Agra - Taj Mahal / Agra Fort / Fatehpur Sikri

Here's some pictures from Alana's and my day in Agra. We rode the train from Delhi to Agra early in the morning (it left Delhi at 6:30 a.m.) and were met by our driver and guide. We went first to the Taj Mahal to try to beat the crowds and the heat. We mostly succeeded on both (if you consider how much more hot it got later in the day). The Taj Mahal was amazingly beautiful. The white was rather blinding in the hot sun though, especially as I didn't have my sunglasses. After the Taj Mahal we went to Agra Fort and explored that a bit. It was pretty impressive too. Then after a quick lunch we drove about an hour out to Fatehpur Sikri. It was dreadfully hot out there, but it was a fascinating place, as the architecture combines Muslim, Hindi, and Christian styles in very beautiful and intricate ways. Then we headed back into town and tried to catch the Taj Mahal at sunset. The sun didn't cooperate very well, but the Taj was pretty anyways. Then we hung out at a coffee shop until it was time to head to the train station to wait for our train, which ended up being nearly an hour and a half late. We got back to Delhi sometime around midnight. It was an incredibly long and hot day, but it was worth it.