December 2019
From what little we did see if Cairo was absolutely manic but the art deco interior of the train station is quite cool.
Getting from the Alexandria train station to our hotel was a bit stressful as the sun was setting and we have found out that GPS on our phones in Egypt is a bit flakey with our reported location jumping about a lot. So finding our Uber was a tad tricky. Not helped by the fact that Uber reports the license plate number in "normal" numbers but the cars have the numbers in Arabic - haven't quite got round to learning Arabic number.
Eventually go to our hotel. The problem with Alexandria and hotels is that the choice of hotels is limited to either very cheap or very pricey and given we a traveling for an extended period we opted for the best cheapy we could get. So room was large, airy but scruffy and the building was faded (ok very faded) elegance of a bygone era. The elevator I think dated back to the beginning of the 1900's.
One thing that Egypt had that Jordan doesn't have is bars where you can get beer at a reasonable price. We tracked down Cap d'Or for a cold class of Stella (the local brew) as this is the bar referenced in novel "Ice Cold in Alex". Sadly the one in the movie was a film set not a real bar.
Normally when travelling we opt for accommodation that includes breakfast but these were thin on the ground in Alexandria. After a bit if searching found out that the locals breakfast tends to be of Ful (broad bean stew), bread and possibly some side dishes and quite often the Ful seller will operate outside a cafe so that you can use the tables if you order tea/coffee.
Alexandria was named after Alexander the Great and was home to one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world - the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Lighthouse was built as the coast line is very flat and damn near featureless making navigation tricky. Plus it highlighted the port of Alexandria which meant ships would stop there and trade which made for a prosperous city.
Sadly the light house was destroyed by a series of earthquakes about a 1,000 years ago. Where it stood now stands Citadel of Qaitbay - built about 500 years ago and in its walls are some of the reddish stones which originally were part of the lighthouse.
Under the fort were some quite large cisterns so that the fort could last out sieges.
We were visiting the Fort at about the same time a large group of young Muslims ladies and for some reason taking a selfie with one of us in the photo was a big thing - quite sweet.
Across the harbour from the fort is the Bibliotheca of Alexandria. In ancient time Alexandria wasn't only known for its lighthouse but also for its library (the largest in the ancient world).
Unlike the Lighthouse the library wasn't cataclysmically destroyed but mainly declined gradually over the course of several centuries, starting with the purging of intellectuals in about 145 BC, then partially destroyed by Julius Caesar during his civil war about a 100 years later and then dwindled due to lack of funding and support. In recognition of this library the Bibliotheca of Alexandria was built about 20 years ago and is designed to have a shelf space for eight million books, the main reading room covers 20,000 square metres and with a roof designed to let in indirect natural light. Very cool building.
In the courtyard is a bust of the man himself - Alexander the Great.
Checked out the local museum - chock full of artefacts and information about the multiple dynasties - still trying to get out head around the various kingdoms (old, new and middle), Ptolemaic period and so on.
Couple of very cool statues did catch my eye.
From Alexandria we did a day trip out to El Alimein to vist the War Museum and War Cemetery. El Alimein was one of those places where a huge amount of fighting took place during WW II as whoever controlled this part of the world had access to the Nile and the Suez Canal.
The terrain out there is inhospitable and very, very flat. The pattern of the fighting was that one side would attack and push forward a long distance and overstretch their supply lines. The defenders would then rest and recuperate and attack and push forward a long distance and overstretch their supply lines and so on.
On the wall outside of the museum are large plagues with quotes of various militatry leaders.
The War Cemetery is one if the few places in Egypt we found that isn't littered with rubbish. Very peaceful. A few years ago there was a referendum in NZ as to changing the flag. One of the arguments again't was that it would be disrespectful to those who had died fighting under it. Not so sure as all of the gravestones of the kiwi soldiers here the symbol representing them was the silver fern.
Getting out to El Alimen was a case of taking a bus in that general direction and telling the driver to stop once he had overshot the museum. Getting back was going to be a case of walking back down to the main road and, hopefully, flagging down a mini bus heading towards Alexandria. Got very lucky as minibus was offloading people as we arrived at the main road and a bit of shuffling of positions so that Sally could sit next to other woman we were off.
Based on the reactions don't think that many tourists catch this minibus. When we asked how much we were told 30 Egyptian Pounds (about three dollars for an hour long bus ride for the two of us), which we paid. When the driver gave us back the correct change there was much discussion and consternation between the other passengers and the driver and a short while later the driver handed back some more change.
From here we head east to Port Sa'id at the mouth of the Suez Canal.
No comments:
Post a Comment