Day 9: Alexandria, Egypt

we got up at 2:30am to get shuttled from the cruise to the luxor airport.  from there, we got on the plane to head back to cairo.  we hadn't really planned about the day, it was a "free" day.  we decided when we got there to have our contact (ahmed) organize a day trip to alexandria.

the drive from cairo to alexandria is quite boring.  i think we both slept because we needed it.  i think it was 3 hours to get to alexandria with a stop in the middle that had a truck stop feel.

first thing we saw was the roman theatre.  it is quite destroyed compared to the sites in upper (or southern) egypt.  there were few remaining columns, the actual theatre seating was there but didn't seem that impressive.  alas, we missed the beautiful villa of the birds.  what was impressive was the fact that alexander the great designed alexandria with such good civil planning in mind.  we drove through the wide streets that feels very cosmopolitan but had that old world feel - there was a bazaar just full of book vendors!  we when visited pompey's pillar or more properly named amoud el-sawari.  the pillar probably has quite a lot of significance, but our guide didn't really convey that.  we then drove around to get to the catacombs of kom ash-suggata (or shouqafa).  that was actually pretty impressive site.  the tomb of tigram showed beautiful egyptian influences of greek flourish - or was that greek influences upon egyptian tomb structure?  the actual catacombs were quite beautiful and well engineered.  it is definitely macabre but peaceful with the cool chambers dug into the earth with tunnels.  the most impressive part of alexandria would probably be the bibliotheca alexandrina - http://www.bibalex.org/English/index.aspx.  not only is the architecture thoughtful and impressive, the collection is inspiring.  600,000 books currently in the library with enough space for 8 million volumes.  there was also a wonderful exhibition of shadi abdel salam's work.

we had a mediocre lunch at the athenos restaurant before heading out to take an exterior viewing of qaitbey citadel.  and then we drove for a long time around the waterfront to the montazah palace and gardens.  the salamlek hotel is beautiful and reminiscent of hearst castle but we didn't have enough time to get to see the palace itself.

the whirlwind ended and we had another 3+ hours to get back through the traffic congested cairo to get to the cairo airport...