Filed under: Africa | Tags: Alexandria, BIG, Big Lottery Fund, Cairo, egypt. world war 2, Heroes Return, HR2, North Africa, veterans, WW2, WWII
The Hotel Cecil in Alexandria, with its 150 year old lift was a hotel highlight. Along with its ancient façade and wonderful historical feeling – it was a lovely hotel with excellent food and nice rooms. Alexandria is a cosmopolitan and fascinating city which I really enjoyed vsiting. So in contrast with Cairo, that is so chaotic busy and smog filled.
My father couldn’t really remember this city very well, but he will now, as I found and bought him the most lovely antique walking stick – for all of £3.50. (Maybe it wasn’t an antique!)
Alexandria retains the vestiges of an elegant age – it shows in its buildings and the care that is taken of them. Apparently they re-paint them every 5 years.
Filed under: Africa | Tags: egypt, egypt. world war 2, Heroes Return, historic, pyramids, sphinx
On our first day in Egypt we visited the Sphynx and the Pyramids. For me, much more impressive this time around (I had last visited over 25 years ago). For my father whose last visit was nearly 70 years ago, things had changed a great deal and he wasn’t impressed by these changes. In the early 1940’s the army barracks were positioned next to the Pyramids and in the evenings, the soldiers would clamber to the top of them and have a beer in the cool night air. There would probably only be around half a dozen people around. Now you are not allowed to climb on the pyramids and there are hawkers, camels, tourists and horses, not to mention the poor area of Giza right next door.
Still none of this can detract from the awesome pyramids, standing as they have done – bar their original facades – for thousands of years.
Filed under: Africa | Tags: 747, BA, Desert, egypt, egypt. world war 2, flight, Heroes Return, Nile Delta, veterans, West of Abu Simbel
The BA 747 was yet another cause for bewilderment. Cramped seating, televisions that have no knobs – in the back of seats what’s more…..earphones, all needed to be got to grips with. A gin and tonic settled things down and we had an excellent flight with us both talking to extremely interesting new acquaintances. One an Egyptian business man and the other an ancient astrologist. The latter was my companion for the 4 ½ trip and he described to me the things that have only recently been discovered about nomadic tribes that existed in the Western Desert, West of Abu Simbel, until climate change 3-4,000 years ago which forced them to alter their way of living and head towards the Nile Delta.
