Not My Cup of Tea

Mersa Matrouh & Alamein, Egypt

I understand that a lot of people get pulled into war on one side or the other for geo-political reasons having very little to do with their personalities. They end up fighting for the "wrong" side because it's the side they identify more strongly with. It doesn't mean that I can feel great sympathy for Hitler's famous Field Marshall Rommel. Yes, he fought a "fair" war against Hitler's explicit orders to, for example, immediately execute all Jewish POWs. I still find it difficult to follow along when the tour guide says that Rommel was a great man.

On our way home from Mersa Matrouh today, we stopped first at the Rommel Museum in Mersa Matrouh itself. The museum has been established in a cave where Rommel had his headquarters for the Battle for Northern Africa, and is filled with personal effects brought to the site by Rommel's son. The first thing you see when you walk in is a big Nazi flag. I guess I spent too many semesters studying 20th Century German history to take that flag as mere historical fact.

Then we stopped at the Commonwealth Cemetery in Alamein, where the WWII dead of the Commonwealth countries and their allies, including Jordanians and Egyptians, were buried. As mind-boggling as the numbers are of dead and missing from the African Front, I found it hard to register any sort of feeling for the place. Then again, maybe it was just the overbearing heat....

Sandy Beach, Rocky Beach

Mersa Matrouh, Egypt

This evening, we took the bus further west along the coast to see some of the more famous beaches in the area. The Cleopatra Beach, where the last and most famous Queen Cleopatra (the one who married Julius Caesar and Marc Antoni) supposedly bathed, had great rocks. I could've stayed for hours, photographing from different angles.

From Beach Weekend

Then we went a little further along the coast to Agiba Beach, known for its interesting rock formations.

From Beach Weekend

Messing About In Boats

Mersa Matrouh, Egypt

There's nothing more worth doing than messing about in boats!

- Ratty to Mole in The Wind In The Willows

After too much sun and not enough sunscreen on the beautiful white beach in Mersa Matrouh today, the whole ALI/CASA group went down the street to climb onto a pair of boats and see the city from the water.

From Beach Weekend

The bay was beautiful, the water as blue and clear as could be. Out near the line of rocks that protects the bay from the bigger waves of the Mediterranean, we stopped for some swimming and a backflip contest among the military men in the group.

From Beach Weekend

They made great eye candy!

I only wish we'd had an opportunity to sail on some faluka. Just as much as swimming, I love sailing, and it's a treat I haven't been able to indulge in for a very long time!

From Beach Weekend