ALEXANDRIA

Alexandria, Egypt
Taxis, Ruins, and Lunch
Egypt was the only port we stayed at overnight. Our second day in Egypt we ate a nice breakfast on the ship and then left Daniel to play in the Kids Club at 11:00 am in the morning (Kids Club cost $6 a day when you are in port) and began to explore on our own.
We walked out of the port complex into the city and got a taxi to go to the Museum in Alexandria. After we negotiated with the taxi driver he said the museum is closed and then dropped us off in the wrong part of the city. After we got out he drove back by and said he knew where we really wanted to go (for more money of course). We declined and walked around the city a bit – stopping at the local HSBC bank to get some local cash and then we got another taxi and saw some roman ruins.
While walking to lunch we went past a beautiful opera house in the heart of the city. It was really interesting to see the shops and streets. We arrived at the Grand Trianon restaurant for lunch, it was recommended in our guidebook as “One of Alexandria’s most stylish institutions since it opened in the 1920’s” We found the food less than spectacular but it was ok. It has faded from its former glory, but without more knowledge of the city it might have been as good as it gets.
Taxis in Egypt were wild as was the traffic. Traffic consisted of everything from taxis, buses, and trucks, to a man riding a donkey, and a donkey pulling a cart. There is not discipline and traffic rules did not appear to be existent. The taxi drivers do not use meters so you must negotiate every ride. Before we took a taxi to the boat we got six cans of diet coke for about 15 Egyptian pounds. Our final taxi ride was back to the cruise ship. We said to our driver cruise port, cruise ship and pointed on a map where we wanted to go. He took us to the Fort in Quayt Bay which was on the Eastern Harbor, opposite from the western Harbor where we needed to go. A passerby clarified and we were back on our way to the ship.
Once at the port stopped by some vendors catering to the cruise tourists and bought our Egyptian fridge magnet and Rachel got a pretty Pashmina scarf and a little souvenir lamp. We were trying to spend our last bit of Egyptian money when we realized we really didn’t want anything else and Danny was probably tired of being in the Kid’s Club after five hours and it was costing more per hour for the Kids Club than we had left to spend