Alexandria March 14

Along with the library on March 14 we went to King Faruk's castle. He died in 1952 shortly after Egypt got it formal independence from the UK. The castle does not look like a castle in the mid evil sense of the word or a castle that would expect to see in the British Isles. It is quite handsome and the grounds are stunning. I'm sure they would be even better in the summer or at least when the weather is a little warmer. This building is still used by the current president of Egypt Mohamed Hosni Mubarak as a retreat house similar to the US President's Camp David. There is a quite extensive park around the castle and castle grounds that I would assume is closed when Mubarak is in residence.

The Castle is right on the White Sea (Mediterranean Sea for non-Egyptians). The sea was angry this day, not too angry though. It was quite cool 55 F with a north wind blowing off the sea. The wind was very wicked. Once you get chilled on a windy, overcast day you stay chilled until you get into some heated shelter.

I was also struck with the Mummy's Revenge the afternoon of the 14th and through the next day which made the sight seeing and traveling difficult at best. But I did not let is stop our journey.

Al Qahira, March 13

On Friday Nardeen, Ezzat, Bonnie, and Don "jumped" in the car for a trip to Cairo and Alexandria. The trip is about 2.5 hours from Port Faoud to Cairo, about 200 kilometers. The trip starts with a ferry ride across the Suez Canal. Most trips from Port Faoud start that way because it's basically an island in the Suez Canal. The canal has an entry and exit channels on the north end. This was an addition to the original canal design and Port Faoud is on the created island.

The destination for today is Al Qahira the Egyptian name for Cairo. Cairo's city population is about 6.7 million with 17.3 million in the surrounding area (Wikipedia). It's the largest city on the continent of Africa and the city proper is the 15th largest in the world. The trip goes through the fertile farmland of the Nile river valley with many communities "sprouting" up along the roadside to take advantage of the proximity to the northern end of the Suez Canal and Cairo. The major attraction along the way between Port Said/Port Faoud and Cairo is the Mubarak Peace Bridge. This beautiful structure was built with the cooperation of Japan who did the major engineering work and the construction of the center span of the bridge. The bridge spans the Suez Canal and connects the western mainland with the Sinai Peninsula without having ferry traffic in the middle of the canal. Unfortunately the pictures do not do justice to the bridge.

The first sign the you are getting close to Cairo is the increase in traffic. The traffic is staggering in this city. There seems to be little or no traffic control. It resembles organized chaos if there is such a thing. Unfortunately photos from the ground do nothing to show what I'm talking about. You really have to experience this traffic to believe that it could be so chaotic. 17 million people use a lot of cars, buses, taxis and trucks. They all seem to be on the streets at the same time and yet the side streets are completely parked full. Where all of the vehicles go and come from is a mystery. One of the highest points is Cairo is the Citadel. It sits atop a hill and has panoramic views of all areas of the city. There are structures that people live in as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately I neglected to take any pictures of the outside before we entered and really had no good vantage point to shot from when we left. The link to an appropriate place on the web will have to do the job. In some places even as the upper floors of a building are falling down people are still living in the lower floors. It is an amazing city.

There are many museums inside the Citadel of Cairo but unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures so I have none. Many of the military things in the museums are amazing and if you are into that kind of stuff you should definitely take in the Citadel while you are in Cairo.

There are also two mosques in the Citadel. They are amazing inside and out and I do have a few pics of them that will be up on my photo site in Google. Since Egypt's population is about 90% Muslim you can imagine that there are many mosques in the country but you have no real idea until you are there seeing the minarets shooting skyward like a forest of giant redwoods. That is an amazing thing as well.

Much of the rest of the population of Egypt is Christian and they have many beautiful and huge churches as well. I am always amazed at the pageantry that is display in the churches of the "Old World". We went to a church in Cairo called the Church on the Mountain by the general Christian population. It seats over 15,000 people. I don't know where transport for all of those people would park but it is an amazing place. It's really a composition of a number of churches. We were able to get into 5 of them on this day and they were all very different.

Itinerary

Seems like I have said I was going to post this forever ago. Well here it is.

Thursday, March 5 -- Leave Anchorage at 8:10 AM
Arrive Seattle 8:56 PM (don't ask it's a long story).

Friday, March 6 -- Leave Seattle at 7:45 AM

Saturday, March 7 -- Arrive London 6:30 AM (very tired I would guess).

There are no firm plans for our stay in London yet but I'm sure we will find something to do.

Tuesday, March 10 -- Depart London for Cairo
Arrive Cairo 8:45 PM.

Will be met by our host family in Cairo and transported to Port Said, about 2 hours north, and this will be our home base.

On Wednesday and Thursday we will spend our time getting to know one another and the Eshak family will be showing us around Port Said.

On Friday we will go to Alexandria. We will visit the Alexandria Library, Montaza, and other places yet to be named.

Saturday and Sunday we will spend in Cairo and Giza. We will take in the pyramids, ride a camel, go to the national museum, the Cairo tower, have a trip on or a dip in the Nile don't know which. And according to our guide many other things that will be a surprise.

On the 16th, Monday, we will go to Elfaioum and see Elsawaki and do other things.

On Tuesday we will return to Port Said and rest for a few hours before we go to Nardeen's favorite place in all of Egypt.

The 18th through the 20th we will spend in Sharm El Shik on the Red Sea. No schedule was given except that it would be a surprise for us. We really do like surprises and I know we will have a wonderful time with our hosts.

On the 21st we will return to Port Said and the rest of our time is open to do as we see fit. I'm sure there will be many places we would enjoy returning to and this will be our opportunity.

It is a busy schedule. We will try to keep you posted on all the developments along the way. More tomorrow.