21. Alexandria, Egypt

We awoke on Sunday to the blaring siren of a police boat which circled our ship for several minutes as we approached the Ship Terminal at Alexandria, Egypt. It was such a small boat, compared to our huge vessel, but its mission of police security was evident to all who were within earshot of of that screeching sound. It was a beautiful, sunny morning to begin our second day in Egypt. The busy harbor area has a very industrial appearance, and the Norwegian Jade is the only cruise ship in port today. The terminal building is a huge and very modern building, but it has absolutely nothing inside, except the security checkpoint for passengers going and coming to the ship. Just outside the terminal building, the port has erected a long row of vendor shops. So we did not have to go far to find a wide variety of Egyptian souvenirs and other products. But we did decide to walk into town to find an internet café several blocks from the entrance to the harbor. As my coffee arrived (Egyptian, of course), I became aware that my computer had refused to boot up. I assumed that the battery had failed, even though I had charged it overnight. The rest of the story is that the hard drive had crashed, and I only had a black screen when I turned on the laptop. So we packed up the dead computer, finished my coffee, and Cynthia’s bottled water, and walked across town to the waterfront area of the city. Alexandria offers a beautiful, crescent shaped beach, with many people enjoying the sand and the water. We had a wonderful view of the castle, a Mosque and the Library, all positioned along the beautiful crescent coastline. This harbor is also the location of the once-famous Pharos of Alexandria lighthouse, one of the classical “7 Wonders of the Ancient World.” Many of the passengers from our ship had taken the all day excursion to the Pyramids of Giza and the city of Cairo. Those pyramids are the only remaining landmarks of those 7 Ancient Wonders of the World. Since we had seen them fairly recently, we passed over that tour and just waked around the port city instead. From the waterfront, which was a hefty walk from the harbor, we hired a taxi to take us back to the ship. At the time for sailing away, the Captain announced that we would have a 3 hour delay, due to a medical emergency with one of the passengers. So we went to dinner in Le Bistro, a French restaurant which is one of the optional restaurants on the ship. I had arranged for reservations on Cynthia’s birthday, so it would be a more memorable dinner meal. The Cruise Director, a multi-lingual, very talented former Las Vegas entertainer, had announced that he would be singing French songs in Le Bistro that night, accompanied by a quintet from the ship’s orchestra. While we were eating, we both had a delightful surprise when he turned in our direction and began singing Happy Birthday, in FRENCH, including “dear Cynthia,” in English. What a total surprise! He came over to our table afterwards and spoke to us and wished Cynthia a more personal Happy Birthday. Later, as we made our way back to our cabin on Deck 9, we opened the door and were surprised again to see a room full of streamers, and balloons, and confetti sprinkled all over the bed and the floor. What a nice surprise for NCL to arrange such a memorable celebration of Cynthia’s birthday. I was aware that she would celebrate a birthday aboard the ship, but had no idea it would be like this. Thanks, NCL!