Egypt and Libya, March 19 - April 2, 2006 / 20060328a_DSM_CorinthiaHotel
Ruth Milner, rmilner plus web at bookofmarvels dot net
Being from Toronto, I
was immediately struck
by how much this hotel resembles Toronto's city hall. It was beautifully
designed; every room had a panoramic view, and only the hallways faced
the inside area. They were cautious about security: vehicles were not
permitted to pull up anywhere near the entrance, and they had a
metal detector and X-ray machine just inside. They had these in Egypt, too,
but there the hotel security staff tended to just wave us through - clearly
doing a little profiling. Here everyone had to put their things on the
scanner. Fortunately, since we were often returning as a group, it was
quick.
When I took this picture, we were heading
off to walk to Green Square, about a mile away (going around the medina).
We took this walk several times, because we found a fabulous indoor market
on the way. The market was arranged in a rectangle of stalls around the
perimeter of a large interior room used as a fish market. The stalls sold
everything imaginable, from fresh food to clothing and even pets. The
vendors were always friendly and cheerful, but were never pushy - a
refreshing change from Egypt where there was a never-ending stream of
people urging you to buy their wares. The area close to the old city has
a number of
major streets that are easy to navigate, but step off those and you
get into a warren of smaller ones.
