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
(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.
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.
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