November 23 – Travel to Lucknow

Smog today was supposedly “better” than yesterday.  Yesterday the smog air quality index (AQI) was around 450 (on a scale of 600).  Today it is down to around 350.  Good quality levels is around 50.  Needless to say we are both wearing our masks. 

Our flight to Lucknow was badly delay by 2+ hours.  However, they gave us a pass to the lounge, so we had a light, free lunch and comfortable seats.  The air quality in Lucknow wasn’t much better than Delhi.

The drive to our hotel about an hour through crowded city streets.  We did see glimpses of some very interesting buildings. 

The hotel is very nice, modern looking, clean and lists hot and cold running water 24 hours a day as one of their amenities.  That’s good to know.  The beds are soft and comfortable, the Wi-Fi is a bit iffy and the only restaurant in the hotel for evening dining turned out to be a Hookah lounge (a bit smoky).  Other than that we are happy with the accommodations. 

This evening we came across a bride...

and later a groom who were getting their photos taken in the hotel.

A main reason we are in Lucknow is that our good friend (and  travel agent) Tara’s boarding school, La Martiniere is celebrating the 150^th anniversary of its founding.  Interesting terminology - Students do not "graduate" high school (in India one is considered to have graduated from college but not high school). Instead one "passes out". (Brings up visions of a particularly drunken weekend party.) They also don't use the term "class" but instead each group is called a "batch". (Makes one think of making cookies.)

And Tara is a major player in organizing the events.  So we will having leisure days at the hotel catching up on things, attending some of the celebration events and doing a bit of sightseeing.  We were to attend the opening ceremonies tonight but between arriving quite late and being sick we just decided to stay in, have dinner and rest.