We were staying in the Majestic Malacca hotel on Jalan Bunga Raya, so on our first evening we walked down this street to the city centre. I loved this huge rattan chair advertising the shop behind it (photo below left). The photo below right is the Melaka River winding its way through the heart of Melaka.
The brick red Dutch buildings in Bandar Hilir are in marked contrast to the icing sugar whiteness of the Church of St. Francis Xavier, built in 1849. Many shops in this avenue of redness were closed though so this road seemed quite lifeless.
Turn the corner at the end of Jalan Laksamana and the late afternoon sun really brightens up the scene of the buildings around the Stadthuys, or City Hall.
We followed the river past the old Dutch fort (Bastion Middleburg) on Jalan Merdeka towards the Maritime Museum.
The Maritime Museum is housed in a replica of the Flor de la Mar, a Portuguese galleon which sank off the coast of Melaka. We had visited this museum in 2015 and were not impressed! Still, the ship always looks impressive and attracts a lot of phone-wielding photographers.
We had wanted to walk by the river at this point, but the walkway was closed for repairs. This end of the river has great strategic importance for past attacks on Melaka, so defending this area was of great importance.
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