Day trip to Alexandria and Visiting Family

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We arrived in Cairo early in the morning from Luxor on the overnight train and hopped straight onto a bus that would drive us to Alexandria, 3 hours away. The day trip to Alexandria was okay- it seems like a nice city to visit and I would have loved to have more time there, but without the luxury of having that extra travel time to explore on our own, we were left with the only option in taking an organized day trip.

I’m not generally a fan of the organized coach tours and having spent the majority of our trip with a private guide we had been spoiled by making our own schedules. There is just far too much to see and do in Alexandria. We made a strange pit stop at a restaurant/zoo that mostly housed dogs in zoo cages and a couple of poor lions.

We began the tour at the Alexandria museum. Although interesting, we spent far too much time here that unfortunately cost us time in other parts of the city. After the museum, we visted the catacombs of Kom el Shugafa. Lots of winding steps to the underground where it was thankfully much cooler than the heat at ground level. These catacombs were much different than the catacombs in Paris that were filled with bones, but similar to those in Rome.

After a seafood lunch at a hotel by the water, we made a stop at the Fortress of Qait Bay. The fortress itself was nice to look at and there were lots of locals fishing off the pier and relaxing in the afternoon sun, including girls who wanted to practice their English, but the rocks around the water were littered with garbage which took away from the scenic view.

Because we were running out of time, we only had a drive by of the Abbu el Abbas mosque before making the long drive back to Cairo on the desert highway for our last night at the Oasis Hotel.

We made it to the last day of our whirlwind tour of Egypt. We spent our final day in Egypt with family who live and work in the Maadi area of Cairo. Visiting with family, we were able to get our own private tour of the Khan el Kahlili Bazaar and get some much needed shopping in. With only a night to catch up with family, we were off to the airport in the early morning for our flight back to Toronto.

All in all it was a fantastic trip with lots of exciting things to see and do. A great experience that has taken me almost 6 full months to fully digest in order to post about my trip experience.

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Photos

Dog zoo
Disturbing, really

Mummy
at the museum

Tram
Alexandria tram

Library of Alexandria
Exterior of the library

Interior library
Inside the library

Planetarium
In front of the planetarium at the Library of Alexandria

Library
The library is partially underground

Breakfast
Our last breakfast at the Oasis

Entertainment
Sadly, did not have enough time to see these guys perform

Shopping
Shopping in the Khan

Lunch
Lunch in an old restaurant in the Khan

Goodbye Egypt
Flying out of Cairo

Pyramids
One last look at the pyramids from the plane