Tuesday, May 7, 2013

May 3, 2013 Suez Canal, Egypt

Today we have scenic cruising through the Suez Canal from 1:00p to 5:00p.

It was an interesting day as we did the Northbound transit starting early this morning. There were lots of military along the way and they all waved and shouted various things as we passed by. Most said “Welcome to Egypt” One said “please visit Egypt!” Another shouted “I love you!” Very scenic as well.
The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level canal running north to south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt and linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea: built (1854-69) by de Lesseps with French and Egyptian capital; nationalized in 1956 by the Egyptians. Length: 163 km (101 miles)
The canal separates the African continent from Asia, and it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans. It is one of the world's most heavily used shipping lanes.
The canal is single lane with passing places in Ballah By-Pass and in the Great Bitter Lake. It contains no locks; seawater flows freely through the canal. A railway on the west bank runs parallel to the canal for its entire length.
We arrived early and waited our turn for the convoy of ships. We passed Little Bitter Lake, Great Bitter Lake, Deversoir Bypass, Jabal Mary Am War Memorial, Lake Timsah and Ismaillia, Suez War Memorial, El Ferdan Railway Bridge (the longest  swing span bridge in the world), Al Ballah By-pass, Suez Canal Bridge (also known as Egyptian-Japanese Friendship Bridge) and El Qantara Strait. We ended at Port Said where we spent the night, but couldn’t get off the ship as it was a technical stop for fuel bunkering service. We couldn’t get off until the next morning as scheduled. That of course frustrated the many vendors on shore and I’m sure some passengers. We were never scheduled to get off, but not everyone pays attention to details.



























































We had dinner in the dining room and went to the encore presentation of Malcolm Pitt who sang a different show than his Lionel Ritchie show. He does too much of the sing a long thing where he stops singing and depends on the audience to sing.
Back to the room for our early for our 4:45 wakeup call to see the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx and Cairo!

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