Agra: 16/01 The Big Day of Taj Mahal

The alarm clock was already ringing very early that morning. It think it was around 5 in the morning. Why? We decided to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise.
At 6 we were all ready to go and at a quarter past 6 we arrived at the Taj.
It was still dark and i think only one more person was there that time.
We picked out a nice spot to sit and wait until i was more clear. At around 6.30 it began to become clear and around 7:00 - 7:15 the sun was really coming up.
Seeing the sun coming up at the Taj Mahal was a very nice experience. It was so nice and quite (but also very cold) ... until a crowd of Indian tourists came haha.
I made some pictures to see the evolution of the Taj Mahal during sunrise and i hope to have some nice ones.
Legend relates that after the Taj was finished, the right hand of the building chief was cut off because he wanted to be sure that no copy of this wonderful building would ever be made. (still some copy's are made ... but none of them can reach the beauty of the real Taj Mahal)
After this i discovered my camera's picture settings were set to Small. I Really hope i still can make some printouts. Dad??
Aroud 8 we were back at the hotel, had some breakfast and checked out. We went to Fatephur Sikri with a hired Taxi. The guy would drive us around for the whole day for a fixed price. Tis was a really good option for us cause this way our backpacks could stay in the car.
Fathephur Sikri is a spook city. It was abandoned shortly after building time. For a long time, people thought is was because there was no more water but now some say it was for political reasons.
It contains some nice palaces and gardens.
The taxi driver took us back to Agra and there we went to see the Agra fort ... well ... the view from the lake. All entrances to forts, Palaces, ... are really expensive for Tourists and so we skipped this one. The legend relates: the emperor, who build the Taj mahal for his wife, was locked up in the Fort by his son. He wanted to build a black copy of the Taj for himself and then the city would have been broke. From his room in the fort he he could see the Taj Mahal.
After the fort we did some shopping and we took the train for a five hour trip to Jaipur.
The train trip began already with a fight about somebodies luggage and it was never really comfortable. happily, somebody from the hotel we booked in Jaipur was waiting at the station!!