Day 1
Greeted and driven from Cairo airport to Alexandria last night, the easy way to circumnavigate arrivals with a professional local guide.
Watched the sunset whilst crossing westwards across the Nile. To our south clearly visible in the haze the pyramids at Giza.
Norman, our driver’s music alternated between a type of light Egyptian jazz to a more Wagnerian Egyptian overture – I rather enjoyed.
The motorway through the desert had six lanes in either direction and along the sides were a variety of buildings – but rarely desert: Mosques adorned with neon strips, cranes alight with neon strips, the odd mal, gated communities of villas, chicken diners and tyre garages; but never barren desert.
Nearing Alexandria our six quiet lanes converged into cacophonous hooting and hustling packed minibuses, motorcycles with 1-4 helmet-less riders and cars varying from the occasional 4by4 to the yellow and black fleet of Alexandria taxis. The latter may be Ladas or perhaps a forgotten model of Mercedes, the ladas had been designed to resemble. (We’ll try and find out later).
Our guide persuaded the Hilton Corniche to keep the buffet open so we had a generous dinner and bought a glass of red.
We had a sea view room (best fully enjoyed on waking) with the noisiest traffic we had ever experienced but charming.
