December 27 St Paul's Ruins

 The plan for today was to climb up St Paul's hill to see the ruins of the old church and than tour the Sultanate Palace right next door.  We quickly learned that the Palace was closed for an indeterminate period of time.  That was disappointing - so a quick change in plans.

Our Grab driver dropped us off at the square.  Where you can buy snacks and trinkets.

                                        

To the right of the square is a gate leading to the Sultanates Palace.  This is as much of it as we saw.

Also on the right side of the square is this building.  This is the Proclamation of Independence Memorial.  It is actually a museum of the years after the Japanese period from 1946 and on.  We visited it after our climb up the hill and back.

Right in front of the steps leading up to the ruins stands the remains of the Portuguese built Porta de Santiago from 1511.  The sign below explains that the fort was built by Alfonso D Albuquerque.  Spelled just like our city name!

Then it was time to head up Bukit St. Paul.  Bukit meaning hill.  It was originally called Bukit Melaka as this area was used to house the administrative center of Melaka.   The term "Melaka" used to refer to the whole Malay Peninsula.  St Paul's church was built on the hill much later and now lays in ruins.

Below are some city scape views from around the church.  The hill is not really that high.

We headed down the steps a short ways to the Dutch Cemetery.  

We then climbed the rest of the steps down to the square and found a bench to rest on.  We passed the old Chevrolet below - no signage so no idea why it is here.

After we finished our tour of the Proclamation of Independence Memorial, we headed for the Melaka MegaMall and lunch!  That is its name!  We found another Johny's Restaurant for lunch.  There was one in the AEON Mall near our first house in Melaka so we knew the food was good.

As you can see there are Christmas decorations in the mall in this Muslim country.  We caught a Grab home for some rest before we head out for dinner.