ONE DAY TRAVELOGUE - Fort kochi & Mattancherry

                I always hated to travel through the never ending crowd of Ernakulum city.

Today also my bike journey on a sunny day through the heavy traffic made me exhausted like anything. My brother, who was a skilled driver in the ekm city, helped me to get out of the city within a few minutes. Out of the city limits, i crossed the gigantic Cochin shipyard and naval base.

At last i reached the historical centre of cochin - The mattanchery palace. 

Cochin shipyard

old venduruthy bridge

The Mattancherry Palace is a Portuguese palace popularly known as the Dutch Palace

features Kerala murals depicting Hindu temple art, portraits and exhibits of the Rajas of Kochi.

The Palace was built and gifted by the Portuguese as a present to the Raja of Cochin around 1555.

Palace

palace arch

clock tower near palace

Palace landscape

 

After seeing the museum, we had a walk through the jew streets where antique shops and restaurants are the major occupants. One the way we saw the police museum, where we didn’t felt anything special.

in the streets, with my brother mr.unnikrishnan

  After a few km walk, we have reached the jew cemetery.

monument

cemetery gate

cemetery

Then we moved to Fort cochi, which is just 2.5 kms away. After parking our bike, we had our lunch at a nearby street restaurant. A film shooting unit was packing up there set, but didn't found any "stars" nearby. The area is a famous film location for malayalam movies. The streets were crowded with foreign people.

fort cochi street

Then we walked towards the St. Francis church, the oldest European church in India were the Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama’s dead body was originally buried. Later his remains were removed to Portugal.

Tomb of vasco da gama

Walls of the church

Towards the entrance in front of St Francis Church

St. Francis church

        We had a quick look at the Chinese fishing net, parade ground and Cochin ferry service, since we were in a hurry to go back.

chinese fishing net

Ferry service