ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (4/9/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Apr 10, 2007 11:35 AM
Subject: Monday, April 9, 2007

Monday, April 9, 2007

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT

We hired a private van for ourselves and another couple. Marcia and Tom Goldstick from Evanston. It was hired through the ship. It costs more through the ship but so far everyone of them had been very good and should there be a problem, the ship would wait for us, or not.

The van was there to meet us as we walked down the gang plank. The guide spoke very good English but with a slight German accent. We started by going to the Alexandria National Museum. On the way we went by the water front and by some very nice homes. This place is completely different from Cairo. It is clean and is far more a resort town. The buildings are very European looking and may well have been built by the Europeans. The entire city was packed with vacationers. Our guide said he has never seen even one American vacationing there. They get the Europeans in the winter and Egyptians in the summer.

The Museum was nothing special as far as I was concerned. Tom has a big problem walking and could not go any further once we went down a flight of stairs. He walked right back up and I went with him to the van. Bobbi said it had very nice stuff but there was not enough time to see it. Different floors had things from different eras. Greek, Roman, Egyptian.

Next it was down the coast to the Citadel of Quait Bay. It is a fort built on the foundation of an ancient Pharaoh’s light house. It had been all perfectly restored and was very nice as was the view of the coast.

We then went on to the library. You are probably thinking, library? I was at a library? It was a building full of books. Big deal. We have them all over the place. Well folks, this, they claim, is world’s largest. It is extremely modern and has all kinds of computer reference and features. We were in one section where you were told a story by computer and turned the pages by touching the screen. From what I understood, most of it had been donated by different countries. I noticed the floors throughout were done in oak. I think it was southern American oak. I asked where it came from and sure enough, it was from the US.

There was one section with old manuscripts from all over the world. They were in many different languages including a Torah in Hebrew. A girl wearing a Muslim head dress told us about them in perfect English. This was a very impressive place. I am glad we did go in. The guide had to argue with us to get us to go.

Lastly we went to Montaza Gardens. 115 acres surrounded by walls. Originally it was just for King Fauad and his wives and girlfriends. He had it built in 1939. His son and heir to the thrown, King Farouk, the last Egyptian King, opened it to the public. President forever Mubarak had a palace built in the gardens. That you cannot go near. He only uses it for about a week a year. The place was so loaded with people you could not move.

If what our guide tells us is true, they are not very happy with Mubarak. He does nothing to help the poor or any of the people. He just does more and more to make himself royalty. Elections are phony. If you are someone they think will not vote for him, their records are lost and they are not permitted to vote. Because he is a government appointed and licensed guide, they think he is going to vote for Mubarak. Last election he was the third person let in to vote. The ballot boxes were already full. The only real opposition is a fairly radical Muslim party. Things do not look too good there. It looks like a true democracy will not work in the Arab lands. They have to have ruler of some kind. They do not understand freedom.

There is still one Synagogue operating even though there only 20 Jewish people left and they are said to be old. We drove by it on the way back. We did stop in front of it. We were told we could not go in and they were not allowed to even stop. There were guards or some kind of police just inside a chained iron gate and several more outside.

We had a good tour and it is a nice place to visit. We think Sharm El Sheikh will take some tourist business from them. It is warmer and the resorts more classy but who knows. Maybe this town is cheaper and will continue to draw the crowds.

That is something else I failed to mention. Everywhere we have been in this country, there have been ridiculous amounts of police or military. Every where you could look, there were bunches of them. They were all over the hotel we were in. I guess that is how they are keeping down the possibility of political demonstrations. I just hope it also keeps the bombers out.

Of course the rag heads have to do something to ruin a nice day. When we got back to the ship our wonderful guide tells us that the places we went to had an admission charge that was not included. We saw the charges listed in the different places. They said one to three dollars. That could have been Egyptian pounds or Euro dollars. Whatever, it could not have been more then about $5.00 per person US. This clown is demanding $180.00. I want to give him a shoe sandwich but of course the others won’t argue. We did report it to the tour office on the ship. If they pass it on to the operator he might loose his job but I doubt it. I doubt we will ever hear anything more from the tour office.