Wednesday, May 9 - Alexandria, Egypt

As we pulled into the harbour we could see some lovely buildings and the customs and immigration building is beautiful (but very empty). There is a lovely garden and a quite orderly bazaar area outside the building but still on port property. The city itself is crowded, noisy, has lots of crazy traffic and a certain amount of garbage in the streets. However, people seemed happy to see us, waving and smiling at the buses.[ It was clean and orderly compared to Cairo which was a disgrace ] Our first stop was the Catacombs of Kom El Shougafa where we climbed down nearly 100 spiral steps to a labyrinth of tombs. The main chamber is wonderfully decorated and there are many more going off in all directions. The boards that were part of the walkway were in very bad shape and the floor was uneven. But it was an amazing place, well worth the trip. [ the Roman/Greek/Egyptian wall carvings were in excellent shape, being protected underground. ] Next was Pompey's Pillar which is impressive but has nothing to do with Pompey. Below it is what used to be the "daughter" of the famous Library of Alexandria. Those scrolls and manuscripted that survived the destruction of the bigger library were moved here, only to be burned by the Christians. They must have thought it was all pagan or something. Such a shame. Our last stop was the Alexandria Museum. It is a nice place and has interesting displays - much more comfortable than the one in Cairo. It is housed in an old palace that was nationalized after the revolution in the 1950s. Then back to the harbour and the ship. Along the way we saw men sitting at tables smoking hookahs on the sidewalk, many bazaar areas, at least one burnt-out car, and lots of garbage. On one street a baker had apparently laid out his day's production of pita all over the sidewalk on thin paper. People were walking around and through it and nearby garbage was spilled across the sidewalk. I wish I'd gotten a photo. We were very hungry when we got back to the ship, so grabbed a snack even though dinner was just 2 hours away.

Photos 9 May