Travelling

This is the full merged blog of a 13-day road trip from Pune to Gujarat and back. Day wise separate blogs are available in the hyperlinks as this entire could be too lengthy to read. Day 1 Pune - Ahmedabad   We started from our home in Pune at 4:15am for Ahmedabad. The expected drive time was around 13 hours by the map ( excluding breaks). We took the Ravet route to Mumbai which was good. The saying "Mumbai never sleeps" could be sensed when people seemed rushing to their workplaces even before 7am. The roads between Mumbai and Vapi were terrible and took much longer. The roads were under construction and had heavy vehicles all the way. It needed patience and skills to navigate that route. After crossing Vapi , we finally stopped for a break and had lunch. After a filling lunch, we resumed our journey. At Bharuch, we got onto NE4 (National Expressway 4) which is one part of the golden quadrilateral project connecting Mumbai to Delhi. Now this was an enjoyable driv...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 9 Kutch - Ahmedabad A relaxed day started by waking up at 6am. We got ready and had delicious poori bhaji for breakfast. Our journey started by 9am where we headed towards Aaina Mahal. It displayed the kings and queens from history, the currencies used, their old pictures, vehicles and other household items used , etc. It was a very narrow street, a bit of an effort to navigate the xuv there. Next destination was the Vande Mataram memorial housing a museum (was unavailable for general public as there was some session going on for students) , pictures and statues from Mahatma Gandhi's life, the brave soldiers of our country and an artisan block. The drive to Ahmedabad was now 7 hours. Most of the roads were good but a lot of maintenance work was taking place at various highways causing the highways to be blocked for normal flow of tra...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 2 Ahmedabad  We started in the morning by 8:30am from our accomodation towards our first destination - Adalaj step well. Brilliant architecture with intricate carvings on the walls and pillars. This well's construction was started by a king, but completed because of his queen. From here, we headed over to Kankaria lake. This wasn't a part of the original itinerary but while talking to some locals the previous day, this was an addition to the list. Kankaria lake and the surrounding area is beautifully developed. There's a nominal entry fee into the campus, followed by upfront payment for the individual activities you may want to do. We bought tickets for the toy train. Though it is called toy train but accommodates all ages. It is a 15-min ride around the lake. While we waited for the train, we got some snacks from the food co...

This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December.  The days will then be merged for the final blog. Day 1 Pune - Ahmedabad  We started from our home in Pune at 4:15am for Ahmedabad. The expected drive time was around 13 hours by the map ( excluding breaks). We took the Ravet route to Mumbai which was good. The saying "Mumbai never sleeps" could be sensed when people seemed rushing to their workplaces even before 7am. The roads between Mumbai and Vapi were terrible and took much longer. The roads were under construction and had heavy vehicles all the way. It needed patience and skills to navigate that route. After crossing Vapi , we finally stopped for a break and had lunch. After a filling lunch, we resumed our journey. At Bharuch, we got onto NE4 (National Expressway 4) which is one part of the golden quadrilateral project connecting Mumbai to Delhi. Now this was an enjoyable drive. NE4 joins NE1 later ahead. There was a police ...