Le Metropole Alexandria

... 1575;&#1591;&#1601;&#15 75;&#1604;<br>&#1604;&#1593;&#1576;&#15 77; &#1575;&#1604;&#1576;&#1608;&#1603;&#16 10;&#1605;&#1608;&#1606; <br>&#1604;&#1593;&#1576;&#1577;<br>&#1 575;&#1604;&#1576;&#1608;&#1603;&#1610; &#1605;&#1608;&#1606; &#1604;&#1593;&#1576;&#1577; &#1605;&#1588;&#1607;&#1608;&#1585;&#15 77; &#1580;&#1583;&#1575; &#1608;&#1575;&#1604;&#1603;&#1604; &#1610;&#1593;&#1585;&#1601;&#1607;&#15 75; &#1587;&#1610;&#1603 ...

... property taxes. Then sand blast this mess with a couple<br>of inches of dust, from the dust storms and you have a completely ugly, mess. <br>We did a faluka (small ancient sailboat) up the Nile for lunch which was fun and got us out of the city heat. Did enjoy the guys with the AK47's protecting our bus while we had lunch, gives you peace of mind ...

... a great backgammon board&#8212;visibly handmade&#8212;for less than 20 US dollars. Great town. After the market we returned to the library, where I hung out for a while (I had already seen it with my mom and brother when they visited) while my friends toured around. Our next stop after the library was a really good fish restaurant where we got more food than we could eat. The meal, which began with us ...

... King Tut's golden burial head mask. It is a lot of gold. We saw his chariots, chairs, sceptors and other stuff he was buried with. We went to a papyrus shop where they showed us how papyrus is made. The tour guide was a college graduate in Egyptology and was very personable, fun and informative. The downsides of Egypt were the aggressive and pushy vendors (eager to take your camera and take pictures of you and then repeatedly beg for ...

... we went to see the sphynz and no matter what angle you looked at the statue it was impressive. It isn't all gilded like the pictures depict but nevertheless it is impressive. From here we went to board our cruise boat for our buffet lunch and cruise along the Nile. Unfortunately the food was terribly and the Nile is filthy but we have been on the Nile, another goal acheived. After lunch we went to see the Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali ...

Today was an early morning for breakfast and then getting in a taxi with "Bob" at 7:30.  Not the ideal vacation start in the morning but we had a long drive from Cairo up to Alexandria.  When planning this trip, it hadn't entered my mind to make the trip to Alexandria but we had this extra day to do something.   Once on our way, we had a pit stop to get sodas and gas so off we went and made it into to the city around 10:30 ...

... with the sea breeze. Makes a change from yesterday. My hotel is pretty much right on the sea front. My map pin marks the spot. I'll try and do this for every pin. I have a huge room with a high ceiling and bathroom which isn't much to write home about. Best thing is I have a balcony which gives me a good side view of the harbour and Med. Very nice to sit and watch the world go by. That said, I think it will be extremely noisy tonight. My hotel is plonked in ...

We were advised to dress conservative, i.e. no tank tops or short shorts. We chose the Classic Cairo tour which was a 2.5 hour drive to Cairo. Upon arrival at the Giza plateau, we could see the only remaining wonder of the ancient world, the famous three pyramids. The largest is the pyramid of Cheops. It contains and estimated 2mm limestone 2 tons blocks. The ...

... already. <br><br>We walked across busy tram lines towards Carmous through a teeming market area that smelt of urine, and five year olds tried to sell us packets of cigarettes. There didn&#8217;t seem to be too many other visitors around, and we were regarded with an air of good humour and enthusiasm. The only disappointment came when we found the second century Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa had closed early due to, you guessed it, Ramadan ...