Alexandria, Egypt

Early morning, off to Alexandria, some 200 km from Cairo. Traffic in these cities is unbelievable. Cairo is larger than New York, and traffic makes the Los Angeles freeways look like empty country roads.

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great (a Macedonian, actually, which, at that time, was controlled by Greece) who arrived with his army at the age of 23, and conquered Egypt. He started by recognizing and honoring Egypt's history and religion, and was not only accepted, but the Greeks came to adopt much of Egypt's education and social norms. If you're going to invade and conquer another country, that was certainly one of the more civilized ways to do so. All those smarts at 23!

We visited the catacombs, a burial chamber 2,000 years old. 91 steps go down to some 300 burial caves dug into the walls. Amazing carvings on the stone walls, families spent time and ate meals there during mourning periods, must have been an unusual place to spend much time.

The Citadel was one of the strongest forts around the Mediterranean. It was built on the exact site of the Alexandria lighthouse, one of the original seven wonders of the ancient world. The lighthouse was destroyed by two earthquakes, in the 11th and 14th centuries, and the Citadel was built to defend the city.

From there to the Alexandria Library, a truly spectacular place.The original library was perhaps the most complete and most famous library in the ancient world. When it burned some 30-50 years BC, the loss of information it contained might qualify as the one of the greatest tragedies in human history.

The newest restoration opened in 2002, with the largest reading room in the world, and breathtaking museums inside. If you want to explore anything about ancient Egypt, with beautiful multimedia links and presentations, their web site is most impressive: www.bibalex.org/English/index.aspx

Cairo, Egypt

We're in Cairo!
Good flights Dulles to Vienna to Cairo. Our first time on Austrian Air, and we enjoyed the service, Fran didn't like their bright red uniforms. Vienna was very busy, lots of people traveling, from everywhere, few signs of a recession there.

Cairo's airport is new in the last year, large, very modern, but very few planes or people! As we approached, the land was very flat, very dry and arid, a lot like a desert! Buying visas took 15 seconds, through immigration quickly, no delays at all.

Cairo is huge! 20 million people (a quarter of Egypt's population), 150 kilometers (93 miles) across the city from one side to the other. Traffic like many cities in the world, jammed (this is Saturday afternoon), if the road is 4 lanes traffic is 5 cars wide, whoever gets their nose in front goes first. There is a Christian population here, but most of the population is Muslim, and there are mosques everywhere. The call to prayer several times a day is a new experience for us.

Cairo is a very cosmopolitan city. Egypt doesn't make cars; in the first 10 minutes we saw cars made in the U.S., Russia, Germany, France, Korea, China, Japan, various former Soviet republics, and a dozen other countries. I heard at least five languages in the lobby as we checked in. Our guide emphasized it was OK to dress as casually as we want tomorrow, including shorts, and he pointed to various females as examples. That's different than the advice Fran found in the guide books and on travel sites, which resulted in her repacking her entire wardrobe in the last two days before we left. Better safe than not in many places, we think.

The Cairo Marriott is spectacular. The largest hotel in Egypt, more than 1,200 rooms. Two huge towers flank an ancient palace (which is now the casino), and a semi-circle of rooms surrounds the swimming pools behind the palace. The hotel has something like 12 restaurants. They serve alcohol, but only on request, and it's expensive. Our room and balcony look right out onto the Nile River.

We will stay in some special hotels, but in some places, the western hotels were more highly recommended. When I asked about Marriots, the immediate response was that they were at the top of the list. So . . . I made some of our reservations myself, the trip cost was modified, and we hope to be well cared for!

The first morning our first WOW! Moment took about 30 minutes. That's how long it took to reach the pyramids in Giza and the Sphinx. Three massive pyramids, built as their own tombs by a Pharaoh and his two sons, who ruled after him. The Great Pyramid, some 180 meters (550'+) was the tallest building on the planet until the Eiffel Tower was built some 4,000 years later. Egypt's population was 2 million at the time, and 700,000 people worked for 20 years to build his pyramid. 2.3 million stones, average weight 16 tons each!! They moved those things (and raised them) by hand! Surrounding burial tombs near the pyramids (some 2,000) were for ministers and noblemen who actually kept the country running. These tombs were plundered quickly by grave robbers, and subsequent Pharaohs dug their tombs into the bedrock (instead of above-ground) in the Valley of the Kings.

We climbed to the burial room in the Great Pyramid (through a small passageway about 3 feet square!) about 350' feet up. His sarcophagus is still there, but nothing else. They limit tickets to 150 each morning. Good thing. Traffic was heavy, it's steep, and there's little room to pass!

Just down the hill is the Sphinx. The architect had a huge rock left over, and was inspired! It was in good shape until a Muslim invader decided it was an offense to Allah and shot off the nose.

A short camel ride, not especially comfortable, provided ample opportunity for pictures, then off to lunch. We're still learning Egyptian food, but it's generally quite good. The spices are less exotic than we experienced in Asia, but the meat and vegetables are generally quite healthy and tasty.

In the afternoon we went to Memphis, which was the capital for several thousand years before Cairo was built. There is an outdoor museum with a massive statue of Ramses II, and other artifacts from his time.

There is a big front here, but it's a sandstorm!  Not as vigorous as I expected (sand is not blowing in my eyes and nose every minute) but visibility and sunlight are very limited. It's still in the 90s, but the temperature dropped in the afternoon. The storm passed during the night, and the third day was the clearest day we had.

We had a very special Guide, Henry Ayoub. Both a certified Egyptologist and a religious historical scholar, he's absolutely superb. He travels the world lecturing at universities and working with foreign scholars, and is an unlimited fount of historical information. We are most fortunate to have met him, and we already have a friend for life. He'll be in the Baltimore-Washington area in July, and we hope he will have time to come to the house for dinner.

St. Martin 2010

Back to St. Martin in February.   Boy, are we lucky.

The view from Sapphire is still gorgeous. I can watch the sun set into the Caribbean every single night.

Some of the clearest days ever, we saw Saba most days, and St. Barts and St. Eustasis, which aren't often visible.

 

  

Sapphire used to be the largest building around Cupecoy. Now it is dwarfed by new condos. Farther west, they have built a small "city" on the lagoon side. It seemed quiet, but we were told almost all the units have been sold. Unlikely the buyers would be Americans, but the Europeans, and especially the Canadians, still seem to be spending lots of money.

We sure didn't miss much back home. When we left, the forecast was for one inch of snow over the next few days. Instead, the skies opened, and a total of 53" fell in two huge snowfalls. The car was parked outside at the airport, but we managed to shovel it out in less than 10 minutes, which could surely have been much worse.

Our fabulous neighbor Fred borrowed the snow blower, then proceeded to open both our driveway and the walk to the door.

We had massive icicles hanging from the roof, some at least 3 meters long, but managed to knock them down without serious damage to the house or windows or deck.

Eventually nature took its course, and Spring arrived.