Engels in Egypt and Israel

Incongruous to see huge billboards (many in the heart of the crowded urban metropolis) advertise luxurious oceanside resorts. These resorts are megadevelopments with houses, hotels, retail… rising from the sand

Rockets, reprisals, arrests etc. Could actually hear it this morning, it’s about half hour from here. The shelters have opened but life continues

Where Jews entered promise land and where Jesus was baptized. I was hoping for a more evangelical experience but they were wearing a long Tshirt and doing selfies.

Gouna and many towns under construction like it…. Are rising up ex nihilo

Evening at the club

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The sports club: Gezira Sports Club is huge, a relic of colonial days. Started in the 1880s as a British officers club, it is 150 acres dead in the center of Cairo. Squash, tennis, many pools for eg diving and water polo, several golf courses, basketball, running tracks, workout rooms, boxing, equestrian, and of course… Read more: July 3. Hang out at the sports club, then sail on the Nile and dinner on Zamalek

This island in the middle of the Nile in the middle of Cairo is one of the more cosmopolitan areas. Total mix of rich and poor old and new sparkly/modern and decayed and covered in a dust that evokes 40s Peter Lorre movies. Many elegant art deco buildings turned monochrome by the dust, and the… Read more: June 30 back to Zamalek. Some observations.

Long long drive from the hotel, then we had an utterly relentless guide. The whole climb was about 3 miles, from 5000 feet to 7500 feet altitude at peak, ending in 750 stairs. It was a bit arduous for me but punctuated with a humorous number of snack huts with warm soda, melted chocolate bars,… Read more: Climbed Mount Sinai and the walled city/monestary St Catherine (AD 565)

Wedding video Thousands of people out at all times of day and night. Total disregard for lanes, pedestrians Video of some of drive home 45 minute drive but almost entirely on a system of overpasses with all kinds of vehicles ignoring the lanes

Monica flew separately… And they lost her bag! We had delays and a mad dash through Istanbul