Chennai Thanjavur Madurai Rameswaram 15-18 Jan 2012

Reached Thanjavur on 15 Jan early morning by over-night bus from Chennai.
checked in to Hotel Amarnath next to Vasantha Bhavan as it was very close to where bus dropped us.

Day 1 -Pongal Day
We started our day with proper breakfast in Vasantha Bhavan went to Big Temple a.k.a Brahadeeswarar Temple built by great Chola king Raja Rajan. spent few hours and headed back to Vasantha Bhavan, had variety rice for lunch...rested for a while went to Palace or Darbar after which we visited a friend's place to join him in flying kites for some time followed by coffee, idly, vermicelli kichadi and dosa for dinner.
return to hotel concluded the first day.

 Day 2 - Kumbakonam

checked out around 6AM, we hit road.

Murugar temple, Swamimalai
Vittal Rukmini temple, Govindapuram
SivaSoorya Perumaan temple, Sooriyanaar Kovil
Nageswarar temple, Thiru Nageswaram
Uppiliappan temple, Kumbakonam
Nachiyar temple, Kumbakonam
Pithyankari Devi temple, Ayyavaadi
Perumal temple, Thiruserrai
Sarabeswarar temple, Thiruserrai

covered 9 temples & reached Pudukottai by 7PM to visit another family friend.

Day 3 - Pudukottai - Madurai -Rameswaram

we left Pudukottai around 8:30 AM to Madurai and reached about 11 AM.
went to Madurai Meenakshi temple spent half-a-day in temple.
We started at 6:20 PM from Madurai and reached Rameswaram in 4 hours.

checked into Hotel Supreme had dinner and dozed off after traveling by road for over 7hrs.

went to Rama Naatha swamy temple, Dhanuskodi, Pamban bridge and ended with
visiting Dr. Abdul Kalam's house -which was spectacular & inspiring.

returned to Chennai by over-night train from Rameswaram.