Alexandria - Home Of The Saddest Trams

The sun shone over Alexandria early and promised a day brighter and less tiring than the last. Still we had booked a long excursion.

Alexandria is, within the constraints of being in Egypt, a little more orderly and tidier than Cairo. It has traffic lights. It has no Metro but does have a limited tramway system. On it I saw some of the oldest, saddest, dustiest trams I have seen anywhere in the world. I was surprised that the worst of these actually worked at all.

We went first to the National Museum which is very good. It deserved more time but our guide did offer about the right balance today. Everywhere was very crowded and we have now visited several places where entrance and exit are coincident which seems particularly and avoidably awkward. Nowhere was this more awkward than at the Shawgafa catacombs which are extremely interesting. You should expect mild claustrophobia there heightened by the hordes streaming in and out but it is definitely worth a visit.

Lunch in the curiously named Santa Lucia restaurant was very good if a little rushed towards the end. I was feeling as much the effects of yesterday’s schedule as today’s and needed some sleep.

After the meal we went to my main reason for being on the tour – the New Library of Alexandria. I savoured the architecture though I should warn the photographers amongst you that this is a typical tourist site in that, once there, you cannot really imagine where all the pictures you have seen were taken from. The Library is directly opposite the main campus buildings of the University of Alexandria and thus the area is over busy with students.

The drive along the Corniche is attractive enough to the Mediterranean side but inland lie seemingly endless blocks of apartments in the now familiar Egyptian unfinished style. This was a good time for the nap I needed. I don’t know about “render unto Caesar...”; as far as I can see the Egyptians have never rendered anything. Actually there are exceptions.

The end of the drive brought us to Montaza Gardens and the former palace (one of 25 apparently) of King Farouk. It is a splendid edifice and could be viewed as a highly desirable Mediterranean residence but since it has long been unoccupied it is difficult to say what it might be like inside.

We visited Qait Bey where the fortress stands on the supposed former site of the Pharo of Alexandria and a large mosque but our guide seemed to be running out of steam and left us to our own devices so that these were no more than photo stops. I like mosques as I like cathedrals – for their architectural merits – as they are often very attractive buildings. The hawkers persisted but I was able to make them happy not by buying anything but by performing the simple service of changing their Euro coins into notes. This is something which is requested in many countries and is a friendly act to perform.

For all the chaos they appear to live in Egyptians are as far as I can see and as averred by our guide yesterday, fairly calm and non-confrontational. Perhaps it is the only way to cope.