Galle

02.04.2015

Just an hour along the coast (with a few glimpses of stilt fishermen) by bus from the Mirissa to Galle bus station and then auto rickshaw to Galle Fort and our guest house. The Fort area is the old colonial heart of Galle (originally colonised by the Dutch and subsequently by the English) with attractive and very quiet streets (particularly in comparison with the busy new town). It has had a lot of renovation work done since the tsunami and is looking very well on it. Surrounded on three sides by the sea, there are ramparts all the way round the perimeter which make for a particularly pleasant stroll. Of course, with the exception of the judicial activities in Court Square (shaded by enormous beautiful trees), the buildings are mostly given over to guest houses, restaurants, souvenir and jewellery shops, plus a number of religious buildings of all denominations. We were rather lucky with the room at the guest house. The initial one we were given was small and dark - not great for 4 nights. However, we managed to change to another room just finishing being cleaned, which was much larger, faced the old Dutch Hospital (now converted for use as restaurants and shops) and had a balcony area in front which we regularly profited from.

Can't say we did an awful lot in terms of visiting sights etc over the time we were there! We did lots of walks to thoroughly explore the lovely streets in the Fort area (going back for breaks on our guest house balcony - it was excessively hot in the day!), Most enjoyable of all were the strolls around the ramparts, normally with a very welcome sea breeze. Watching the sun go down from the western ramparts was a lovely way to finish off the afternoon (when it did not coincide with a downpour), particularly when we spotted turtles in the waves below ... and then moved on for a sundowner beer upstairs at a guest house nearby.

Galle Fort ramparts