Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt
April 16, 2025
We woke up very early to a sunny but hazy morning in Alexandria, the massive container port on the Mediterranean coast. We had booked an excursion to the Pyramids and a lunch cruise on the Nile in Cairo. Since the capital city is 3 hours from where we moored, it was up and at ‘em to meet up at 6:40AM. We boarded a beautiful Mercedes bus, and it was packed. We found seats way in the back but at least together. The tour guide was 30 something, very pretty, spoke fluent English and said we could just call her Nefertiti. There was also a somewhat shady looking guy in a suit that was to be our “security” and we set off for our adventure in a convoy of 6 buses with a police escort.
Nefertiti asked if we wanted to hear the history of the pyramids now or later and we all sleepily groaned “now” since we were somewhat awake. Not to worry, I will definitely will not be recounting the history of Egypt or the Pyramids. It would be tedious and admittedly I nodded off during most of her talk.
The upshot was that it was a great but very long and exhausting day, a surprisingly good lunch and most certainly an experience we’ll never forget. I’ll let the pictures do the talking!
Panorama of sunrise over Alexandria (named after Alexander the Great). The cranes and container ships seemed to go on forever. The brown Sahara haze must be a permanent fixture.
Somethings never change
Our first glimpse
Security was crazy. These guys are everywhere and you can see the cameras
Camels, horses, buggies, carts - you name it you can ride it
Shows you just how big the stones are. To the right above Tod’s head it says “no climbing” in English and Arabic. You’d need a ladder or climbing gear to do it.
There were at least 40 souvenir stands all selling the same stuff. You wonder how they all stay in business.
Here’s that “typical African dog” again. Looks just like the ones we saw in South Africa. They are all over the place, weaving around buses and snoozing in the shade. The tag on the ear means they’ve been vaccinated. We asked Nefertiti if they we’re neutered and she looked shocked and said, “Oh no, we just let them be dogs!”. I asked who feeds them and she looked at me like I was odd and said, “well, everybody!”
The Sphinx “guards” the Pyramids
Our lunch cruise boat. They do donuts for 2 hours in the Nile in front of the Hilton, Sheraton, Hyatt etc hotels
Lunch was remarkably good and plentiful. The dessert table looked like something out of a patisserie
Tod’s comment was, “I thought Muslims were modest…”
Nile river view
One of the hundreds of housing units that line both sides of the freeway. These are the lucky ones in that they have a view. On the inner streets they face each other with a one lane road in between. Population of Cairo - 22,000,000
Leaving town now - this is their new museum that they are very proud of. It will open in September and it will be the largest museum in the world. It will have all of King Tut’s stuff together at last.
This is the form of public transit in the city. I’m not sure what they call them but they’re everywhere and normally jammed with people staring at their phones. They can’t do any form of mass transit like subways or light rail because anytime they dig they uncover mass antiquity and have to stop construction.
Mosques are literally every mile (if not less) along the freeway so you can pull over and pray if need be
These conical structures are pigeon houses. There are hundreds of them. They raise the birds to eat and to collect their droppings to sell for fertilizer. Also most of the single family dwellings have re-bar sticking out because if your house is unfinished, you pay less in taxes.
We saw at least 10 refineries.