So the wakeup call this morning came at 5am.
*groan*
Got ready and picked up our "breakfast boxes" and headed for the bus.
There were a pair of Canadians and a pair of Americans who were on a different Insights tour along for the day as well.
So off we all headed to Alexandria.
Had some of the breakfast box on the bus (but I forgot to document the contents!). There were several rolls (two large - one cheese, one meat, and two small), a croissant, yoghurt, juice, jam, butter, a banana and an apple. Enough for breakfast *and* lunch! Although far too much bread for my liking (and my bowels aren't thanking me either).
Took a little over three hours to get to Alexandria. Apparently today was a public holiday so the traffic was considered to be fairly light.
Conical pigeon houses
Roadside grocer stalls
Our first stop was the Alexandria Museum. The tour guide said "leave your cameras on the bus" so I immediately started stressing out :(:( Took the memory sticks out and brought them with me. The museum does xray bag checks as well as metal detectors. Apparently the rationale is that when it's crowded, people taking photos makes everything take too long. And when they say no flash people would still use flash anyway. So now they ban cameras completely. Which just makes it stressful for people like me who need to be with their cameras at all times :(:(:( Had an hour to wander around the museum, which is relatively small.
Alexandria National Museum
Photo by Mum
Second stop was the catacombs. Again the guide said no cameras. Manual bag searches here and metal detectors. Around the top of the area they have a whole heap of sarcophagi that they've brought up. So you go down this spiral staircase which is where they used to lower sarcophagi down. Then there's chambers off to the sides - a big super fancy one with amazing stone carvings, and then around lots of passages around the sides are the "commercial" areas which were just plain empty holes (the sarcophagi were upstairs, and apparently they only found a very few mummies there as most had been taken, probably for fertiliser).
Third stop was Pompey's Pillar, which apparently is famous..
Pompey's Pillar
Hieroglyphic carvings on a stone
Columns near Pompey's Pillar
Excavations at Serapeum
Pompey's Pillar
Photo by Dad
Stone sphinx at Serapeum
Excavations at Serapeum
Fourth stop was the Roman theatre and colonnaded street.
Tram in Alexandria
Roman Theatre in Alexandria
Small Roman Theatre in Alexandria
Colonnaded street
Photo by Dad
Looking north along the colonnaded street
Our tour guide, Mohamed at the Roman Theatre
Photo by Mum
Ancient wall near the Roman Theatre
Roman Theatre in Alexandria
Roman Theatre in Alexandria
Photo by Dad
And the final stop was the Qaitbay Citadel which is a pretty cool castle (although it does look somewhat restored as it looks in a little too perfect condition).
Gate at western end of Alexandria Stadium
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Political speech happening outside Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Waterfront at Alexandria
Photo by Dad
Gate in Ahmed Oraby Square
Qaitbay Citadel
Qaitbay Citadel
Looking up through the citadel
Interior of Qaitbay Citadel
Mosaic floor in the citadel
Interior of Qaitbay Citadel and cannon
View west from the citadel
Qaitbay Citadel
Northern wall of main tower of Qaitbay Citadel
Mum and me on the ramparts at Qaitbay Citadel
Photo by Dad
Ramparts at Qaitbay Citadel
Interior square in Qaitbay Citadel
Qaitbay Citadel
Qaitbay Citadel
Qaitbay Citadel
Photo by Dad
Qaitbay Citadel
Traffic through some of the small streets in Alexandria was pretty insane. Actually it wasn't even so much that the streets were small, it's just that in recent times illegal street vendors have gathered, taking up lanes and causing traffic chaos. If we thought Jordan was bad it's even crazier here! Road rules and parking rules are non-existent. Whoever's in front (mostly) has right of way. Most of the cars have scrapes from obviously very frequent crashes.
Got to do lots of people watching while negotiating the traffic. One thing I don't like is how many idle men there seem to be. They just stand or sit around either by themselves or in groups and just *stare* at us. Not very pleasant at all. Much fewer women around and almost never with men. When we got to the coast there was a bit more mixing.
Sidi Abo El Abbas El Morsi Mosque
So left Alexandria just after 2pm and got back to the hotel just before 6pm.
Pyramids of Giza in the distance
Went straight out to look for some snackages and also get some dinner.
Then back here to do photos and blog.
I'm almost delirious tonight I'm that tired. I'm forgetting things and everything is that much harder and taking that much longer to do :(:( Need to collapse into bed but need to do washing even more - as tomorrow we don't get back to the hotel til like 9:30pm :(:(:(
Distance covered on the GPS: 460.8 km
Steps walked: 10026
Photos on the Canon: 193
Photos on the Sony: 20
Photos on the iPhone: 4, if my computer would read it
Videos: 10
EGP Spent: 71.50
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