Sunday ... Everything is closed

-


After our morning coffee we headed out to the end of the street as we had discovered a curd shop there. Curd is a little like natural yoghurt. We also found the missing British tomatoes.

Then on to the Gandhi museum.  Enroute we saw lots of people entering a building, all beautifully dressed.  There was a big poster on the wall with today's date so we went to see what was happening.  A group of children came over to say hello so we asked them. A small girl, beautiful dressed, very eloquently told us it was a family gathering.  After having our selfie taken with them we headed on. 

The museum, which is housed in a beautiful white domed building,  unfortunately was closed today due to holiday.  The museum is free to enter.  

As the museum was closed we were pointed in the direction of a small building at the side, which seemed to be showcasing books about Gandhi.  This museum had an entrance fee.  As it was unlikely we would be able to read anything we decided to give it a miss. 

We headed to the Eco park which we had noticed on the map. .when we arrived it too was closed!   

As these were the final 2 things we wanted to see in Madurai we were at a loss as to what to do, so decided to head back towards the main city. On the way we took a sneaky eat of popcorn.

We wandered around the sari area which was by far the busiest place in town.  Some shops were so busy people were queuing to go inside.  

We stopped for icecream from a lovely old man who was full of smiles.  We continued walking and stopped in a few shops to get out of the sun. There is a local sweet drink called Jigarthanda, so we got one to try  Eventually we came upon a nice looking restaurant serving a dish we had been wanting to try .... Curd rice. We also tried coconut rice.

After eating we trundled slowly back to the river. We need to cross a long bridge to get back to our accomodation. We stopped on the way for more tea and curd! We stayed 'at home' for the evening chatting and eating. We watched on a big projector screen an English comedy sketch from the BBC. When the son returned home, TV was switched to modern family.


Popular posts from this blog

Portsmouth

-
Image
Up at 6.55 to meet our 7am breakfast slot. Breakfast was amazing and we ate the lot from dried fruit to double bacon and eggs. All washed down with posh coffee - awesome. Packing the bikes was easy but it takes a little bit of time ... We started our journey about 8.30. We passed our friend's house, his kids school and his allotment. We got a little lost in Southampton due to road closures but after a little back tracking from the scary dual carriageway, all was good. A lot of our route followed the National Cycle Trail 246, however it kept disappearing into nowhere. We eventually found it again but miles away from where we last saw the signs. We passed over lots of water today, saw lots of boats and had puncture number 2! Fixed, we headed off again. A few diversions, some nice tracks and now we could see the Spinnaker tower in the distance. This added a little motivation to the pedalling. A quick stop in Waitrose to stock up on goodies and we arrived at our destination - Portsmout...
Read more

Travelling south

-
Image
Our alarm woke us early as we have to catch the 8am train, which is about an hour's travel away.  Two friends were due to give us a lift to the bus stop on the back of their motorbikes.  However one overslept so the other asked his brother in law to give us a lift in his car!  Rather than dropping us at the end of the road at the bus stop, he kindly took us to the bus station. A bus was about to leave so we jumped on.  This bus took us back into Kozhikode where it was a short walk to the train station.  On arrival we discovered the train we were going to catch was delayed by 1.5 hours.  However another train, which took longer, was running on time so would get us there half an hour before our original train now would.  We bought our tickets and waited.  The station was filling up fast, which is always worrying when you only have a general ticket, so no allocated seat ...  and the journey is 5.5 hours. The train arrived on time and we jumped in a carriage which was less crowded, alt...
Read more

First Day Explorers

-
Image
After a good night's sleep, we woke early...ish for breakfast. We were hoping for a traditional Indian spicy fair but got a traditional boiled egg, bread and jam. We washed it down with a hot cup of Chai, so all was good. We ventured out in search of a few sites, however were easily distracted by fresh fruit platters, mango lassis and mobile phone cover shops. Next, an ATM stop to test various SBI machines. One small branch failed but the head office one worked. This was near the Mumbai stock exchange, complete with bull outside. We ended up at Horniman circular garden. An interesting name but the garden was being 'refurbished' - dug up. Marine drive is famous amongst the people of Mumbai. A huge boulevard next to the sea for romantic strolls. The stroll today wasn't filled with romance, more noise pollution as the whole sea defence boulevard was being fixed. Almost all of it for mile after mile. We had to walk on the dual carriageway but soon got fed up and headed inla...
Read more