Alexandria, The Last Supper, and back to San Francisco

So, did I mention that The Hotel Cecil where we're staying is said to have been built on the same site as Cleopatra's (yes, that Cleopatra) palace, where she entertained Caesar, and, later, Marc Anthony? 

In any event, the guide, with car and drivr in tow, picked us up there bright and early on Monday morning, and we started at Pompeii's Pillar (which, in fact, was neither a pillar it's a column - nor dedicated to Pompeii, but, hey)

Hank and our guide Miriam....

From there, we went on to the Catacombs (no pictures allowed), which date back to the 2nd century A.D. and would have held about 300 corpses.  Things underground were pretty well preserved, and were decorated with a combination of Egyptian, Greek and Roman death icons.  It was, to me, anyway, surprisingly fascinating.

Tiring, though, so that, to preserve my stength, I took a pass on wandering around the Roman Ampitheatre.  I rested, while Hank wandered around the marble terraces, the only Roman ampitheatre in Egypt, discovered in 1964.  It had an auditoria, according to Hank, a bit unusual, and was used for a kind of a school of higher learning for the Romans.  Again, according to Hank, the accoustics were astounding, and it is, indeed, still used for outdoor entertainment!

So, rested (me, at least), we headed on to the Alexandria National Museum (again, no photos allowed).  It is not a huge museum, housed in an Italianate villa, but a well-selected collection summing up the history of Alexandria, well labelled and well displayed. ( It was still nice to have a guide, though!)

On to, what for me, was one of the highlights of the trip, the Library of Alexandria..   It is not, of course, the original, which was built in the late 3rd century B.C.,( and destroyed in about 48 B.C) and was the center of classical learning, and housed - was it 500,000? - scrolls.  The new one,  built about 10 years ago by an architecture firm from Norway, for a (cheap!) cost of $220,000,000.  It has books in three languages, Arabic, English and French, not yet the 8,000,000 they have room for, but they are working on it! 

There are special collections and exhibits (you can see I was entranced by the modern Egyptian art!), the whole thing wonderfully explained by a library docent, and well used by the community (could have something to do with the free Internet, but it certainly seemed like a lot more than that!)

Hank and I were both hugely impressed.  Certainly, it is among the most impressive public spaces I've ever seen, and among the highlights of the trip!

We ended the day at the Citadel, built on the exact site of the famous Light House of Alexandria, which was considered to be one of the secen wonders of the ancient world.  The lighthouse actually continued to function until the time of the Arab conquest.  It was ultimately completely destroyed by an earthquake in the 14th century.  In about 1480, the place was fortified as part of the coastal defenses agains the Turk,  It continued to function during the Mameluke period,  the Ottoman period and the Moslem period, but British bombardment in 1882 put paid to its usefulness.  It was restored in the 20th century by the Egyptian Supreme Council of the Antiquities.

(The dark line above was actually wood, inserted in the construction as an early form of earthquake construction to provide some "give"!  Pretty state of the art, huh?)

And, after a wonderful day, back to the hotel.  Hank left me to a well-deserved nap, while he went on his quest (akin to Ahab and the Whale, we agreed).  He was trying to find The Spitfire, a sleazy bar he had discovered on his visit to Egypt 9 years ago.  I couldn't possiby reproduce his wanderings; the long and the short of is, he found it, and was really chuffed (and has the t-shirt to prove it, or, rather, he gave me the t-shirt to prove it)!  We celebrated with a lovely dinner at the hotel, and called it a very successful day!

Tuesday, car and driver delivered us back to Cairo, with another McDonald pit stop, by popular demand!

And that night, our last in Egypt, Ted, his daughter Claire, friend Kate, colleague Trish, Hank and I had perhaps the best meal of the trip, in a lovely villa called La Belle Epoch.  We ate in the quiet garden, by candlelight - good food, good conversation, great company - what a wonderful way to end our stay!!

And Wednesday, April 24th, the party is over!  Ted got up early and made coffee, and after fond farewells, we are off to the airport, for the gruelling 16 hour trip back to San Francisco (4 hours to Munich, an hour sprint through the Munich airport which included 5 stops for security, and 11 hours from Munich to San Francisco.  It wouldn't be fun if I were well; sick, it was excruciating.  Even Hank was ready to run screaming down the aisles by the time it was over.

In fairness, I should say Lufthansa fed and watered and entertained us well, but still...

In any event, we arrived home safely, as did our luggage (and yes, enough shopping was done that luggage was checked), and our exit from the airport was pretty expeditious.  A quick taxi ride (no more car and driver, alas!) and we were safe at home.

I will leave final thoughts, if any, for another day.  Suffice it to say, for now, I was, as always, grateful to be home.  After travellng in all these exotic locations, the US always seems so - well, orderly!

The Khan Revisited, and Alexandria

I left you at the Khan.  It was a great old market, and particularly nice to visit with Ted, obviously a regular there, well known to the shop owners, a speaker of Arabic (although these guys all speak English, a little Arabic does not come amiss), and a good bargainer to boot.  And he clearly likes shopping, not a trait often found in a man!

There's Ted, doing his thing.....

The upper reaches of the market also serve as workshops to train new folks in the old arts, which I somehow found comforting.

And then home, hours earlier than it would have been had I been well, but, as usual, nicely timed - I was at the end of my tolerance for keeping myself upright!  On getting back to the complex, I was once again struck by the obligatory bomb check once we had parked the car.  Apparently noone considered it overkill; I never asked the cause of the immediate concern.

On Sunday morning (April 21?) we were again picked up by car and driver for the (3 - 5 hour, depending on traffic) drive to Alexandria, the second largest city in Rgypt.  (In our case, it took 4 hours, but it did include a pit stop/smoke break for hand and driver at

It was actually the nicest McDonald's either Hank or I had seen, and lived up to its reputation - clean bathrooms, toilet paper, someone who spoke English, and accepting American dollars!

Alexandria was established in about 331 B.C. by Alexander the Great.  It was a major trade center, and, with a library holding over 500,000 volumes, was considered a center of learning for the entire Mediterranean world.  It was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  Alexandria was the capital of Egypt under both the Roman and Byzantine Empires.  It later declined, of course, as these places do, but was revived after Napoleon's arrival in 1798.  It once again became a major (man-made) port and the ultimately cosmopolitan city, but after Nassar's 1952 revolution, it again declined (more recently, a beating death by the police there sparked the 2011 "revolution").

Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet it ain't (those of us of a certain age will remember reading that in college!), but it is still a lovely, lively city on the Mediterranean.  Once again, we pulled out all the stops for lodging, staying at the Hotel Cecil, right on the Cornich with a view of the sea, where people such as the aforesaid Laurence Durrell, Agatha Christie, and, yes, Churchill (that mad did get around!) stayed before us.

(A little out of order, but I thought I'd get the hotel pictures out of the way...)

After exploring the hotel, we rested up a bit, took in the view from our teeny tiny balcony....

....and then decided to try a walk on the Cornish.

It was even noiser than Cairo, and for a while, we couldn't figure out why.  Then we saw....

This the closest we came to a protest the whole time we were in Egyp!.  The students at Alexandria University were apparently protesting a raise in their tuition, with signs, in Arabic (clearly not for CNN consumption) saying "Honk if you support us" - and everyone was honking!!

Further along the Cornich

...Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

...a local vamping it up for the camera.....

(Speaking of locals vamping it up for the camera, we were stopped numerous times by locals, mostly young, asking to have their pictures taken with us - I never quite got that...)

By this time, I was - again (damn it!) fading, so we went back to the hotel, where we had a (surprisingly good) Chinese meal at the rooftop restaurant.  Hank, as always, stayed up for hours, sitting on our balcony, smoking and reading.  I, on the other hand, went right to bed.

Well, enough for now.  Monday in Alexandria to follow.

The Khan

If the National Museum is the must-see museum of Cairo, this is the must-see market.  Because I was still too weak, we only say a small corner of it.  Ted continues to be very protective of me, and judiciously marshalls my strength. 

Okay, my bad.  I had labeled these pictures "market", which they are, but not the Khan.  Rather, these were the Friday morning after the mosque let's buy our fruit and veggies before we get home market.  This is exactly the kind of thing that I would normally get out of the car and plunge right into, but not this time; pictures from the window of the car will have to suffice.

I'll try to organize the Saturday Khan pictures, and those of our last outing, to Alexandria, for next time.