Egypt
Azarita District

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    • The Rest of Our Time in Alexandria

      January 7, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

      Our driver took us to a seafood restaurant, The Fish Market, that had a great view of the harbour. We think that tour guides take their groups there. Not our pick for a restaurant but not expensive
      $15 and that good view.

      On the whole, the fish dinner was served very quickly and was not the tastiest. Lukewarm and rubbery fish with undercooked rice and an okay salad. The best part of it for me was the lemon juice and the freshly baked Naan bread with 4 different dips. Overall, it wouldn’t have been a place that I would return to.

      For dessert, the driver took us to an ice cream place. He loved ice cream so he once again treated us to mango cones, sold in front of the mosque.

      We drove along the popular 10 mile waterfront corniche, or promenade, with its healthy looking horses pulling caleches. Everything that tourists see looks so clean and well-taken care of. But behind this facade, there are poorly-built, dilapidated high rises and garbage-strewn, rough streets. Lori, our cottage neighbour, wrote to us of a collapsed roof that killed 2 people in Alexandria today. We can believe it.

      We went on to the new Alexandria Library that we found out was closed due to today being a Coptic Christmas holiday. The new library is built near where the ancient library was. Along the Mediterranean shore, the modern circular, glass-covered library overlooks the same sea where Cleopatra first laid eyes on Julius Caesar.

      Most historians believe that Julius Cesar burned 101 ships that were landing on the Mediterranean Sea shore in front of Alexandria in the year 48 BC. This great fire reached the library and caused huge damage to the building of the library and its books.

      We would have liked to have had a tour of this building as it really is impressive but we can easily do a Utube video tour. The library is considered to be the first digital library in the whole world and it contains a place to include 8 million books, six specialized libraries, three museums, research centers, two permanent galleries, six halls to host art exhibitions, an internet archive, audio and visual library, a special library for blind people, a library for children, a library for teenagers, a microfilm library, a library of rare books and a conference center. It is massive!

      By now, we had seen enough and headed back to Cairo with its pyramids, the Nile, the Cairo Tower and crazy traffic. It had been a full day.
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    • Day 5

      Alexandria 3; Bibliotheca Alexandrina

      November 21, 2022 in Egypt ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

      Alexandria was also home to The Library of Alexandria, the largest in the Ancient World. This is long gone, but the decision was taken in 1974 to reincarnate it as The Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It opened in 2002 and is now a major Library containing 8 million books, as well as being a Cultural Centre that hosts galleries, exhibitions and a museum of antiquities. It also houses The Sadat Museum, a permanent display dedicated to the life of President Sadat, which we visit.

      We stop at Carrefour in Alexandria to get provisions for our overnight train journey from Cairo to Aswan; we then set off back to Cairo. Living the dream!
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    • Day 22

      A visit to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina

      January 11, 2023 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      After the catacombs, we visited the Bibliotheca Alexandria, a building opened in 2002 on the site of the city's ancient library.

      We had a guided tour of the stunning building which was designed by a firm of Norwegian architects. It takes the form of a massive angled disc embedded in the ground to represent the rising sun. The roof is made up of solar panels. The granite exterior walls are inscribed with letters, pictograms, hieroglyphs, and symbols from over 120 languages.

      Inside, the incredible main reading 📚 room can accommodate 8 million books (there are currently 2 million in the collection) and 2500 readers, each with their own work station. The sloping roof has windows specially designed to let sunlight flood in but keep out rays that could damage the books. The space is amazing! It felt really conducive to creativity. It made me want to move to Alexandria and get started on that book I've always wanted to write ✍ 😂. Foreigners can join the library and have access to all the facilities for just 10 EGP a year - that's about £3.30!!

      The library has eleven floors, some of them below water level. The basement houses four permanent museums and a range of temporary exhibitions. We enjoyed a contemporary ceramics display and a glorious collection of textiles and folk art.

      There is also the fascinating Anwar Sadat museum. Here, I was reminded of the news stories of my teenage years. The collection includes the blood stained uniform he was wearing when he was assassinated and the front page of the Daily Mirror when the story broke.

      The World of Shadi Abdel Salam was another interesting exhibition. He was an Alexandria-born film director, script writer, set and costume designer who, amongst other things, created all the costumes and sets for Cleopatra which we saw at the Atlas Film Studios in Morocco 🇲🇦.

      Outside, there is a striking sphere-shaped planetarium.

      I could have spent much longer here than the two hours we were allowed!
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    • Day 69

      My God! It's worse

      May 7, 2012 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      Alexandria has taken over from Cairo as the dirtiest place I've seen.
      In it's defence though Egypt has had a revolution and the infrastructure has collapsed quite a bit, so rubbish collection etc is virtually non - existent.
      Another thing, the taxi drivers are just about the pushiest I've seen anywhere in the world, the almost try and drag you into their cabs, anyone on their own, especially women would be quite afraid.
      Once you get past them though if you turn down the side streets the people are very friendly. We had lots of them saying hello and waiving.
      Children were coming up to us asking our names and not one person tried to sell us anything or ask for money, which made a pleasant change, in fact one little girl offered to share her ice cream with me.
      So all in all despite being a grubby and dirty town, the Egyptian people we met were lovely.
      We are just transiting the Suez canal at this moment and it's quite impressive and totally different to the Panama canal.
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    • Day 4

      Oh oh, Complaints

      May 10, 2013 in Egypt ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

      What is it with Royal Caribbean nowadays?
      Their entertainment standards seem to be slipping.
      Last night the act was advised as Soul Sisters and Kings of Pop, but instead of Aretha Franklin or Michael Jackson, tributes or the like.
      We got two girls and two guys from Spain who tried to sing soul in very heavy Spanish accents.
      They were actually better when they sang song's in Spanish, even though we couldn't understand the words.
      Seems like RCCL are cutting costs wherever they can.
      One saving grace is that Karl Lornie is boarding today with the Beatles Celebration tribute band and they are brilliant.
      Anyway we're in Alexandria today, which is a bit of a shit-hole, so probably won't be getting off, unless Ken wants to have a look around, as he's not been before, then I'll go with him.
      Btw, the weather has been brilliant and today we're expecting 27°so I'll be hammering the P20 sun screen.
      We got the Wigan vs Swansea result yesterday, what a disappointment, it looks like they'll be relegated which is a big shame after 9 years in the top flight.
      It's really disappointed Ken, and doubly cheesed him off as it looks like we'll not get to see the FA cup final either, because of the lack of satellite coverage or so they say.
      In my cynical opinion I think RCCL will not pay for the coverage.
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    • Day 68

      Alexandria, Egypt

      May 6, 2012 in Egypt ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      I love the diamond lounge, and not just for the free drinks, but for the people you meet.
      Last night I was chatting to Egbert an ex German Airforce piolet and Arthur a Scottish ex North Sea fisherman.
      Really interesting people
      Btw we are docked at the Egyptian port of Alexandria, we stopped here overnight and we leave for Suez at 3pm.
      So I think Jean and I will get off for a look at the town, which I believe is filthy.
      If it's any thing like Cairo which is just about the dirtiest place I've seen, we won't be staying long......
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