Alexandria

Even from the beginning stages of planning our trip, we wanted to go to Luxor in Egypt. It has tons of cool stuff. We went to the train station and found tickets to Luxor, but couldn't find a train back to Cairo before Susannah and I flew out! We tried lots of different options but nothing was available. We made a quick decision to try to get tickets to Alexandria so we could have a little "Mediterranean get-away" for a few days. Katherine had been to the Mediterranean in Greece, but we had yet to see it so we bought our tickets.

This is Katherine and Susannah on the train ride over. It was on the train that we started researching Alexandria using our trusty Lonely Planet guide. It was then that we discovered that Alexandria had at least 4 million people - it was not going to be a relaxing little place and we also learned that the beaches are absolutely packed. As far as things to do, there are a few things, but not nearly as much or as interesting as Luxor or other things on our list from Cairo.

So, when we got to the train station, we decided we were going to change our tickets to later that night instead of the next night so we could get back and cross more off of our "to see" list in Cairo. Changing our tickets ended up being a total pain. It was like a wild goose chase to one place then the other. Katherine and I are showing our frustration in this picture. We finally got it taken care of . . . after an hour!

We did have a couple of hours before our train left so we hopped in a taxi and the driver to us to a "less busy" beach called Mamoura. It was still many feet deep with wall to wall umbrellas and chairs. We couldn't even see the water at first.

Also notice our clothes. We felt very immodest in these! The women that swim there are still in their dresses or pants to their ankles and are covered to their wrists. They also swim in their veils! By the time we got to the beach, paid, changed and waded through the chairs, we swam for maybe 15 minutes before we had to head back to the train station.

Before we left, I got a few pictures from a higher view. The water was refreshing, but was not clear nor beautiful at that area of the Mediterranean.

You can see that everyone swam pretty close to the shore. Many of the men were in little kid tubes. I don't think that swimming is quite the past time there as it is here.

The gardens at Mamoura were beautiful. Susannah stuck her arm out the window and on top of the taxi to get this picture with a bit of the garden and the impressive entry gate.

Alexandria had many mosaics on the walls near the sea. They were pretty impressive. The weather was cooler there too!