The night of March 2nd we headed to Alexandria for the weekend. I was very excited about going to this city. Will I go again....

Here is Carmen and Andy on the 2 1/2 hour train ride from Cairo. We splurged and purchased the first class tickets and I am glad we did. I cannot imagine what the 2nd class would look like. There were bathrooms in between the trains that were the old fashion kind that spilled directly onto the tracks. There was no water for flushing or washing your hands. We are used to that by now and bring our own toilet paper and wet naps.


We arrived safely at the Paradise Inn Windsor Hotel. A four star hotel, unfortunately our travel agent did not communicate well with them and not one thing was correct about our rooms. We were all suppose to get ocean front view but we received side view which meant you stuck your head out the window and cranked it to the left or right depending on what side of the building you were on. We also add a triple room that was suppose to have 3 single beds and it had a creaky cot and a king. They gladly moved 2 people to another room but neglected to tell them they would be fully charged for the 2nd room. So back into the 1st room, move some beds, and we are off to supper.

We went to a Chinese Restaurant and sat outside on the roof. Everyone was frozen but me, I was very happy. It was their decision to stay outside due to the smoke inside. We had a great supper and headed to the hotel around midnight. Plans were made to get up early and site see while others planned to sleep.

March 3, Cathy, Liz, Mike and I got up early for breakfast and headed down to the buffet. It opened at 7, we arrived at 7:30 and waited for them to open it. I guess they wait for the first people to show before they set up.

After our simple breakfast we walked along the ocean front towards Fort Qaitbey.

This is the memorial to the unknown soldier, of some unknown war, for some unknown reason.


The beaches are not what we are used to. A ship crashes and becomes part of the barrier, saves on cement blocks. The garbage on the beaches is incredible. It could be a nice place but no one seems to want to clean it up or keep it clean.
This is a mosque with beautiful palm trees. Looks like an oasis.

Fort Qaitbey is in the same location as the once legendary lighthouse of Pharos. The lighthouse was counted as one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was said to have 300 rooms and was built in the 3rd century. It was destroyed in an earthquake in 1303.

Some of the fort stones are from the former lighthouse, you can see the red granite pillars in the northwest section.




I just like Mike inside caves, dungeons, etc...

We headed over to the catacombs for a quick jaunt into some tombs. We were not allowed to bring our cameras so these are photos I found on the web.

In the middle of Alexandra is an unassuming stone building, almost covered in grass -- beneath which is the huge underground necropolis of the Catacomb of Shouqafa. The houses above are two hundred years old, built over the honeycombed stone beneath -- the catacombs were discovered when a donkey stepped through a thin part of the roof.

These catacombs were originally a private crypt, but were later extended with more roman burials. People are buried here in sarcophagi, in shelves, and in urns of ashes after cremation.

The entrance to the catacombs is through a huge circular stairway that goes down for three stories. The body of the dead person would be lowered down through the center of the shaft, while mourners and priests would circle down to the tomb shafts.


There is a huge "banqueting hall" (a triclinium) in the catacombs, which has a vaulted roof. It was customary to visit the catacombs on feast days and in mourning, and people would bring picnics to eat in the catacombs. The room here once had a large banqueting table. Since it was considered bad luck to bring plates and cups back out of the tombs, they were thrown here -- the room was full of shards of pottery when it was discovered.

The odd mixture of decorations in the tombs is both Egyptian and Roman -- Egyptian symbology and scenes, roman-style clothing and faces. It's kind of weird. There is a really odd relief of Anubis wearing roman clothes.

Next stop was Pompey's Pillar. This stop lasted about a minute. This is one of the oddest monuments in Alexandria, it looks completely out of place -- just a single granite column, standing on a hill, for no apparent reason. Not even worth a photo.

So we headed to lunch. There were 12 of us on this trip so we split up to make our way back to the hotel. Some taxied, some walked, we decided to trolley. So 4 of us hopped on for 50 piasters which is like .04 cents. We were happy with this new form of travel until Mike said watch your pockets. No he did not actually get picked but the guy tried. Mike squared off with him and they looked at each other for a minute and the local said "American?" You know that look Mike has like "Dude! Don't even go there." Well Mike said YES back to the local and then the guy skedaddled to the front of the trolley.

We went a long for a while and realized we were going the wrong way and hopped off and grabbed a cab. Everyone was at the hotel and we decided to eat lunch there.

MISTAKE

Not even sure I want to mention this. 3 hours later we headed to the library. It is amazing how a nice long walk can change your attitude.

This is in front of the planetarium with some of the crew: Wendy , Laura , Mike , Liz , Sarah , Cathy , and Teresa.


Bibliotheca Alexandria was officially inaugurated in October, 2002. The UNESCO organization in 1988 organized an architectural competition that reviewed 1,400 entires. The winner was nohetta, a Norwegian office. Funding started in 1990 and collected 65millon dollars mostly from the Arab states. Construction began in 1995.

The library has shelf space for 8 million books, the old library had shelf space for 700, 000 schools. The Ancient library received most of his "donations" from visitors. All books, scrolls, documents were confiscated, duplicated, and the original stayed in he library while the "owner" got the copy.

There are 11 cascading floors. The design is a mix of old and new and tries to keep the Egyptian theme. The design attempts to allow as much natural light in as possible and does a great job. Each of the many windows resembles the human eye a little, eyelashes and all.

Some of the collection



Night view. It is really beautiful with the lights. The blue thing is the planetarium, we went in the next day. The flat slope is the library looking like a pyramid. The water on the left is the Mediterranean Sea. We decided not to venture out into the city for supper after the horrible lunch experience. So some of us picked up chips and snacks, some pizza, some desserts, and of course nectar of the gods. We had a great game of Charades with everyone but Laura participating. We played I Never and a vow was made that whatever happens in room 411 stays in room 411. So I cannot discuss the interesting things we learned about each other.