It's like stepping into culturally rich past of India. The only difference is that there skyscrapers all around and spidery bridges like veins running through city. I can't ask for better day at a new city. This Photo Journey shares some of the moments from Kolkata, the cultural capital of India.
We opted to travel in train from Delhi and landed at Sealda Railway station at around 1:30pm and headed towards pre-paid taxi counter. We took the popular yellow taxi to reach our hotel at Elgin.
These yellow taxis are very spacious and this was first time I was sitting in an ambassador. We started few conversations with the taxi driver and got to know that we are travelling with one of the celebrity drivers in Kolkata. It seems that his photograph has been published in newspapers and social-media many time, when his daughter cleared AIIMS.
It was an enjoyable journey with interesting stories of a proud father. On the way he showed the school of his daughter and also told about his family. He came to Kolkata from Bihar many years ago and now he has his own house. His daughter is insisting him to come to Delhi with his wife. He was very happy to share that he is retiring soon and will spend time with his family in Delhi. It was a 20 minutes ride from railway station to our hotel.
We had booked Arya International through Oyo rooms. Initial experiences of the hotel and room was bit disappointing. Without thinking much about it, we freshened up and ordered lunch. Food was good. A detailed hotel review will follow soon.
We were not sure what we want to do in the evening, so asked at the reception and they suggested to visit Millennium park. We had no clue and none of our friends suggested this place, but still we headed to this place. It's a green patch around Ganges river. We walked around the park. Some of the boats and motorboats were going from one side to another. Few ferries were also going on a round from this place. We skipped to indulge in any of the activities offered at Millennium park and thought of walking around the place.
Sunset had just happened, so we tried to click few photographs of Ganges rivers with Vidyasagar Setu in the background. The huge ship you see in above photograph is Floatel. It seems that it's India's First floating hotel.
Inside Millennium park, there is one space dedicated to kids. There are few wings for kids. Lot of families come here with kids over the weekends and evenings. It was awesome to see kids enjoying around the Ganges. 
Howrah bridge is visible on other side of Millennium park. Vidyasgar Setu is on one side and Howrah Bridge on other side.
During sunset, this whole place looks awesome and offers great views of Ganges and the bridges on it.
Howrah railway station was visible across the Ganges and it was well lit to click a photograph from the distance. I was not carrying the tripod but managed to click above photograph and probably you can notice that it's not that sharp.
By 6:30pm, when we came out of Millenium park, the roads seemed empty. We walked for a while, bought some snacks and soft-drinks. Asked the shopkeeper about Park Street. He suggested to take a taxi and go there, otherwise it may take 30 mins on foot. We followed his suggestion and reached Park Street in less than 10 mins.
The taxi dropped us near Hotel Park on Park street and as we walked Oxford book store was on our right. We headed inside and Vibha bough few books for her friends in Kolakata. It's a nice place for book lovers- very well planned and has enough space. We also found DVD of Wild movie which is written by Cheryl Strayed.
Rest of the evening was spent around Park street, but trying some of the bakeries and finally reached Moulin Rouge for dinner. I nice place with good ambiance and decent food. We shall be sharing more about Moulin Rouge in separate blog-post.
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So the first went very well and we will have lot more to share from the cultural capital of India.
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