03.24.2024 Colombo, Sri Lanka Day 1/2

We arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka at 2:00 pm today and we are here overnight. We had no excursions booked. When Viking had to alter our itinerary to go around Africa it also altered our days in Sri Lanka. We originally were to be here three full days and we had Viking excursions booked all three days. Since it is now only a day and a half, we lost our original excursions and did not rebook anything.
Colombo is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, the Colombo metropolitan area has a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 in the Municipality. It is the financial centre of the island and a tourist destination.
It is again very hot and extremely humid.
It’s 91 with a real feel of 101.
We hired a Tuk Tuk to give us a tour of Colombo. Some areas were very dirty and other areas really nice.
We visited another temple. (we are about templed out.) Drove through some interesting areas. Visited St. Anthony Catholic Church. It was the site of a bombing in 2019 on Easter Sunday morning. (Diana was able purchase another nativity set to add to he collection) We petted an elephant.
It was a nice overview of the city.
We had dinner with Todd and Burt and Paul and Lisa and Tom and Catherine and Jim in Manfredi’s as today is Todd and Burt’s last day. They are leaving the ship. They rented a villa in the Maldives for a month. We will miss them.
Great evening but it is now bedtime.Read more