The global royal Interests: Money, Fights and Women!

We have another full week behind us and I would like to tell you a little bit about our adventures today!

You probably already know that Apra’s German grandfather was here for a visit. He came at the beginning of the year and stayed until Thursday evening. In this way, he was able to be here for the birthday of his granddaughter, our little Apra. I already told you of that party in last week’s Sunday blog post.

After the whole party was over and we had come back to normal with all the gifts unwrapped and Apra dressed in the beautiful princess dresses she had got, we got ready for another event: we were going to go to Jaipur with my father-in-law! Until this time, he had come so often but had only ever seen some parts of Delhi, the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort in Agra and Vrindavan of course! This time, we wanted to take him out!

We had decided that it would be easiest and¬ best to take the car. It is a drive of four to five hours from Vrindavan to Jaipur and it takes about the same from Jaipur to Delhi where we wanted to drop him off on time for checking in for his flight.

So we started Wednesday morning from Vrindavan and reached Jaipur in midday. After a nice breakfast, we began exploring the city from above, starting with Amber Fort. It was nice to be there again. Ramona and I had spent a few days in Jaipur in 2008 when it is really quite hot. The weather this week was very pleasant and we could enjoy walking through the big Fort with its many beautiful gates, the view onto the surrounding and of course the separate flats for each of the king’s twelve wives! We were joking around, saying that all over the world kings had the same interests: money, fights and women!

For Apra, it was as though a part of the stories that she heard about kings, queens and princesses was becoming reality. She wanted to see where the royal family ate, slept and what they wore. In Amber Fort and in the City Palace of Jaipur, she got to see all of that.

For Ramona’s father, who knows the Bavarian castles of their area well, it was interesting to see how the high families reigned and lived in India – and I think what he liked best was the Jantar Mantar of Jaipur. That is an astronomy monument which uses the shadow that the sun throws on stone to show the exact current time, which zodiac sign a child born this moment belongs to and even the ascendant as well. It was quite interesting and actually much more impressive thinking that this all was built centuries ago!

We returned to Delhi on Thursday and, after a big dinner, dropped my father-in-law at the airport. We said our goodbyes knowing that it wouldn’t be for very long – and with modern technical instruments it is easy to feel much closer to each other!