Cairo - Day 6 Monday March 14

We are sorry to leave the beautiful Four Seasons Hotel, but anxious to begin the adventures that await. I already have posted some hotel photos, but look at the lovely breakfast couscous station.

Here are some van-window parting views of Alexandria, including the tomb of the Unknown Soldier…

…theatre…

…cemetery…

…and a lovely park.

Our morning bus ride gave me an opportunity to catch up on writing the blog.
Charlie also suggested that we add this information that Yasser shared with us regarding observations that many of the women in Egypt wear full length black clothing. In ancient Egypt, white was the color of mourning. When the Roman emperor, Diocletian, slaughtered so many Egyptians, he also forbade the mourners to honor the dead with the traditional white garments. Instead, the Egyptians decided to use black to express their mourning. Over time, the wearing of black became very traditional. In addition, many Egyptians went to Saudi Arabia to work in the oil industry, and the Egyptian women began to dress in the more conservative Saudi style. Now, this manner of dress is cultural expression, and more common in rural areas as opposed to the cities.

You will never miss a meal with Alexander+Roberts. We left Alexandria after breakfast, and arrived in Cairo in time for lunch.
Here we are posing under the evil eye that protects this restaurant.

There was beautiful outdoor dining, but we decided against it because it was cool and very windy.

The inside dining area was equally attractive.

This was our last meal with our Egyptologist, Yasser. He has such passion about his country's history and truly enhanced our experience. He will be missed terribly, and it was very sad to say goodbye. The good news is that he also organizes safaris in Tanzania...so who knows?

We re-visited the cotton store that we went to on our first day in Cairo because we did not have our full group. Of course, we spent more money.

On our way to the hotel, traffic was terrible because of stalled vehicles, and we did not arrive until after four. We checked back into the Kempinski Nile Hotel, with time to relax and refresh before dinner in the Italian restaurant.

We fly to Luxor tomorrow morning. We had noticed that our very detailed itinerary information made no mention of our flight time....that is because we will be leaving the hotel tomorrow at 4:30 AM!

A final warning: we have been able to keep up with the blog because the Wi-Fi in our hotels has been exemplary. We are not anticipating the same Internet speed on our Nile river cruise. Therefore, if you are not seeing a daily blog, do not assume it is because something awful has happened. I am not going to name names, but the people to whom this is directed know who they are. 😉

Photos are tagged Egypt, Alexandria and Cairo