We took a deep breath, girded our loins & set off on a day trip to the old capital of Goa. We were so fed up with travelling in India that it was a big deal to get in a taxi and bump along in the heat and humidity even if it only took 50 minutes!
Old Goa was the bustling heart of Portuguese rule in southern India, but dwindled into a sleepy backwater when it was virtually abandoned in the 17th. Century due to malaria and cholera epidemics. Just a few of the magnificent buildings still stand today. The one that attracts the most attention is the Basilica of the Bom Jesus where the embalmed remains of St. Francis Xavier lie spookily in a huge glass and silver casket. The church is huge, solidly built of basalt and as richly decorated as you would expect of a Catholic church in India.
The neighbouring St Catherine's Cathedral and Archbishop Palace were also built on a grandiose scale(the cathedral is larger than any church in Portugal itself) but it's hard to be impressed, as such, when you discover that the inquisition held court here. The toll of the bell in the tower announced the public torture and burning of supposed heretics- including Hindus and Jews who refused to convert.
We had a pleasant afternoon wandering in the cool of the churches, sheltering from the sun under shady trees, walking down through the Arch of the Portuguese Viceroys to contemplate the river where once the trade that had been the city's lifeline flowed to and fro. Nowadays the shipping is confined to a constant stream of rusting barges and a couple of tatty car ferries plying back and forth!
Ironic, really, that we had such a tranquil afternoon escaping the hassle of modern India amongst the fragments of a once great civilisation that sheltered a heart of darkness.......
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