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Back in Cairo, the fog, the old City

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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.

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