DAY 9

February 5, 2025

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAREN – Number 82!

By the way – June 20 will be our 60th Anniversary – and we fooled around 10 years before that!

We celebrate all day long. She is gifted bouquets of flowers wherever we go. We started in the morning with a beautiful breakfast on the hotel lawn. Actually this was the former entrance to the Palace. Birgid has arranged a “Cake Cutting” ceremony including “Happy Birthday” spelled out in flowers.

Off to the airport by 10 for our 1 hour flight to Delhi. I am curious – how many motor scooters/motorcycles in India? The trusty internet (by the way we 5g everywhere) says 260 million. It always looks like all the 260 million are on the street with us each time we go out. Another interesting fact – India is 1/3 the land mass of the United States. We have 300 million people – they have almost 1.5 billion.

We climb two flights of stairs (the elevator is inoperative) to our gate – wait almost an hour – then back down those same stairs for a gate change. We are on Air India Express today. I took a photo of the checkin area of IndiGo across from us – check out the clever titles.

I also took a photo of the baggage collection area in the Delhi airport. We are belt number 4. Looking the other way I cannot even see the end. This is a HUGE terminal!

As always, Shruti briefs us about the history and monuments of Delhi. One thing that stuck with me was the huge monument of Gandhi leading his followers to the coast to gather salt, which the Government had banned. I will include a writing about Gandhi that Karen had previously written. 

Delhi is so different from Mumbai. Although there are 24 million residents Delhi is spread out – horizontal rather than vertical Mumbai. There are so many trees – truly a green city. It is the political center of India vrs the business center. Many streets are tree lined vrs lined with an endless stream of small shops.

Although our flight was only one hour it was almost 4:00 when we arrived at our hotel. Total elapsed time 6 hours. We should have taken the 4 hour drive in our van. I am ready for something to eat and a Long Island Iced Tea. NOPE – the last two days have been local elections – no alcohol until 7:00.  

The Imperial Hotel is our home away from home in India. This may be our fourth stay. I always remember the tall Sikhs wearing their red turbans. This is another elegant hotel – modern elegance rather than the old world elegance we have previously enjoyed. If I had to choose the old world would be my choice. We very much enjoy “high tea” in a new private lounge.

Dinner and cocktails in the “Spice Market” Asian restaurant is over-the-top great! We are so very very fortunate!

R