I didn’t feel like a run this morning, but I was wide awake by about 6.30am so I thought I would take another walk in the rose garden. It was just light and a bit nippy (about 10 degrees), fortunately the coats we’d left in our hotel in Bengaluru arrived at our hotel in Chandigarh yesterday, so I wrapped up well and headed out.

To reach the rose garden it’s a short walk from our hotel via a broad underpass. The underpass here is not like most UK underpass (i.e. dark, dingy, covered in graffiti and usually smelling of wee). This one is wide, the entrance is via a large stepped and sloping approach with a modern sculpture. All along the underpass artworks are hung as though it were an exhibition in a gallery. There were at least two small groups doing their early morning yoga. On the park side of the underpass I went up a ramp that is aligned with topiary animals.

As already mentioned, the rose garden is huge. There were already lots of people doing their early morning walk. It reminded me of UK friends Helen and Celia who usually meet up to go for a morning walk. The sun was up and although not warm it felt like an early cool summer morning to me, but amusingly all the Indian walkers were wrapped up in woolly hats and puffer jackets, I guess this is pretty cold to them.

The paths through the rose garden go round in interlocking curves so I wandered aimlessly admiring the blooms. In the centre is an oval pool with an enormous fountain. Chandigah has definitely won on the fountain front – they’ve all been working for a start. The jet on this one is huge, and we can see it from our hotel room shooting high above the tree canopy.

The park was set out as part of the original city plan and it is dotted with benches and also has unusual egg-shaped litter bins that swivel on a central axis for the refuse people to empty them. The swivel also makes it easy for others to access the content. The others in this case being two street dogs who were also up early scavenging for their breakfast. If I’d had any food with me I’d have put it down for them but alas I had nothing, so I left them to fend for themselves and headed back to the hotel for our final breakfast in Chandīgarh.