Regular readers of Radinblogs will be aware that no visit to any city is complete without an excursion to the Botanic gardens. Therefore, after breakfast, we took a car out via the new suspension bridge over the Hooghly to the Kolkata version. Our driver was obviously unused to travel west of the river and had to stop to ask directions a couple of times. The Botanic Garden is set back off the road so it was easy to see why it would be hard to find if you were not a local. The gardens are not at their best at this time of year but the wide variety of trees and plant life was impressive. We spent over two happy hours wandering round enjoying the peace and looking at a wide variety of bird life as well. We were very impressed by the Great Banyan Tree with it's circunference of over a kilometer and it's reported 2,800 arial roots.
Our plan was then to visit the Howrah Railway Museum but we got there two hours too early and the sun was absolutley scorching, so we contented ourselves with a visit to the station and a SevenUp. We beat a reatreat to our air-conditioned room at the Peerless and had a siesta. When it had cooled down a bit we ventured out to do a bit of shopping which was good fun and mainly successful. R found a top that she liked but it was sleeveless. No problem. Within 10 minutes our man returned with the top including sleeves at no extra charge.
In the evening we strolled round to the nearby Fairlawn Hotel which has a beer garden described in the Lonely Planet as a cross between a rainforest and Santa's grotto which can happily confirm. Ray from the D@L tour was celebrating his birthday and we had a quick beer with him before moving on to our chosen restaurant. This was highly recommended in LP but turned out to be invisible so we finished up having pasta in an alleged Italian restaurant. Not our finest hour!
Regular readers of Radinblogs will be aware that no visit to any city is complete without an excursion to the Botanic gardens. Therefore, after breakfast, we took a car out via the new suspension bridge over the Hooghly to the Kolkata version. Our driver was obviously unused to travel west of the river and had to stop to ask directions a couple of times. The Botanic Garden is set back off the road so it was easy to see why it would be hard to find if you were not a local. The gardens are not at their best at this time of year but the wide variety of trees and plant life was impressive. We spent over two happy hours wandering round enjoying the peace and looking at a wide variety of bird life as well. We were very impressed by the Great Banyan Tree with it's circunference of over a kilometer and it's reported 2,800 arial roots. 
Our plan was then to visit the Howrah Railway Museum but we got there two hours too early and the sun was absolutley scorching, so we contented ourselves with a visit to the station and a SevenUp. We beat a reatreat to our air-conditioned room at the Peerless and had a siesta. When it had cooled down a bit we ventured out to do a bit of shopping which was good fun and mainly successful. R found a top that she liked but it was sleeveless. No problem. Within 10 minutes our man returned with the top including sleeves at no extra charge. 
In the evening we strolled round to the nearby Fairlawn Hotel which has a beer garden described in the Lonely Planet as a cross between a rainforest and Santa's grotto which can happily confirm. Ray from the D@L tour was celebrating his birthday and we had a quick beer with him before moving on to our chosen restaurant. This was highly recommended in LP but turned out to be invisible so we finished up having pasta in an alleged Italian restaurant. Not our finest hour!
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