Kolkata

Another night train brought us from Patna to Kolkata, the last stop in India. After the troubles in other places before and the bad fame this city enjoys, we were positively surprised! The center is full of nice old colonial buildings, very green and clean and the traffic is less chaotic than in many other cities.
Especially many churches are in Kolkata, which is more famous because of it's original name Calcutta, which was once the capital of India and the East India company had their headquarters here.
Kolkata is also home to India's biggest museum, the Indian Museum. It's inside a nice colonial building, but the exposition is disappointing. Poor Labellings, sometimes nearly no light to see the things, rooms full of artefacts (no order), dust and no care (neither the building nor objects) are only some of the problems inside. It's maybe a bit typical in incredible India, that the best of all rooms is this one about Egypt!
These problems show in a good way the challenges which have the whole country on the way to a modern state, in many belongings it's still a third-world country.


The Writer's building was once the headquarter of the East India Company and not far away is the St John's church with a nice organ inside. We had a free concert, John played for us a bit.


The Hooghly river (an arm of the Ganges river) flows through Kolkata and the Howrah bridge, built by the British, is one of 4 bridges crossing this river. This bridge is famous, because it has the highest traffic load in the world! Other British remainings are the Victorial Memorial (a marble building to honour Victoria) and the St Pauls Cathedral.


Also some temples are found in Kolkata like the Digambara Jain Temple and the Dakshineshwar Kali Temple. Famous in the city are the rikschas which are pulled by man power!