The city palace is one of the main tourist attractions in Udaipur so we got a tour of some of it. (Just the King’s palace – we skipped the Queen’s palace as the kids were getting bored)

It’s a massive place and took over 400 years to build, starting in 1553. Now it’s mostly a museum but there are some areas are still used by the Maharana (not Maharaja which refers to a king whereas this term is more like great warrior) and some has been converted into luxury hotel.

As you may expect it’s quite lavish… but also it does occur to me that the king must have been quite lonely. For example, he always ate on a raised platform above the other people, never with them.

It has loads of coloured glass (imported from Europe) for windows and used in finely detailed artworks.

There were several places with intricate windows where females could watch the goings on but not be seen. The King of course, gets a nice viewing platform to watch over the courtyard.

It’s right at the top of the hill so overlooks the lake on one side and city on the other.

There were some cool weapons – James Bond probably got his toys from here! A pen that is also a gun, a shield that shoots four bullets at a time, an early version of the swiss army knife and a shot gun that has an axe as its handle. They would put fake elephant trunks on the horses to try to confuse the enemy’s elephants into thinking the horse was actually a baby elephant. (not sure how well that worked) Some parts of the castle were very narrow with low doorways, apparently this was so they could chop off your head as you entered. Must have been some fun times!

We got a guide but it’s all set prices – he did well considering we didn’t tour the Queen’s palace. Of course, there’s the sell at the end of the tour of the amazingly intricate paintings – literally done with single hairs. I was hoping we’d see them in action but no, just the sell. Probably for the best anyway as I didn’t bring my glasses so I’d not have been able to appreciate what they were doing 🤣