Melaka--Day One

On Thanksgiving Day, and the day after, we took a "quick trip" to Melaka, Malaysia.  It is a very historical city influenced by the Dutch, Portuguese, and French.  It used to be a large shipping port due to the Straits of Malacca.  It still sees quite a bit of water traffic. Supposedly, it is a 2-1/2 hour drive from Singapore.  That is true.  However, we had to add an hour going through customs and add another hour driving through all the stoplights from one side of Melaka to the other.  We stayed at the Holiday Inn.  It sits between the waterway (not beachy/swim-able/clean) and a very busy street/mall.  On the other side of the mall is where one begins to explore everything historic.  Everything is easily within walking distance.

 We started with the Maritime Museum/rebuilt dutch ship:

We moved on to the Royal Malaysian Navy Museum, because that is the only way to board this vessel:

We walked across the Melaka River (just takes seconds) onto Jalan Hang Jebat (which is more commonly known as Jonker Walk, for some window shopping.  (We did not have a stroller, but it is NOT stroller-friendly...what-so-ever.)

We turned around and came back to the Christ Church, Church Tower, and Victoria Fountain:

We wandered down this street behind Christ Church to visit St. Francis Xavier's Church.

Jeremy took Allison, Parker and McKenna to play at the playground, run around the park, and view the old airplane all in Coronation Park.  Madison and I climbed the hill to St. Paul's Church:

This is the Governor's Museum, sitting adjacent to the church.

Here's Madison at the front of the church with a statue of Saint Paul.  Behind her you can see (from right to left) the Menara Taming Sari (tall rotating tower that looks like a pole), rows of shophouses with red tile roofs, a ship passing by in the Strait of Malacca, and a very tall building (our hotel/Holiday Inn):

We had dinner at a very, very nice Hard Rock Cafe (just across from Christ Church) because Allison mentioned several times how she'd never eaten in one anywhere: