is something that we were all excited for!
It was great to explore the Taj Mahal and it’s grounds. Everyone managed to take some great photos and we had a great group photo too. This truly is something that must be seen to be appreciated.
After the Taj Mahal and another stop at our hotels so that we had some time to relax and get ready for the evening, we headed out as a group to a local barbecue restaurant. This was a lovely meal that allowed us to sample lots of different curries as well as barbecued fish and meat. My favourite was certainly the masala fish.
