Alexandria

Egypt! What a great time to be here!  We are only the second ship to stop here in three months. Prinsendam docked in a cargo port beside a very new passenger terminal. There was a complimentary shuttle provided to take people not on tours into the center of the city. Since we have been to Egypt before and seen Cairo and the pyramids, we decided to take a ship’s tour of Alexandria in the morning and do whatever presented itself in the afternoon. In addition to having already been here, I was a bit anxious about the wisdom of our being here this time, wondering if the situation was stable enough so a ship’s tour seemed like a good idea.

Our tour took us to the main sights and sites in Alexandria, but the highlight of the tour was the spectacular library. This new one was built a few hundred yards from the first Alexandrian library, which was burned in antiquity, can’t look it up now. The new building is massive with space enough for 8 million books. Not to say that the library is not digital. Check out the website – just Google it.

Alexandria is a city of great diversity with 7 million people from many countries and religions living in harmony. It is relatively clean for an Egyptian city with very little trash on the ground. It is crowded though with an insane way of driving. There is one traffic light in the city and it didn’t seem to be working when we rode past. Pedestrians, buses, taxis, cars, trucks, horse drawn wagons, scooters, all seem to be in motion and somehow they work out right of way and the traffic moves. There is also a lot of horn honking and occasional yelling out the vehicle window.

The other site we liked seeing were the Roman Theater and baths. The theater was built by the same man who built Hadrian’s Wall separating Scotland from England. The tour guide said that there are so many layers of past cultures that every time there is digging for a construction project another new ruin is discovered.  

After the tour and lunch back on board, we shopped at the vendors just outside of the pier area. We bought postcards and papyrus paintings. With many hours still here in the port we decided about 4:30 pm to see if we could ride the complimentary shuttle into the center and town and then return to the ship. At first it appeared that we were too late, but we spoke to the person in charge of the shuttle and he said we could ride to the city center and back. We boarded a large tourist bus, the driver boarded, and a security guard with an enormous weapon in a holster on his hip joined us. We sat in the front seat with the best view and the four of us set out back into the city in our big bus. The streets were even busier because late in the afternoon the temperatures begin to drop and people are out and about at the markets, shopping and living their lives. (Last week the temperatures were well over 100 but today the high was about 70. Perfect weather for tourists.)

When the bus driver discovered that he could make Jerry laugh by using the bus’ horn, he made a point of doing it even more often, with all of us lacking a common language but having a great time. We reached a square where we stopped and a young man carrying small rugs ran over to the bus to try to sell his goods. Jerry decided he wanted one of them, so he negotiated a price and we ended up with two little rugs. Good thing we don’t have to fly home at the end of the cruise.

The people were so happy to have us here! A group of girls in uniforms of a private high school surrounded Jerry and me at the Alexandrian Library, bubbling with exuberance and ready to practice their English. Where are you from? What is your name? Have you been to Egypt before? Can you speak Arabic? What languages can you speak?

People on the streets stopped to wave and smile as we rode by in the bus. That did not happen on our bus when we were here in 2009.

I watched our tour guide put a few coins into a man’s hand and noticing that I observed her, she said, “They haven’t worked in three months so I do what I can.” With tourism their main industry and that eliminated, the people here have been struggling. I hope that our visit has also done a little bit to help them. The people we spoke with were guarded in what they said about the political situation, but the tour guide asked us all to keep the people of Egypt in our prayers.