27th April Alexandria

Thirty odd kilometres south of Cairo are a string of pyramids less visited than the Great Pyramids of Giza. Of these the Stepped Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara is the most well known. It is the oldest monument built by man and stands on the edge of the Western Desert. In fact from the base of it it’s easy on a clear day to see across the Nile Valley to the desert on the other side. Makes you realize just how narrow a stretch of cultivated land they have to feed their people. That is apart from the Nile Delta to the north.
We headed down to this area yesterday before heading north to Alexandria. South of Saqqara we also visited the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. The former has sides that have a distinct bend a third of the way up, I guess the pharaoh wanted to be a little different.
We intended heading north to Alexandria then do a sweep around to Port Said, Suez then head down the Gulf of Suez but after talking to one of the tour bus drivers we think we might take the Desert Road to the west of the Nile Valley. He reckoned it was a good road, not much traffic and faster. It means heading back to Cairo though.
In the meantime we will spend the day looking around this Mediterranean city. We got into a bit of a spot yesterday after we had arrived. There are no camp sites here so decided to suss out the hotels. We had forgotten it is the Coptic & Orthodox Easter this weekend and most hotels were full. We finally found one, a bit of a dive but had no choice. I went to drive the van a bit closer, managed to go up a one way street the wrong way and in taking action to get out of that situation ended up in a one way street that happened to be the terminus for the cities mini buses. Here we were in the middle of three rows of vans and in the meantime more had come in behind us. The row would move forward as a minibus would fill up and take off; we just had to be patient. The drivers were trying to work out which row would move the sooner so we could get away. It was a laugh shared by the drivers as well as ourselves. We gave up on that hotel after that and moved along the Corniche and happened upon this nice place. Hotel Ramsis, newly decorated with its own bathroom though it would have to be the smallest ensuite I have seen. Measures about 1200x750mm with the shower over the toilet bowl and a hand basin in the corner. Still, the water is piping hot. Breakfast is included, a view of the Mediterranean from our balcony and all this for AU$16.
The audio books are going well – into our third now with 24 or so to listen to. This time, instead of putting them all onto disc, I ripped them on to my laptop then sync the story we are listening to onto my ipod. I have a Belkin wireless device for my ipod that plays the story through our van radio. Works well apart from sometimes getting interference from some nearby radio station which means we have to change frequencies.