Day Three/Four: Kolkata

Day Three:

We flew from Mumbai Domestic Airport to India’s third largest city, Kolkata. Our Jet Airways flight was in time, food was Indian style and tasty. Our Swissotel pickup brought us in no time to the hotel. We were welcomed and the hotel’s facilities were explained in epic ways…check-in took some time; not because of any waiting time, but due to the variety of things to be explained :-). Our room was (still is) large, modern and a typical Swiss understatement: we enjoyed. In the evening, we met with Ruma and Nityananda, both have worked with Rene in the recent past. We enjoyed an Indian meal with a Swiss twist in the hotel’s Indian restaurant (Naan bread stuffed with Swiss cheese).

Day Four:

Nityananda picked us up from the hotel for a sightseeing tour around Kolkata. Sunday’s traffic is convenient and we were able to enjoy a lot of sights by car (including “holy” cows 🙂 ). We also stopped at Victoria Memorial, for which we left the car; our first experience with close contact to life in Kolkata. We consider this city more polluted than Mumbai; however, there was no situation of danger, begging or pickpocketing at all. Nityananda invited us for lunch at his house: we enjoyed his family’s hospitality, food and stories about life in this city and India in general. Later in the afternoon, we met with Ruma again for coffee, tea and crepes in one of the other malls of Kolkata. Malls seem to play an important role in socializing and meeting. We’ve very much enjoyed the good company: Thank you, Ruma and Nitya!

Pics of the day: