Out of Egypt

Cairo was pretty much what we expected yesterday–lots of old, run-down buildings. There are some attractive structures, of course, but mostly we saw unfinished boxy condos (less taxes if not finished), but sporting lots of satellite dishes. Egypt is 95% desert, so in our 3 hr. bus ride from Alexandria to Cairo, we saw miles of sand, boulders and lots of trash/litter. The pyramids are the only draw to this place, in our humble opinion. The Sphinx is much smaller than assumed by the pictures we’ve seen in books. Vendors everywhere hawking their ‘wares,’ along with camel jockeys wanting to charge us for pictures. It is difficult passing by the children wanting to sell their junk. Our ‘Nile in Style’ lunch cruise was fine...typical ‘talent’ onboard:-)...food pretty good. It was a looong day, with everyone arriving back at the ship tired and ready for dinner, then bed. Soup: tomato bisque with balsamic, and chilled avocado–both good.
We are docked at the port of Alexandria, known as the "Pearl of the Mediterranean." All we see from the ship is a working port, but that has its own fascination, especially for Dick. We saw enough of the city on the bus yesterday, so today we walked outside to the souvenir hawkers just to look around. This is the month of Islamic holiday, so most shops are closed anyway until fasting ends at 7:30.
Chilled pumpkin soup at dinner tonight, followed by a comedy show. We are sailing north now, heading to Corfu, Greece, kicking up the speed a bit, since it is a long way up there.

Now it is Sunday and we are at sea all day. Stay tuned for the next Griswold adventure:-)