Lucknow 2

We first visit The Residency, scene of the historic Siege of Lucknow. “The siege of Lucknow was the prolonged defence of the British Residency within the city of Lucknow from rebel sepoys (Indian soldiers in the British East India Company's Army) during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. After two successive relief attempts had reached the city, the defenders and civilians were evacuated from the Residency, which was then abandoned.” (Thanks, Wikipedia) The siege lasted about 5 months. Overwhelming British forces finally secured control in March, 1858.
The site is large with well-kept gardens, lots of trees, nicely preserved buildings and in the museum there is plenty of memorabilia of those times.
Next we visited Bara Imambara, a large monument consisting of several impressive buildings.
Nearby we saw another monument, Chota Imambara. Not so large but with lovely architecture, gardens and water features. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a shop selling chikan products. Russell and some of the ladies did some astute shopping.
This afternoon Tony, with the help of Google Maps, decided to restart the search for tonic water. He found a number of ‘convenience stores’ and chose the closest which involved the fewest road crossings. Result: a pleasant and varied walk for over an hour, finding some quite nice areas, some even green. About 5 different shops. Nothing approaching tonic water. Why is it impossible to buy Indian Tonic Water in India? Ursula was much smarter – she went to the very well-equipped hotel gym.Read more