London - Chapter One

The trip from Benghazi to Tripoli was somewhat uneventful.  I am sure glad that my genius driver was handy. He had to lead me thru the airport process step by step because none of the signage is in English and very few of the announcements over the PA system are in English. I saw a couple of guys in front of me at the ticket counter going to Tripoli and they had the same colored boarding passes, so I did not let them out of my sight as we made our way to the plane.

When I got to Tripoli, my layover was going to be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.  I decided to take a trip into town and meet up with some of my fellow RWA collegues, at least check my email at the office vs. sitting around the airport and people watch. That was fun for a bit, but it would get a little old after six or seven hours. Took a cab into Tripoli and met some RW guys that I have talked to on the phone or emailed, but now I have a face with the name.

Got another cab back to the airport and off I went to London. My flight got me into Heathrow on Tuesday, so that way I could go meet Carol on Wednesday morning after she took the red-eye from Indy to Chicago to London.

My terrific little bed and breakfast that I found in Notting Hill turned out to be Nothing Hill. The room was so small that the door to the room actually bumped into the bed and the bed was pushed over to one side and was touching the other wall. The bathroom was so small I thought I was back in the airplane bathroom. The sink was so tiny that you have to be careful how you spit your toothpaste out or you will spit on your shoes. It was sad. I spent the first night there, but got up early the next morning and since the wifi did not work at the Nothing Hill, I went down the street to my favorite restaurant, McDonald’s and used their wifi. I found another bed and breakfast a few blocks from Nothing Hill and walked over and checked it out before I made a reservation there. Then it was time to go to the airport and meet up with Carol.

In another chapter I will talk about mass transit systems, but it is THE way to go to Heathrow. Carol’s flight was on time and we made it back to the hotel at Kensington Garden Square.

London - Chapter Two

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the annual Christmas event at the Royal Albert Hall. It is sponsored by The Salvation Army. This year is the Salvation Army’s 125^th anniversary. It started in the UK those many years ago. The program was terrific and the architecture inside and out of the Royal Albert Hall was breathtaking. My pictures do not do it justice. You will just have to come to London and see it for yourself. We had terrific box seats and the music and program were great. The weather in London was a little on the chilly side, so we took a cab over to the concert. From my maps it looked like we could just walk thru Kensington Park and we would be right there. Little did I realize that Kensington Park is almost the size of New York’s Central Park. It would have been quite a hike.

The jet lag caught up with us, so we did not hurry around too much on Thursday, besides it was Thanksgiving Day. We went to a English pub and had Cottage Pie and fish and chips, then we went to an old movie theater to see the new release of “Harry Potter.” The theater reminded me of when the Cirlcle Theater in Indy was a movie theater. Very ornate paneling and balconies to watch the movies.

Now about mass transportation. Indianapolis needs to get their act together and get some light rail systems going. The express train from London to Heathrow took 15 minutes to get out to the international terminal. The light rail lines are pretty much on schedule and thousands of people are using the system. It was very safe and very clean. Parts are very old, but still functioning well. We got a multi-day pass and we went everywhere.  Plus being underground, we did not have to worry too much about the outside temperatures.

London - Chapter Three

Friday was a gorgeous day. The sun was out and it was a little cool, but not nearly as much wind as on Thursday. We decided to take the Underground to the London Eye. The huge ferris wheel that was built for Y2K. It is right on the Thames and near lots of other stuff. We saw Big Ben and Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

The Eye has 32 gondolas that can hold up to 28 people. We were lucky and only about 12 or so were in our gondola. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes for the gondola to make one revolution. The views  are spectacular and since we had such a clear day, they said we could see about 20 miles away.  There is a clever four minute 4D video that you view before going on the Eye. I don’t want to ruin it for you, so you will have to see it for yourself. From the Eye it was interesting to see the old historic parts of London and all of the new contemporary architecture that the City has to offer.

Saturday was time for shopping and visiting St. Paul's Cathedral. It is quite something inside and it makes me want to see St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome now. The history of St. Paul’s during World War II and the previous cathedrals that were on that same site was quite fascinating.

Sir Christopher Wren was quite the architect of his time. He really knew how to make the interiors of the space make you feel that much closer to God.

Packed my bags again

Well I am off to London to see Carol and have a relaxing time in the UK. I noticed as I was flying out of the airport in Benghazi that the sand in and around my new temporary residence is very red in color. It made me think of the movie "Total Recall". The ground area is so red one might think they are on Mars. The flight to Tripoli went straight over the Mediterranean Sea. Only took a little more than an hour to get to Tripoli. I discovered that there was a flight to London at 8:30 a.m. I got in at 8:35.....so now I have to figure out a way to pass the time at the Tripoli airport until the 3:55 p.m. flight takes off. After an hour of people watching I decided to take a cab to the RW Armstrong office and hang out there. At least they will have a wifi where I can compose this blog segment.
People watching is fun......everyone is the same......little girls crying and Mommy can't do anything with her so she hands her over to Daddy and the tears go away. So we are all the same no matter what country we are from.....
I will try to add more blog postings this week if Carol will allow me to get the computer out of my briefcase. Cheers.........

Show Me the Money

Over the past few weeks I have decided that one currency for the entire world would be a good thing. In the past week I have gone from Libyan dinars to US dollars to Egyptian Pounds and back to dinars. This week I am going from dinars to British Pounds. Everyone of these transactions is costing me a transaction fee and who knows what else. When I flew to Egypt I had to show my transaction fee paperwork to the airport security guys, so that they can catch anyone that might be laundering money. When I went to the bank to get US dollars converted from dinars I was behind a guy in line that had bricks and bricks of money (dinars) that he was converting. I do not know what business that guy is in, and maybe I don't want to know what business he is in (if you know what I mean).
And why can't money all be the same size like good old US currency. Some of the 20 dinar bills that I have in my wallet are so wide they stick out the top of my wallet. The paper that some of this stuff is printed on is so flimsy that it tears very easily. So whatever paper mill the US uses is the stuff to have.
So I have decided that with all of the billions and billions of dollars that are being printed at our mints in the US these days, we might as well work out a deal with the rest of the world and go with US dollars everywhere. Then we don't have to convert 1 British Pound into $1.44 or 5.60 Egyptian Pounds into $1. I have a headache trying to keep track of how much I am spending. Thank goodness for a currency converter on my iPhone.

Cairo - Chapter One

I have so much to say about my mini-vacation to Cairo that I thought I would break it into multiple blog chapters. So don’t miss out on any of the info.

Traveling to Cairo was very easy on Monday. One of the guys from the hotel project was going to Cairo to visit some of his family. So he took me to the airport and helped me thru customs. It was nice to have my own translator as my left-hand man. The flight to Cairo was smooth and on schedule. The Cairo airport is very nice and modern. The hotel had a driver waiting for me and he happened to be standing right at the end of the passport line that I was standing in. What are the chances of that?? The driver could speak very good English and he gave me a tour of Cairo on the way to the airport. It was about an hour ride so we went by the President’s residence and took a bridge over the Nile. Interesting view from the bridge, there is an island in the middle of the Nile and a Christian church and a mosque sit side by side on the island.

I picked the Le Meridien Hotel because of its proximity to the Pyramids. The staff were very friendly and helpful. My room reminded me of the Sheraton in Abu Dhabi. The bathroom is a huge shower. The shower has one of those Kohler rainfall shower heads. I might have to remodel our bathroom at home to get one of those. It was great. The walls and floors are all marble.

I had dinner sitting on the pool deck and watched the sun go down and watched the Pyramids fade away in the dusk light.

Cairo - Chapter Two

My Pyramid tour started early on Tuesday morning. When I emailed the folks at the Le Meridien I told them that I would like to go on a tour, they said “no problem”. That is a favorite expression in Libya and Egypt. Usually when I hear it, I am a little leary, because it usually means there is going to be a “big problem”. To my surprise it was a great tour. I thought it was going to be me and a group of tourists on the tour. When my tour guide arrived at 9:00 a.m. I asked her how many people are going to be in the group. She said “you are the only one”. I was shocked, I had a private tour guide for a six hour tour of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, a visit to Memphis and to Saqqara. So I had a driver and the tour guide and me in a brand new Jaguar Xtype car. I am really spoiled on this mini-vacation. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about all of the sights and knew where to take good pictures. I hope you enjoy some of the images that I have uploaded.

You will notice a photo that I had to take near the Sphinx. It shows that capitalism is alive and well in Cairo. Pizza Hut and KFC have a restaurant located at one of the gates when you leave the Sphinx area.

At Saqqara I saw a movie about Imhotep, the genius architect that came up with the design of the stepped pyramid at Saqqara. This was around 2000 B.C. about 1000 years before the Great Pyramids were built in Giza near the Le Meridien Hotel.

During the various dynasties of Egypt, Memphis was the capitol. It is located on the West bank of the Nile. The Nile Valley is a very green lush area especially this time of year. So the contrast of the desert plateau where the Pyramids are located and the green lush Nile Valley was very interesting.