June 9,

At the hotel this morning, we had breakfast of 3 Hoppers each: one egg and two plain to add Dahl and tomato & onion salsa-type mix in them. We also were served a papaya juice and tea. Finished and readied to go to All Saints Church for an eleven o'clock service.

All Saints Church is an Anglican Church. The church has a service in English the second Sunday of every month, but meets every Sunday for locals at nine. There were around ten people in attendance – Jeff and I, a Norwegian couple, and the rest were of Asian descent. Jeff and the Norwegian guy gave readings from the Bible. We sang hymns (most we knew) participating in the service and listened to a sermon by a local minister. Then we all invited and most took communion. It was close to what I think a Catholic service is like. We enjoyed it. After services, we were given tea. Took a couple of photos inside the church – it has some nice stained glass windows – and left. I felt blessed hearing the Word of God!

We went to our hotel to put on shorts and went back out and about. We finished the walkabout of the last little part of the ramparts we didn't go to yesterday. Then, we meandered on some streets in the old fort town of Galle, seeing a few art deco type houses/buildings.

We weren't hungry yet for lunch, so we decided to go to The Marine Archeological Museum. It cost 1,400 Rupees ($4.62) per each. It was a large museum and we spent around 1.5 hrs in it! First, in the entry is a replica model of a ship. We were directed to watch a 15 minute video… History can be found from shipwrecks in the ocean – this is what Marine Archeology is about – “the study of past human interactions with the ocean,” as per the flyer. The video showed a particular shipwreck, that of the Avondster, a British ship that was taken by the Dutch and did much trading from here to the Netherlands. It sank here in the Galle harbor. Many artifacts were recovered, and some are on display here at the museum.

Then in the museum. First we saw how the natives of the island interacted with the ocean and trading that commenced from local cinnamon, precious stones, tea, and some other items. Now we get into some of the artifacts salvaged from sunk ships on display. This reminded me of a museum in Kansas City of a salvaged sunken ship found in the Mississippi river. There were many items here – from many Chinese vases and pottery to a couple of Thai vases, and so much more. Also there were some very narrow canoes displayed that have been used for fishing here for generations. The museum also had a bit of information about the tsunami from 2009, and the damage/renovation done here in Galle, and a couple of items that came in with that huge tide they endured. Lastly, some things from the Avondster – a coil of rope to clay pipes.  When we finished, we both said how much we had enjoyed this museum.

We now went to lunch at Chambers Restaurant. It's Middle Eastern based cuisine. We had a combination plate for two, choice of two cold mezzes and two warm ones with bread. We choose hummus and babaganoush – two cold; and the two warm were Musachan Rolls – a sumac spiced chicken with pine nuts in a fried wrap, and Cheese Sambousek – a crispy pastry filled with cheese and harrar sauce. Wow! 😋 So yummy 😋! We miss being able to get hummus easily, the last place readily available was South Africa.

Now we went to a small Cargill's store for ice and went back to our place. I blogged some and Jeff read. After we cooled off, we went to the roof. I did a WhatsApp video chat with my mom, while we watched the kites. There were upwards of thirty tonight. Good sunset as we ate a light supper of French fries and a tomato onion sandwich. Then we connected with our church back in Kansas. Another great day in Galle!