Something Gothic in India

Hello my dear dear friends! We are back to India from our trips.  I couldn't stay at parents' place longer this year, nevertheless, enjoyed every moment spent there! My little A turned 2 in July. He was delighted to meet his grandparents again. This visit he was able to really take pleasure in different activities and, simply, in communication with his nana and nani (as maternal grandparents are called in Hindi).
My D organized an amazing trip for his parents and sister this time. They visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, and were stunned by the Russian cultural heritage. I do promise to make a couple of posts to present the places they visited there. I, in turn, preferred going with A straight to my parents so we could spend more time together, while in-laws and D joined us in Kazakhstan later. His parents left after 6 days, and he of course stayed with us till the end of July.
Meanwhile I would like to share with you our latest trip to the hills. It was a long Independence day weekend in India. We left on Saturday morning and headed towards Shimla (113 km away from our city). However our stay was about 10 km before it at Tweet Tweet home stay in Shoghi. We opted for a home stay instead of a hotel so that our little A would be able to have home made food. He has a very frustrating habit - when he is away from home, he stops eating properly. I should say thanks to our hosts because they provided something our A likes - plain ajwain parantha, fried potato and milk.

The day we arrived at our destination, the weather turned a little chilled, wet and foggy - exactly what we wanted it to be! This is a picture of a part of Mall Road in Shimla - the most popular place among visitors. You can see many such European style buildings on this street. There shops, cafes and restaurants on it as well.

But the real treat awaited the next day when we planned to go to the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, located in Shimla. I must say, it was an amazing experience! Just look at this Indo-gothic architecture - the facade, the stairs, the passages, the walls... The stone itself reflects that style, and the way the whole territory was planned back then...Unbelievable! There are more places like this India, many churches of the British Raj era.

Our little A, however, didn't care much about architectural beauty of the place and found his favourite occupation there - throwing pebbles in the water pools! Yey! That was tough to take him away from this interesting job when it started raining cats and dogs. The child was refusing to understand that he would be drained in water if came out of the shelter. But fortunately I had his darling book with me which kept him busy until the rain subsided.

 It felt as we were transferred to England for a couple of hours.

 As the Institute is situated on quite an elevation, we took a cab up, but went down by foot. Little A and his dad enjoying the walk downhill.

I hope to come here again...

 I would also like to say thanks to Ms Misantropia for organizing a giveaway, and giving me an opportunity to win this charming necklace which I received by post a few days ago! I absolutely love it and already wore it many times. Hehe.

 So that's it for now. Hope you are safe and happy wherever you are and watching Olympics.