It was our first full day on this spiritual adventure and we spent most of the morning exploring a few of Kolkata’s highlights. Our group loved this city despite how congested it can get at times. After an early breakfast we explored the Flower Market which located was located next to the Howrah bridge that spans the Ganges river. In onslaught of color for everyone. It was overwhelming to witness how much flowers were there at the market.
Click this link to see more photos of the Kolkata Flower Market from our visit yesterday.
Next we went to the Victoria Memorial. The building is beautiful and was at that time dedicated to the then Empress of India, Queen Victoria. The building was inaugurated in the year 1921. We enjoyed a lovely walk in the gardens taking in the exceptional architecture.
Then we were off to College Street famous for being the largest second-hand book market in the world and largest book market in India. It is made up of a half-mile of bookshops and bookstalls. It collectively boasts a collection of almost any title ever sold at Kolkata. We enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee at the Indian Coffee house, a must visit if you are in Kolkata. The place was once a meeting place for poets, artistes, literati and people from the world of art and culture. Among the visitors in the past were Rabindranath Tagore (winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913) and Subhas Chandra Bose.
Later that evening we headed to the Kolkata railway station to board our over night train to Varanasi.
Our travelers at the flower market…
Riding hand pulled rickshaws on College Street in Kolkata
