Galle Fort is enclosed within huge bastions which once protected this Dutch trading post from attacks, and now contains a delightful array of colonial Dutch period villas, churches and quaint streets which are perfect for ambling around at leisure. The Portuguese first established a presence in Galle in 1589, which was captured by the Dutch in 1640, then taken again by the British in 1796. It continued to serve as Sri Lanka's principal harbour for much of the nineteenth century until Colombo took over this mantle.
Galle city was hit hard by the tsunami but the walls protected the Fort area and it emerged relatively unscathed. Over the past decade, expats (mainly British apparently) have bought up and renovated many of the Fort's crumbling properties and transformed it from a scruffy town to a cosmopolitan enclave with boutique hotels, cafes and shops which is a bit hit with tourists (including me!). Galle now looks fabulous and wandering around the streets helped to fuel one of my life ambitions to buy a crumbling old period property and do it up...one day!
We spent a happy afternoon wandering round the streets of Galle, including a leisurely salad lunch at a local cafe, Italian gelato for dessert, visiting lots of smart home accessory shops (much to Phil's dismay) and spending quite a while searching for somewhere selling sun cream (which I'd unfortunately left in the car...). Here are some pictures from our rambles which should give some feel for the atmosphere of the area. Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late to snap up a bargain property in Galle and do it up. The town is now scattered with very expensive looking real estate shops which show that the housing market in Galle has already well and truly taken off.
This picture was in the Heritage museum which turned out to be a collection of complete tat collected by someone over his life. You would really struggle to sell most of this at a car boot sale, but it was quite fun all the same.
Work in progress at a house in Galle
Church converted into a Buddhist temple
From the ramparts, you get a fantastic view of the Galle International cricket stadium, which was destroyed by the tsumani but since rebuilt and host to many international matches. Buying a ticket would be a little pointless given the very good view from the Fort, and I'm sure that locals must make the most of this!
We finished our trip by relaxing on Unawatuna beach, a popular foreigner tourist destination with immaculate soft sand, warm swim-able water and lots of relaxing cafes selling fresh fruit juices and seafood. There were a number of obligatory lobster coloured mainly naked British people, but the beach was otherwise a lovely sight and a great place to spend a day or two.
Unawatuna - Looking round the bay
One of the many beach seafood cafes on the beach
Huge prawns being delivered for lunch
Buddha shrine overlooking the merry-makers
Phil enjoying a swim
Surfing is very popular on the beach too, although we didn't partake
We stayed in a small family run hotel in a couple of kilometres from the beach, set back in a small mangrove forest. Our hosts were extremely welcoming, again with fantastic home cooking and a nice pool which was nice to fall into after being in the sun. Everywhere we stayed in Sri Lanka, our hosts went out of their way to make us feel welcome, it's a very friendly and hospitable country.
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