Lansdowne

Been planning to go on a short vacation for a long time. But something or the other always came up and took precedence over it. We actually were planning to go during the Independence day long weekend, but found all the nearby places all tightly. We finally decided on the weekend after that. and zeroed the place down to Lansdowne, which is an obscure hillstation 5-6 hrs away from Delhi.

We set off early Thusday morning to beat the morning traffic. Other than the cities of Meerut and Najibabad, we hardly metame across anything that slowed us down. We actually reached our destination in 5 1/2 hrs which was a record by itself. Since we had already booked our room beforehand, we only had to call and let them know when we'd reach, to have a sumptuous lunch waiting for us when we reached there.

Our main purpose of this trip was to relax and loosen up from all the tensions of the city life. And Lansdowne turned out to be the perfect place to do that.

Lansdowne is a regimental area with nothing much to offer in terms of sight-seeing. Apart from a few temples, a century-old church and a military-made lake, there is nothing worth visiting. I almost forgot... the one place I actually enjoyed visiting was the Regimental museum that has a lot of information about the place, its flora and its fauna.

St. Mary's Church, a century old church which is now a regimental museum. 

But it abounds in natural beauty. Right from the sun rising atop the hill, to the sun gracefully setting behind the mountain, the view is a treat to the eyes. Not to mention the greenery that one can see for miles around. On a very clear day, u might also be able to see a part of the Himalayas. It is also an excellent place to go hiking, with paths for the casual hiker to paths for the seasoned ones. And if you're lucky, you might even get to see a few animals at their natural best. Ohh....for the romantic at heart, there's a Lover's Lane to go hiking with your beloved.

The place we stayed at, The Oak Grove Inn, is a family run inn which doesn't have the commercial benefits of room service, but it does serve home-made food which made the trip even more enjoyable.