Alexandria!

Ever wonder where 15M rich Egyptians go in the summer....well Alexandria of course! Our trip was a total bust but it makes for some good stories...Alexandria is a quick, inexpensive 2 hour train ride from Cairo. It is an infusion of Greco-Roman and pharonic art and right on the Mediterranean sea. It is also way-too-crowded and chaotic for a breezy day-trip to the beach.

These pictures show kind of a mix of what we saw....a real roman coliseum that the kids could scramble onto, some interesting masonic symbolism, typical Egyptian "the devil may care" attitude about drooping wires (see column picture), and jam-packed living conditions (yep, that is Aedan to the left of the umbrellas actually trying to find the water!). The kids hated it. Our taxi got into a minor car wreck (everyone is ok but Virginia was thrown into the front seat as there are no seatbelts in Egypt), two other taxi drivers got lost, one dropped us off in the middle of nowhere, and one screamed at Joe until Joe finally said some choice words and threatened to get out without paying. I finally ended up throwing money at that taxi driver (not as much as he was demanding though but an amount that was mutually fair) and ran to a guard who went after the taxi guy with the brunt of his gun....Nonetheless, this whole trip gave us some major sympathy with the expats here and one actually gave us a bottle of wine to drown our misery (big deal since you can't buy it here). Bar none....our worst day in Egypt but as you can see.....still interesting.

Aedan starts school in a week and we have decided on one last back-to-school gig. I am almost embarrassed to say that we are going to the water park...something we could clearly do in the US but we all need a break from "culture". We are going on Wed and staying one night.
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/caijw-jw-marriott-hotel-cairo/
At least we are getting the AUC discount....this place is supposed to be niiiiiiiice.....

Lots of love...
Ash and gang