Skip to main content

Back in Cairo, the fog, the old City

Image
By
December 23rd: this morning we awoke in a thick fog surrounding the train, which evidently slowed our progress considerably. Simple breakfast provided by the train steward, then we disembarked at Giza Station. The travel guide met our train, took us to the Residence Hotel in Maadi to drop our bags, thence on the Tour of Old Cairo: restored with the help of US funds, now more a tourist site than an old city. The new city has literally been built on top of old ruins, such that the original old buildings are a couple meters belowground now. But the alleyways and churches are clean and dry, after the restoration. Several old but still-active Coptic and Greek Orthodox Churches, and an old synagogue clearly not in use though beautifully restored. The newly-rebuilt Coptic Museum is particularly attractive, both in its architecture and its presentation. The country's Department of Antiquities takes pains to note that it protects even Christian and Jewish religious sites; not only Muslim and Pharaonic sites.
We returned to our residence-hotel on a quiet suburban street and settled: an old building well-maintained: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 balconies, very nice and spacious and quiet. Chris and I walked a few blocks over to the See Egypt office, and scout for groceries, in vain. We found a cinema showing Harry Potter -- enjoyment marred only by the incessant whispering of young couples who evidently can only meet alone in a darkened movie theater. So, the mullahs in Saudi Arabia have a valid point, about cinemas being the devil's playground and thus banned! Indecent mixing of the sexes, indeed...at least, there was a lot of whispering going on.
Following here is a link to our Egypt photo album, too difficult to insert one at a time into this blog.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Riding the Bus often

By
From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back.  His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty.  The air-conditioning usually works too well.  I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...
2 comments
Read more

Above the Salt

By
  Above The Salt, a novel written by Katherine Vaz. Notes by Jeffrey Thomas, 14 April  2026.  Report for the Book Group at StJames Anglican Church. An epic historical novel that sweeps through 80 years, from Madeira and all around the United States. The term “above the salt” refers to an old English tradition about the placement of the salt-cellar on a large dining table – people seated closer to the host were “above the salt", socially-favored; by exclusion, those below the salt were on a lower social level. This expression is reflected in the narrative indirectly, in its theme of social distinctions that affect lives in tragic ways; and the author refers to salt often, in relation to tears and to the ocean. I was drawn to the novel by its Portuguese connection, and I enjoyed the language and culture references; but the romantic love stories and the evocation of life in the 1800s propelled the narrative. Occasional poetic metaphorical passages evoked the emotional state ...
Post a Comment
Read more

String Quartet Broken String

By
  We attended a marvelous concert last night, at the Porto Museum of Casa do Infante , a beautifully-renovated 1325 building near the river.  At one point it served as a customs house.  The government sponsors Portuguese musicians to return from other European orchestras to perform in their homeland.  We heard and saw this group play a traditional piece – Haydn string quartet Opus 20 #2.  Then the modern Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti – the stunning last movement of which they performed as an encore.  They performed (and I recorded) the Shostakovich Quartet #9, during which the first-violinist broke a string (it features several strongly-plucked chords!) and had to retreat&repeat! 
Post a Comment
Read more