G’day,
We’re currently in Barcelona and I’m in the process of writing up the rest of our ports of call. Sorry about the out-of-order postings – I’m also trying to keep up to date with our current adventures ashore in Spain. Despite excellent weather, Toni and I have both succumbed to head colds and are now back at the hotel trying to recover before our 16 hour return flights tomorrow.
Now, on with the show..
Day 10 – Giza to Alexandra (Part 2)
Outside the soccer stadium
Where we left off.. the group had just come out of the Catacombs in Alexandria after a brief glimpse of Pompeii’s column. Our next stop was scheduled for 12:45pm at the new library of Alexandria. The library, quite new, is built roughly above where they believe the ancient library of Alexandria once stood. It is semi-funded by UNESCO (never say the UN does nothing but provide targets in war zones!) and was designed by a team from Sweden who included amongst their numbers a native Egyptian.
A great library indeed
Our trip was delayed due to some bad traffic conditions, which turned out to be street construction work (not Hassan’s fault) and meant that we arrived five minutes late (12:50pm) for our special tour. As a result there was some confusion initially. We were thrown into what seemed to be the wrong tour, so we ended up with an unanticipated 30 minutes during which several group members (including us) broke away from the pack for some exploration of the massive library.
Interior Shots + The Exterior base
The library is really huge, and well designed. There is excellent use of natural light, supplemented with soothing green and blue lights from the ceiling down. Broken into at least nine different floors, the library rises out of the earth and provides lots of floor space for studying and browsing. There are even conference rooms at the top on “floating floors” which hover above the main library floor.
Toni and I went down onto the library floor and took some photos. We walked up several levels and bumped into Steve and Melissa on the Internet. Having browsed for a while, we headed out to the library bookstore where we bought two books, one one the library itself, and one on the catacombs.
The multimedia presentation
We rejoined the group at the new meeting time of 1:30pm where we joined our proper tour guide, who led us outside to the conference area, underground. Here we waited for at least fifteen minutes during which we amused ourselves in the Sadat exhibition which I think you were supposed to pay for entrance to (but we didn’t).
Eventually our tour resumed in a special room with nine large displays on a somewhat hexagonal wall. On this wall ran a large multimedia display as our guide gave us a running commentary of the history of ancient Egypt. The presentation was informative, although it felt a bit short. After the presentation, we were guided around the library back to the starting point, and then through to the exhibition halls underneath. When the tour ended we all voted unanimously to now leave and head to our next destination.
The island of Pharos
Fortress + Our Group
Long considered the home of the Pharos Lighthouse (one of the ancient wonders of the world), this site is now home to one of the Mediterranean’s most distinguished medieval castles. Although we only saw it from the outside, it was not hard to imagine the lighthouse standing guard of the eastern harbour. There were random stalls around the harbour area in front of the fortress, but no one seemed to be buying much. At this juncture there was some conjecture about how much time we had left against how many stops we had on our itinerary.
I suggested that perhaps we should drop the palace (of king Farouk) and gardens from the itinerary to save time and also because it was on the very eastern part of the city, whilst the majority of the remained of our tour was on the west, near where the ship was docked. This was agreed upon by most of the group, so we bid adieu to the ramparts of the great fortress and went to our next destination – Alexandria’s largest Mosque.
Abo Elabbas(?) Mosque
External of the Mosque
Our next stop was a nearby mosque, which I’ve had trouble finding the name of. It was quite large, especially on the inside. We removed our shoes and the men and women split up to enter the place. Inside, men occupied about 70% of the afforded floor real estate, while women had the remainder, and were required to stay behind a wooden screen.
Interior + The direction of Mecca
Islam described the process of praying within the mosque and also pointed out key architectural parts of the building. Of particular interest was the area which points the way to Mecca, which all people would pray in the direction of. Photography was allowed, so I managed some decent shots inside the wonderous temple.
With a few minutes of free time, we all split up before exiting a few minutes later. On the way out I tipped for shoe return, and later heard that Toni didn’t have any money and people were refusing to give her shows back. She apparently just grabbed them – good on her 
Our last stop was a papyrus shop and bazaar – not like in the movies – really just a place for souvenirs, we didn’t buy anything but just walked around and browsed. After about 45 minutes we got back on the bus and returned to the harbour. Toni split and browsed some of the cheap market stalls arranged near the entrance while I dumped our bags in the stateroom and returned to pay Islam for the tour.
We bought a couple of extra items in the stalls before heading back onto the ship for departure. That night we ate in Chops Grille with Pat and Kristi and went over our different experiences in Egypt.
On to.. a day at Sea..