November 17, 2012 (Sunday) Cairo to Alexandria
Our time to leave the hotel was scheduled for 7:00am. We had to get up early to get ready, have breakfast, and check-out before boarding our bus. Breakfast at the hotel is buffet style and it was just OK. They served a lot of bread stuff. The only egg dish was the hard boiled eggs and the only meat item was a veal sausage plate which wasn't very good. The restaurant was crowded with many different tour groups. All in all LeMeridien is a good hotel.
Not far from our hotel is the Mena House, choice hotel for many visitors.
Sunday, but a school day for Egyptian kids.
For some reason, most buildings in Egypt seemed to be incomplete. Broken windows, fallen cement, naked walls made the city looks under developed. Our guide told us that it might not look very nice from the outside, but the inside are nicely decorated with everything needed for the family.
This I don't understand. On the top of many many buildings there are debris and trash that no body care to remove, even on the roof of public buildings like this bus station.
Citadel
Our first stop was the Citadel on top of a hill. Since this is a work day, traffic was terrible. There seemed to be no rules. Drivers were going whichever way they could find to get ahead. According to our guide, Egyptians look at rules
as something to be broken.
The mosque at the Citadel is huge and beautifully built. We had to take off our shoes and they made sure that we were properly covered. Dorcas was wearing a pair of leggings that day and she had to rent a rob for $1 to cover herself.
I passed the outfit rules.
Looked pretty smoggy!
The inside of our bus. It was good that it came with a toilet.
Aside from the main highway, most streets were like this, dirt road. The roads are shared by people, automobiles, donkeys, goats, and camels. You can imagine how the condition is with all these animals around.
Ramses II Museum
This is where we found the second largest sphinx and the statues of Ramses II. This seems to be a less popular site with not very many tourists. A nice place to visit, in my opinion.
Exactly, Derrick!
Group picture
Sakkara
After the Ramses museum we went to Sakkara to see the
oldest pyramids and also went inside one of the king’s tombs. Here, we also met
some very aggressive Egyptians trying to cheat people of their money. They
would say something really friendly and then tell you to take pictures with
him, “it’s free” they’ll say but it will turn out costly. We actually witnessed a couple who got in much trouble. Our guide had already
warned us of what might happen so we did not fall for it.
This way to Sahara Dessert.
Our last stop in Cairo--shopping stop. While we were there, the driver went to pick up our lunch--Egyptian fast food, which our group voted for. I would suggest NOT to have the fast food because they are just not very good. The other bus voted to have a sit down lunch and they said it was really good.
Each of us got one of each, a meat one and a vegetarian one. It was a cheap lunch, I assumed.
While we were having our lunch our bus left Cairo to go to Alexandria back to our ship.
Uh, oh!
We had a lot of fun watching how people drive.
Getting close to Alexandria.
People waiting for the mini buses around street corners.
Sunset in Alexandria
Sofitel Hotel
Alexandria Port
Much nicer than Port Said. There are many vendors here also but very organized. When we got back we still had 20 minutes before all aboard time, so we did some shopping here.
They had three or four days with laundry specials on the ship. For $24.95 you can stuff as many items as possible inside this bag and they will wash and fold them for next day return. With our gold status it just cost us a little over $17 for the bag and I was able to stuff 21 items in there. It was an excellent deal!
Secret--roll each piece of clothing tightly and neatly. Double-bag.
