埃及 18。12/21/15 開羅 亞歷山大 （完）

高速路休息區

路邊的房子上很多有這種造型奇特的鴿子籠（塔）

司機說穆巴拉克當政的時候政府開發力度比較大。像這一路兩邊的很多房子都是那時政府免費送地開發商負責花錢帶動起來的。聽司機的意思是有些懷念穆巴拉克同學時代，儘管小穆同學也不是啥好鳥，好歹還能幹事兒。現在的總統執行力有限，旅遊業一落千丈也木有神馬高招兒把遊人給忽悠來。他的觀點是穆兄會使靠騙術上台的，所以儘管是民選的，上台後乾的事情和競選的口號對不上。聽著咋跟美國一樣呢？！呵呵。。。

這就到了亞歷山大邊上了，從此地進城又盤桓了不少時候。

街上的行人和計程車，全部是雷諾

很有特色的突突車

據說這是英國佬百年前修的有軌電車，還在運行，貌似都是原裝車，破舊不堪

穆斯塔法帶俺們在龐貝柱街對面的個咖啡館坐下，建議俺們在外面看看西洋景就行了，不值得花那個門票。俺們看看也的確是這個情況。埃及的咖啡很濃，而且煮出來跟糊糊一樣，裡面還后咖啡豆渣子，味道挺濃。不過俺平常基本不喝咖啡所以無所謂。

這裡的人很悠閑，還不到中午早就有很多人在咖啡店裡抽水煙喝咖啡愣神。

圍牆裡面的那個柱子就是龐貝柱了。該柱子有18m高，加上底座有25m高。底部直徑有一米五。整個柱子是一塊紅色花崗岩做的。也算得上是世界上有名兒的整根石柱了。很多石柱是石料層層壘起來的。此石柱來自阿斯旺，重約285噸。雖然名叫龐貝柱可是事實上跟龐貝同學一點關係也沒有。羅馬的龐培大帝是公元前一世紀人物，平民出生的他通過自己的努力因英勇善戰而受到黨中央的賞識，后又被卡撒大帝招了胥，那傢伙噌噌往上去啊！後來他媳婦先過去了，他在兩條路線的鬥爭中站錯了隊，成了凱撒大帝追殺的對象，隨即遠走埃及避風頭。后在埃及被暗殺。那就叫雪琳琳的階級鬥爭啊！那麼後來的革命群眾不明真相，覺得龐同學那麼功高蓋世，怎麼著也得有個大石柱啥的紀念他老人家吧？於是就怎麼看怎麼像的把這根300年後建的柱子死乞白賴的叫做龐貝柱。這名字也就以訛傳訛到現在。其實當時立這個柱子是為了紀念一個羅馬皇帝平定亞歷山大暴亂。

周圍的街景，有時間背著相機四周溜達溜達一定會有不少收穫。很可惜俺今天木有這個可能。

導遊說下圖中的高樓是違章建築，估計蓋成這樣了怕是不會拆

這地方是個地下墓穴群博物館。裡面的墓穴按死者家庭的高低貴賤分大中小規模，高中低檔次，精裝簡裝，不一而足。裡面的雕刻已經是埃及風和希臘風的混合體了。此墓穴被埋在地下多年，要不是個偶然的機會一頭驢子掉到地洞里還發現不了。現在的亞歷山大城就在老城上面，所以考古工作木法開展，成本太高。

俺還是更喜歡看人們悠閑地坐在咖啡館里的景象

博物館的院子，這個也不讓拍照

賓士突突車

商業街

華麗麗的路燈

電車汽車行人

烤紅薯的流動攤點，這個看著有些衛生堪憂

這個門兒大老遠的揮手讓俺給他拍照。亞歷山大的人們貌似根本不鳥旅遊這麼一回事兒，街上根本沒有人問你買不買著那的。

靠著地中海邊的海濱大道上有很多氣派不凡的建築

這就來到了地中海邊，海水也很清澈湛藍美膩！這地點就是原來那個古世界七大奇迹之一的燈塔所在地。可是呢，燈塔到了公元九世紀就給震倒了，取而代之的是十五世紀馬姆魯克人建的一座防禦堡壘。看了那麼些四五千年的古董俺們還真的對這個幾百年的物件感不起興趣來。在堡壘附近溜達了一會兒，看看人來人往就去下一站了。

勇敢的釣魚人！

小朋友的遊樂設施，貌似是要錢的

城堡在西邊，皇宮在東邊，俺們得順著海濱大道跟稠密的車流作殊死的鬥爭。好在還有路邊的建築和行人可以看著解悶兒。

這便是皇宮和花園了，挺美挺好，只是沒啥特別的

看完了皇宮也差不多該回開鑼了。這就是亞歷山大的「千年」圖書館了，是個全新的建築。那還進去干哈？！

回程的路上。棕櫚樹很有風情。

收費站

趕上了日落。

回到開鑼，市內堵車一塌糊塗，穆斯塔法帶著俺們去了一個新城區，本地人夜市一樣的地方，晚飯吃的是烤雞，也許是餓了，這平常俺不愛吃的東西都吃著很香。據說烤雞店是一家敘利亞難民開的，生意很火爆。導遊說埃及接受了32萬敘利亞難民媒體連提都不提，歐洲為個幾萬難民的接收問題鋪天蓋地。吃完了飯已經六點了。俺們踏上了去機場的艱難歷程，平常40分鐘的路走了三個小時，要不是俺陪著司機踴躍的討論著天下大事這時間可怎麼混哪！她們娘倆已經徹底暈菜了在後面睡著了。到了機場之後就是各種順利，開鑼法蘭克福華盛頓dc一路通暢。離開了真主的轄區俺惡補了幾天酒精飲料。在東邊過完了節回到了俺們窮鄉僻壤過俺們平凡的苦日子。。。（完）

Travel diary day 11 12/21

by 7 am we checked out of the hotel and had our stuff ready at the hotel door waiting for our guide for we were going to take a day trip to Alexandria. we debated between spending more time digging deep in cairo or taking a day trip to Alexandria for a little while last night, the curiosity won out. I guess we were not extremely happy with taking the long trip, but we didn't know either if were would be happier by spending the day in cairo. maybe it was just because of our level of interest was dropping by the end of our trip after seeing so many sites.

our guide showed up a few minutes late because of the congested traffic. have to say that we spent quite some time on the roads in cairo, traffic in the city seemed packed almost 24/7. going to Alexandria was pretty smooth between the two cities it was the getting in and out parts that took quite some time.

our first stop in Alexandria was a café right across the street from the Pompeii pillar. had a cup of coffee while watching people having their coffee and smoking shisha and taking photos of the old tram cars passing by, said to be more than one hundred years built by the British, the tram cars looked beat up but seemed working just fine. very interesting. we didn't bother to pay admission to get inside the walls to look at the Pompeii pillar. next stop was the catacombs, this wasn't very impressive after other monuments we saw in the last few days. I thought it was very interesting to see so many cafes everywhere and people were generally taking a laid back pace by sipping their café, smoking shisha, and watching the world going by leisurely. it would be more fun to have time to just stroll around on foot.

then we drove across the city to the castle by the seaside, the traffic in Alexandria was no better than that of cairo. the castle, again, was nothing special. had a nice time walking around and people watching though. after this we had to drive clear through to the other side of the town to see a royal palace. it was not open, so didn't have much to do there, either. that, pretty much, wrapped up our tour in Alexandria. then it was the fight to get out of the city and back to cairo. upon getting back to cairo our guide took us to a new part of the town at a street night market, we had fried chicken for dinner at a busy eatery said to be run by a Syrian refugee family. it was a busy place full of locals young and old.

after we were done with dinner it was around 6 pm. we then set out for the airport, a normally 40 minute ride took us almost three hours, thanks to the packed traffic. our flight was 2:40 am and the security check people would only allow three hours prior to the departure time. so we resorted to spend a couple of hours at the berger king upstairs. no free wifi. after the two girls took a little nap we went into the security area. the Egyptair lounge was very basic, but it did have free wifi, water and soda. our flight to Frankfurt took off right on time and the connections back home went smoothly.

we all agree that we had a wonderful time in Egypt! hope one of these days we will run out of new places of interest to go and come back for an encore!