Galle is a town in the south eastern part of Sri Lanka, about 125 km from the capital city of Colombo. For a traveller or a tourist, the primary attraction in Galle are various beaches and the historical fort. The Galle fort was built by Portuguese in 16th century and was later fortified by Dutch. In 1640, it fell into the hands of British. Today, it is recognized as the UNESCO world heritage site.
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| Galle fort |
Our idea was to spend an evening in Galle fort. While the town of Galle looked like any other town in Sri Lanka, it was completely different world inside fort complex. It gives colonial feeling and looks familiar to an European town.
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| A road inside Galle fort |
To provide a glimpse of the fort, our driver did a complete round of Galle fort and dropped us near the light house area. It was time to explore the fort area. We had lot of time and we decided to walk around the fort in leisurely fashion. Tanu was also happy that she was allowed to eat street food (Ice cream!!). We spent some time watching the lighthouse and the ocean around it.
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| Light house |
Cricket is a famous game in Sri Lanka. We saw few kids playing in a ground in the fort area. Spent some time in watching the same.
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| Cricket game inside the Galle fort |
For serious cricket, there was Galle cricket stadium. It was clearly visible from the fort. It looked very peaceful that day but it would be a charged atmosphere during International matches!!
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| Galle cricket statium |
Galle clock tower is one of the popular landmarks in the area.
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| Galle clock tower |
Some statues at the base of the clock tower were interesting. We could not find information about the relevance of these statues.
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| Statues at Galle clock tower |
We crossed Galle National Museum.
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| Galle National Museum |
Dutch hospital, now a shopping place is one of the landmark in the fort.
It was a very nice walk in the fort. We reached back to the lighthouse and watched sunset. The “Indian hut” restaurant near the lighthouse area attracted us and we ended up having dinner at that place. Before getting back into the car, we spent some time in the lighthouse area.
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| Light house at night |
Overall, it was a good place to visit. Very relaxing and peaceful in spite of crowds. I felt that evening is the best time to visit the fort. While we stayed outside the fort, there are many hotels inside the fort where one can stay.
Labels: Abroad, fort, Sri Lanka, travel
