Claire and Morten Travel Blog in India 2012: 28/03/2012

This morning we had a "lie-in" as I didn't get up until just before 8:00 and Claire stayed in bed while I trotted down to the gym for a run. I hadn't been to the gym since Kolkata and in the meantime we had been in Darjeeling for 5 days - I don't know if it was the latter (because of the elevation and then coming back down to "thicker" air) or whether my body just craved a good run but I held a really good pace between 11.3 - 13.5km for just over an hour before I stopped. It was good and I felt great afterwards.
So after showers we went for breakfast and then returned to the room to finish packing. We relaxed for a bit and finally checked out and left our luggage in reception at 11:30. Then we headed off outside and decided to walk to the Ram Bagh park.
Little did we know, however, that it was a public holiday and all the shops were shut. However, it did mean that there was hardly any traffic or madness on the roads and on the pavements so we were actually walking in relative "peace" down to the park. There we found lots of Indians playing their favourite sport Cricket on every strip of grass, pavement, road, alley etc. We had countless offers to join (well me, anyway) but resigned ourselves to just sit and watch for a while.
We also went to the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Panorama + mini-park, which was quite impressive with all the figures and scenes and settings. And i took pictures of the big Singh statue on the east end of the park too.
After spending a couple of hours there and trying some of their local refreshment drinks made by hand we finally decided to trot back to the hotel. There we had a coffee in the foyer while reading news and relaxing.
Then just before 16:00 we went up to the restaurant and had a couple of really good chicken curries (one made with largely tomatoes as the sauce - nearly Italian in style if not for the hotness and spices ;-) At just after 17:00 we paid up, got our luggage and walked down to the station, which was literally only 7-8 minutes away by foot.
We then went to the upper class waiting room and passed 1.5 hours there before the train arrived on the platform outside and we boarded.
There we met an older Indian couple who are living in the UK. At first we didn't get on so well because they weren't happy with the "cleanliness" of the berth and the fact that the beds hadn't been made when they arrived. Also the man wasn't happy that he was sharing with Claire and I because he hadn't seen us on the list outside - and we happened to have booked an upper and a lower berth - and they wanted two lower berths.
I let that one pass for a while, not giving in because I was pressured to - so after sitting down for a while and doing a bit of small talk I finally offered them the lower berths of my own volition, which they happily accepted. From then on we got on quite well and Claire and the wife were chatting a lot about the NHS because the couple were both doctors - one a surgeon and the other a gynaecologist. We also chatted about India and even China, which they had previously visited. At around 21:00 we parted ways and Claire and I went on the upper bunks where Claire read for a bit before going to sleep while I was playing a bit with the laptop before listening to some music and going to sleep.
However, we both agreed that two of the best days we have had in India were definitely Amritsar - very friendly people and a very nice place to visit!