DoDham Yatra Day 2 Sat 17May

Went for a walk to Connaught Circle park before breakfast.  

After breakfast and checkout went for a quick car tour to India Gate.  

Then shopping at a Delhi Cottage Industries shop (like Handlooms or Khadi Kraft). 

And then to see the Akshardham BAPS LakshmiNarayan temple.  Said to be the biggest Hindu temple in the world. While their London Neasden temple is the biggest in the West - presumably written before their Chicago BAPS temple was built.

Very strict security - no phones or Bluetooth devices allowed in, including smart watches.  Should have left everything in the car but we thought phones could be used for taking photos - mistake - the depositary was far from the Temple itself.  Shorts not allowed and so had to buy dhotis. Lack of hats and socks also took its toll in the hot Delhi sun. 

Finally managed to depart, had lunch at the UP15 Dhaba outside Meerut and then straight on to Haridwar which we reached at 5.45pm. 

Walked to the river bank to see Aarthi. After a first wrong attempt thru a Cheri which might have been challenging to walk back thru after dark. 

Ganga Aarthi - we sat on the public riverbank, crowd was 20 rows deep. We were on an island with Ganga flowing very fast on both sides of the island. View wasn’t great as we didn’t pay to get a VIP seat. 

On then to hotel in Rishikesh.  

Ground floor rooms with access to the river bank from the hotel.  Had a short walk after dinner with intention to have a longer walk across the Ram Jhula and back on the Janki bridge tomorrow morning.