Tuna
Monday 26 August 2013
A chilled morning, although we had to had to turn around and go back to the hotel after 5 minutes. We’d forgotten to take our passports out of our room’s safe. Oops.
Passports safely in the bag, we drove to Galle, 30km down the road. We were able to check in early, which was good as Ernest could then go sort out his accommodation.
We went for a stroll along the Fort’s ramparts, it is all really rather pretty.
The main entrance at the northern end has two huge walls and the ramparts overlook the Galle International Cricket Ground. There was a local match on so it was great to sit and watch for a while.
We strolled to the Maritime Museum which is housed in the old Dutch warehouse. It was a very simple collection and history of the Sri Lanka, but still quite interesting. Gladly it was out of the sunny, but it was still quite warm.
The streets of Galle are narrow and paved. It is barely wide enough for two tuk-tuks, let alone two cars. The Old City of Galle, within the fort walls is really tiny. Looking at the map, it doesn’t look large, but you don’t expect it to be so tiny. You can walk around all the ramparts and all the streets in less than an hour. It is gorgeous.
During the tsunami of 2004, all of Galle got hit and flooded. Except for the old town, inside the big walls of the fort, this didn’t sustain any losses. Those Dutch and Portuguese knew how to build a wall.
By this time we were feeling a bit hot and The Albatross was feeling worse. He’s not feeling well and spent 2.5 hours in the afternoon having a nap. We think the dodgy prawn was a glass of white wine we had at our last hotel.
Around 5.30pm he woke up and we chanced a wander outside. It had cooled down a lot and everyone was coming out to look at the sunset. The Albatross didn’t last long and we headed back to the hotel so he could go to sleep again.
I went out to dinner, alone, and had a lovely plate of seafood with some wine. I am now rather full.
