Gwalior

The Indian train system is a marvel. Ancient lumbering trains run on time for short journeys of an hour to longer ones of 5 days. We met a student nurse from the Tibetan colony in north India. He had completed 2 days with another three left when we met him in the train from Delhi: top to bottom of India. We seem to have got the porter system in hand even if we still pay more than a local would. Without a porter you have little chance of finding your train and your carriage and your seats.

Here in Gwalior we found the Indian Coffee workers cooperative society limited restaurant for great coffee, delivered there by a charming autorickshaw driver. He asked for 40 and we gave him 50 rupees  but he wanted to live up to the bargain we had made. We were so impressed that we hired him to take us to see some monuments. We did not agree to a price but on our return to theICWCSL he said we could give him what we thought fair. He 'made our day'!

The mausoleum of Gaus Mohammed, teacher of the great singer Tansen

These pots are a work of art too

The hotel gave us a copy of the Times of India. Front page news was a story of a mentally challenged beggar. I think they ought to be completely pc: a mentally and financially challenged person! He had donated enough money to build a pigeon tower after 40 years. These towers have religious

significance but I think the money could be better spent? It seems that despite being mentally challenged he always paid for his tea!!!

We climbed and climbed up to Gwalior Fort today as on foot was the only means of transport. However, it did give us good views of the Jain rock carvings and a bit of bird watching as well. The views are impressive and whilst Francis climbed up even more stairs I found interesting birds and enjoyed the quiet.