Alexandria: City on the Sea

We finished our tour in Luxor with a nice relaxing dip in the pool before our overnight train back to Cairo.  I actually slept pretty well on the train and we arrived in Cairo around 6:15 am and got immediately back on the road in a van with Galal and our driver, headed for Alexandria.  Three hours later we arrived in the beautiful, deliciously cool city on the Mediterranean Sea.  The water shone with those surreal shades of blue that make you wonder if you’re in a postcard or not, and though the traffic was even more insane than in Cairo, I liked the feel of the place immediately.

Galal started us out at the Greco-Roman museum, because despite being a really cool, laid back guy, he is obsessed with museums.  He got really excited when I told him we had visited the Nubian Museum in Aswan saying “Oh, this is how a museum should be; this is how it must be laid out; this is how an information label should look! You have seen a jewel among Egypt’s museums!”  Then he led us through the museum skillfully illustrating the melding of Greek, Roman, and Egyptian culture in the time of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Ptolemy and Cleopatra with the mosaics, sculptures and artifacts held there.  After we had again been inundated with dates and rulers and tangled love affairs and politics, we were taken to do the touristy sightseeing.  We saw the Pillar of Pompeii which is said to have displayed General Pompeii’s head when it was cut off as a present for Julius Caesar.  We saw the catacombs which were excellent manifestations of the Greek attempt to assimilate to Egyptian culture.  The difference in architecture, symbolism, decoration and layout were very noticeable.   (They were also quite different from the catacombs in Rome with much more space and wider passageways.)

Pillar of Pompeii

Finally we drove back to the coast to get a view of the citadel from the boardwalk.  The clear water hitting the cement walls against the ancient limestone structure made for a stunning panorama. Galal didn’t even look at the citadel.  He gave us a few dates and then stared off into the horizon enjoying the view.  He confessed later that he takes his tours there because he likes to go enjoy the smell of the water and the view; the citadel itself isn’t much to see.  At this point we were kind of hungry and Galal had promised to take us to his favorite restaurant in Alexandria called Shaban Fish Restaurant.

For a little under 7 dollars per person, we again had a feast of 4 different kinds of salads, an entire fish freshly grilled on the fire in front of us after Galal had selected them from the bin, as well as piles of roasted shrimp, crab and steamed mussels.  Oh it was good, it was really really good.  Ben didn’t talk at all during the meal hardly, except to say “wow”.  He was too busy trying to eat, murmuring “mmmm” after every bite, and stopping to catch his breath and smile with satisfaction. Galal was very pleased with his reaction.  One of the best quotes of the trip was had at the meal when he stood up and looked at his crisp linen jacket, and said, “How did this fish get all over me?  It was taking its revenge on me! It hated me…but God knows I loved her.  (sighs with a smile) Women…”  Ben died when he heard this.  If you could see the gap-toothed grin of our guide, and hear his Arabic accent and the way he can’t say south, he says “thous”, you would laugh too.

Galal and I 

After lunch we were feeling really satisfied and Galal took us out for the last two things to see in the city: the library and Montazah Palace.  The library is just an amazing piece of architecture with the largest reading chamber in the world.  It has a big dome and a modernistic slanted solar-panelled roof. We just drove by it and every time I tried to take a picture, a palm tree popped out of nowhere and got in the way.

Citadel of Qaitbay

The palace was breathtaking.  Set on the low cliffs overlooking the Mediterranean, it stands in all its eastern glory with domed turrets on all four corners, beautiful tile designs on the outside, and landscaping incorporating interesting forms of cacti and other desert fauna into a sort of dry garden over looking the vast body of water before it.  There are bridges made of palm trees and sandy paths that lead to the sea from it.  There is even a gazebo where we ran across a Muslim couple smoochin’. It was funny to see the woman hastily fumble with her veil to restore it to its proper position, covering her blushing face.

Montaza Palace

After the visit to the palace, we drove along to coast again and headed back to Cairo.  Three hours later we checked back into the Flamenco hotel and bedded down for the night.  We had to be ready to go at 6:15am the next morning to catch our bus to Sharm El Sheik.  Diver’s Paradise.