01/27/2018
Wake call at 4:45 a.m. and breakfast at 5:00 a.m. Boarded the bus at 6;00 for Alexandria for about a 3 hour trip north to the largest port in Egypt--on the Mediterranean Sea. It was the capital and established by Alexander the Great in 300 B.C. It looked a lot like Cairo, except there were more occupied high rises (over a million condos in high rises in Cairo were abandoned). Here are two high rises. If you look close, it looks like the building on the left is supporting the building on the right; in fact, the building on the right actually leans on the building on the left. I think building codes are non-existent here.
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| High rise condos in Alexandria |
And here are typical scenes in the streets of Alexandria.
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| typical street |
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| the ladies in their burkas, shopping |
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the men on the sidewalk
smoking their hookas
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Our first stop were the catacombs. We walked down about 3 stories to where there were combination Egyptian and Greek/Roman statues and markings. All the bodies were gone. Actually the entire area was under water until the 1950's when it was discovered. Here are some of the Roman structures.
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| Roman Gate and Pompeii's Pillar |
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| Pompeii's Pillar |
Our second stop was the Roman Theatre Complex and lecture rooms with Roman baths at the North end (in the back of the picture). The big city of Alexandria is in the background.
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| Roman Theatre Complex |
This is the entrance to the Roman baths.
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| Entrance to the Baths |
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| a lecture room |
In the far rear of the complex were very elite homes built of stone. They had beautiful mosaic tiled floors.
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| Mosaic tiled floors |
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| Close up of the detail--beautiful bird |
Our third stop was the waterfront of Alexandria. Here there were vendors of all sorts selling their wares. The sea seemed angry today and the wind picked up.
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| Storm coming in on the Mediterranean Sea |
Here once stood a wonder of the ancient world, the Lighthouse of Pharos. It isn't there anymore, it was destroyed in an earthquake in the 14th century. A fort replaced it with the same sized base. Here is a picture of the fort.
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| Fort where the Pharos Lighthouse once stood |
The bus then took us to the Public Library - a new building that was finished in 2005. Our guide was a young woman with a weak voice. I could not hear her, but I did hear that their big project now was digitizing books from all over the world. The original library was built hundreds of years ago.
When we came out, it was very cold and raining. A storm had blown in. We got back in the bus for another 3 hour ride back to the Mena Hotel and arrived around 6:30 p.m.
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| back at the Mena House Hotel in Giza |
We said our goodbys to Rawya, our tour guide, and headed to our room. I soaked my sore feet and legs in a hot bath and caught up on this blog. Dinner is tea and an orange in the room.
01/28/2018
The tour is over and we have this one more day to rest up and repack our bags and get ready for the flight home. Mostly, we have this extra day because I miscalculated the time change for our flight(Giza is 9 hours ahead of home). We had a nice breakfast with two of our tour group, walked around the hotel complex and bought a few souvenirs in the shop.
01/29/2018
A long trip home. We left in the morning in a shuttle to the Cairo airport. Our flight from Cairo to New York was 12 hours. There was a 3 hour layover and customs clearance in New York. The next flight was New York to Los Angeles. We landed, took the shuttle to the parking lot and got our car, and drove home to Palm Desert. All in all, it took us 30 hours to make it home. Another exhausting day plus.
I was so glad that we made the trip. It answered many questions I had about how the ancient Egyptians lived and worked, and how was it possible that they were able to build what they did so many years ago (without modern engineering)? We were totally safe the whole time we were there, as the Egyptian government does protect Americans visiting their country. Everywhere we went, we had police escort.
However, it will be a very long time, if ever, that we take another international trip - it is just too hard on the body. It took me 2 weeks to feel normal after we got home. Home always feels so good, when you have been away!
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