Before we start on yesterday, a few thoughts about the ship. At 138,000 GRT, Navigator is almost twice the size of both the Crystal ships and at about 3500 passengers, it carries 3.5 times as many people! Needless to say, there are some differences, both positive and negative. On the plus side, our Junior Suite cabin, at just over 350 SF is bigger than the Penthouse cabins on Crystal, and because we are facing aft, we have an enormous balcony. The room and balcony pale by comparison to Norm and Barb’s suite directly below us, but is more than sufficient for our needs. It also comes with both a kettle and coffee maker, which we have used regularly for “afternoon tea”. Actually, as I type this the coffeemaker has just finished my morning cup and Monica is enjoying her tea “on the terrace” as the sun rises! The food has been uniformly good and the service, while spotty at times, has been good, with gusts up to excellent. On the down side, cruising with 3500 of “your closest friends” (excluding the Ortofskys of course) is wearing, as there is almost nowhere you can escape the crowds and it seems it is always noisy. The design of the main public areas, like the Royal Promenade which runs down the center of the ship, seems to funnel people toward “choke points” at both ends, so it seems like you are always having to “elbow your way through crowds” to get any place! We also miss the sea day lectures/presentations that Crystal does and if you have not staked out your spot at the pool by 8:00AM, forget it. For all that, as long as we don’t make comparisons (which are really unfair), this cruise is quite pleasant and the five of us have been having a great time.
On to Alexandria. While this is our third time here, we have actually seen very little of the city itself, with Cairo and the Pyramids being the “main attraction”. Fortunately our guide, Islam, lives in Alexandria and was eager to show us what his city has to offer. As we didn’t need the entire day, we met Islam and our driver at a rather civilized 10:15 for our tour.
Until about 500 AD Alexandria was the capital city of Egypt and while many of its ancient sites have been destroyed by catastrophes, man-made and natural, the Antiquities Authority has located and preserved the major ruins. Our first stop was at the principal attraction, Pompey’s Pillar. This is located atop the ruins of a temple complex built for Cleopatra in the first century AD. The pillar itself was the highest point in Alexandria and is, in fact, the official symbol of the city. It gets its name from a legend that claimed the ashes of the Roman General Pompey were placed atop the pillar to protect them from his enemy, Julius Ceasar. Islam told us that its actual name, used by the locals, is Amud El-Sawari, which loosely translates as “the flag pole” and that was, in fact, its purpose in ancient Alexandria. The temple complex has been mostly excavated and contains a series of underground vaults, about 30 metres deep, two of which we were able to explore. The first, The Sanctuary, contains a replica of the god Osiris, to whom the temple was dedicated. Unfortunately the lights were out so we couldn’t get a picture, and the statue looked rather spooky as you could only sense its outlines in the dark! The second, larger chamber, is lined with niches of similar size and shape all along its length. Archeologists think it may have been used by Cleopatra to store and protect scrolls and manuscripts from the great Alexandria Library, which had been damaged by a first fire (as opposed to the one years that was deliberately set to destroy it) at about that time.
The next stop on our tour, after a rather hair-raising drive through downtown, was the Roman Theatre. A word about traffic. Lines on the road are merely suggestion. At one point in our travels a section of road with four clearly marked lanes contained EIGHT lanes of traffic!!! The Roman Theatre is located in almost the exact center of the city. The site had once been a French and then British colonial fort dating to the mid-1800’s. In the early 60’s the local government cleared the site in preparation for building public housing. The Antiquities Authority, which is a very powerful government body, decided they had best “survey” the site first and, needless to say, the housing was never built! As you can see from the pictures, the site is a good 30 feet below ground level, and unlike some ruins that have been excavated and then rebuilt from the pieces discovered, Islam told us this site was unearthed intact as we see it today and is still a “working” dig. They believe that if they were to knock down all of the surrounding buildings and tear up the roads (which obviously won’t happen) that they would find most of “downtown” ancient Alexandria! As it is, the plan is to excavate the sloped sides all around the site in the next few years.
While the entire site is not open to the public, the highlight is the amphitheatre in the foreground of the picture. All of the seats are numbered with Greek characters and it is believed it was used primarily for political debates. The fascinating feature of the acoustics is what Islam called the “echo spot”, a stone set in the center of the floor. If you stand on the spot and speak while facing the center of the seating area your voice echoes back at you as if broadcast from a bank of speakers. What is interesting is that someone standing beside you, as Larry was as we each tried it, does not get the effect at all.
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| Barb standing on the 'echo spot' in the theatre |
Our next stop was lunch at an Egyptian-Italian restaurant called Portofino on the Corniche (the main roadway along the bay) across from the water. The irony here is that we had wanted to get a reservation at the Portofino Restaurant on the ship for that evening, but there weren’t any available at the times we wanted. So, we still managed to eat at a Portofino - it just wasn’t the one we had expected. The food was excellent (take a look at Barb’s plate) and the meal allowed us to talk more to Islam. It turns out that he has some cousins who live in Edmonton of all places. Talk about a climate shock!
After lunch, we continued along to the Gardens in what had been the Palace of King Faroukh until he was forced by the army to abdicate in the 1950s. The original palace is under the control of the military and is no longer open, but a smaller ‘guest’ palace is now a five-star hotel. The whole area is very beautiful and open to anyone to visit for a very small fee.
Our last stops were the Alexandria Library and Fort Qait Bey. The library was built in the 1990s on the site of the original library and is one of the largest in the world in terms of usable floor space. One of the remarkable things about the library is that the lighting is all natural indirect. The design of the sloping roof allows the direct light to reflect into the windows from the side. In this way, none of the artifacts or books are damaged by harsh light. Fort Qait Bey is the site of the original Alexandria Lighthouse which was destroyed by an earthquake. It was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World because of its sheer size (as tall as the Great Pyramid) and its varied architecture. The light itself was a fire that could, it is said, guide ships into Alexandria from as far as 150 miles out at sea. Islam told us that most of the ruins of the lighthouse rest on the seabed around the fort and the Antiquities Authority is investigating the idea of an “underwater museum” to display them.
Once we got back to the ship, it was relax time and dinner in the Dining Room for the first time since Wednesday. Our tablemates were happy to see us return. Last night we regained the hour we lost after Naples letting us catch up on our sleep at least a little bit. The weather forecast for today isn’t too great, so we imagine that the choice spots at the pools will go quickly. Good thing we’ve got our lounge chairs and a nice spot out of the wind on our own verandah.
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| Barb and Mitchell and the 'Triple Threat Chocolate' dessert |
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