El Alamein ... a time to reflect
Today we had a super lazy start to our final day in Egypt with a meeting time set for 11.00 am. This gave us plenty of time to repack our cases, check work emails, check out of our wonderful hotel before meeting Marwa in the lobby. Then onto the bus and in the trusty driving hands of Saad for the hour and a half drive to El Alamein.
The drive is really interesting as for almost 100 km the Mediterranean is lined with massive resorts where you can own your own tiny piece of paradise that you can enjoy during the summer. The resorts are huge and an aerial shot using Google maps shows how far they spread and all the different intricate layouts of the resorts.
We arrived in El Alamein and headed to the War Museum that commemorates the battles
that occured in Egypt during World War II. We spent an hour wandering the exhibits. We were the only people there and the staff followed us from room to room
... I'm not sure if they didn't trust us or they were just so surprised to see visitors. It is an unusual museum in that it attributes no blame, no one is portrayed as evil, all sides of the story are told and celebrated. It is a humbling experience to have spent time there.
We then headed to the Commonwealth War Cemetery which was just down the road from the museum. It contains the graves of over 11,000 Commonwealth soldiers that lost their lives in the battle of El Alamein. It is a truly magnificent space and a sobering experience to walk amongst the memorial stones many of which are named and inscribed and some that simply acknowledge an unknown soldier. The design and layout is vast and the Australian Memorial is a beautiful monument to those that served.
And so ended our tour of Egypt. Saad was tasked with ensuring we made it safely back to Cairo Airport ... along wide toll roads that cut through the desert, to the more built up areas of outer Cairo, through Giza allowing one last glimpse of the pyramids, through manic peak hour traffic and finally to the newly opened Terminal 2 where we were met for the last time by our friendly master guide Mustafa. Along the way we said goodbye to Marwa leaving her about 2 hours into our journey where she would be closer to home so she could see her children before she heads off on her next guiding adventure ... cruising the Nile from Aswan to Luxor with about 20 students from an international school here in Egypt.
Now we are at the airport ... well in advance of our early morning flight to Dubai where we will spend 2 nights. We have time to kill but we are not fussed. We have food and water, we are warm and soon we will be able to check in, check our luggage through and then relax until our flight.
So goodbye Egypt. You have been incredible. More than I ever imagined. My 8 year old self is so excited that my 51 year old self has been able to finally see your wonders, your history, your beauty and the friendliness or your people. I have learnt an awful lot in the short time we have been here and I realise that there is an awful lot I still have to learn.
Tomorrow Dubai!!
The drive is really interesting as for almost 100 km the Mediterranean is lined with massive resorts where you can own your own tiny piece of paradise that you can enjoy during the summer. The resorts are huge and an aerial shot using Google maps shows how far they spread and all the different intricate layouts of the resorts.
We arrived in El Alamein and headed to the War Museum that commemorates the battles
that occured in Egypt during World War II. We spent an hour wandering the exhibits. We were the only people there and the staff followed us from room to room
... I'm not sure if they didn't trust us or they were just so surprised to see visitors. It is an unusual museum in that it attributes no blame, no one is portrayed as evil, all sides of the story are told and celebrated. It is a humbling experience to have spent time there.
And so ended our tour of Egypt. Saad was tasked with ensuring we made it safely back to Cairo Airport ... along wide toll roads that cut through the desert, to the more built up areas of outer Cairo, through Giza allowing one last glimpse of the pyramids, through manic peak hour traffic and finally to the newly opened Terminal 2 where we were met for the last time by our friendly master guide Mustafa. Along the way we said goodbye to Marwa leaving her about 2 hours into our journey where she would be closer to home so she could see her children before she heads off on her next guiding adventure ... cruising the Nile from Aswan to Luxor with about 20 students from an international school here in Egypt.
Now we are at the airport ... well in advance of our early morning flight to Dubai where we will spend 2 nights. We have time to kill but we are not fussed. We have food and water, we are warm and soon we will be able to check in, check our luggage through and then relax until our flight.
So goodbye Egypt. You have been incredible. More than I ever imagined. My 8 year old self is so excited that my 51 year old self has been able to finally see your wonders, your history, your beauty and the friendliness or your people. I have learnt an awful lot in the short time we have been here and I realise that there is an awful lot I still have to learn.
Tomorrow Dubai!!
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