I promise to post a lot of pictures when I have high speed internet. For now , words

As we cruised the Nile for 5 days we mostly moved with a tow boat pulling the Asyia which is mostly a barge with two masts, one in the bow and the other in the stern.  Altogether a strange looking craft. The days generally started no earlier than 8:30 or 9 following a sumptuous breakfast buffet. WE would make a landing or debark from where we had landed the previous night and visit a village, or a site that seldom sees any visitors since there is no landing stage for the big boats. Often we would be met with a smaller boat to convey us to shore or walk a plank from Asyia to the shore. Each day had several hours of cruising, time to read, converse, watch the shore go by. The activities ashore usually required that we shower upon return to the boat, the heat has been in the 40 C range except for evening when it drops into the high 20’s ( 40 C= 104 F 25 = 77 F).  We are content to sit out the midday sun in the shade of the boat or even in the air conditioned lounge. One day they put up the sails and we boarded the tow boat to get pictures of Asyia under sail. This link should get you those pictures.

Upon landing in Aswan we debarked early with our luggage, underway by 7 AM. This gives the crew the time to ready the boat for the down river cruise boarding later that day, and gets us under way to Abu Simbel, a 3 hour drive, in time to see it before the worst heat of the day. The usual tour is a a 2 or 3 AM departure, maybe 2 hours at the site and immediate return to Aswan. We stayed over at an Eco lodge, Esakel,  And were able to return to Abu Simbel at sunset for the sound and light show. 

A word about accommodations. The Cairo Marriott is a grand old hotel with new wings and clearly isThe  among the top hotels we have stayed at. The Winter Palace in  Luxor is a reminder of the era of travelling English Lords and Ladies. The corridors are wide, the rooms most pleasant the lifts are old fashioned but the grand staircase makes up for them. The public rooms have sign admonishing that proper dress is required, no casual wear, certainly not shorts. We avoided them! The boat was far more comfortable than I expected, of course having opted for the “Suite” we had plenty of space and were able to entertain our entire entourage on our aft deck. We all agreed that the stay at Esakel of one night was enough. It was at the primitive end of the spectrum with only 10 rooms and limited resources. We do hope they succeed and continue to provide a fine service permitting groups to stay over in Abu Simbel. Our current hotel, The Old Cataract in Aswan is in a class by itself. When t, incdluding Agatha Christyhe y renovated the building we are in they converted three rooms into one. The basic plan is approximately 35×40 feet  and incorporates 5 rooms! plus q split bathroom, one is just double sinks with room to dance and the other houses a large tub, a shower room and a separate room for the toilet.  This is about the square footage of our apartment in Rochester. The grand halls in the main building amagnificent and later today we a invited to a private tour of the antique rooms where the greats stayed including Agatha Christy.

I seem to have run on a bit, but locomotion has also been varied. The common has been boats, buses and planes. We have also traveled by Tuk-Tuk (three wheel motorcycles with a cab for 2 -4 passengers) Pickup truck, horse drawn cart, and just today camel back. All that remains is the train from Alexandria to Cairo at the end of our trip.

We flew in from NYC on a direct flight on Egypt Air. Maybe the roughest first couple of hours I can remember on any flight in many years. The next 9 hours were just fine. Got a reasonable nights sleep and decent food. On landing it took almost an hour for our luggage to come down the carousel. Then  our first venture into Cairo traffic. Our transfer guide suggested that any painted line markings were strictly for decoration.It proved so, even our driver was straddling lines most of the way. We arrived safely at the Cairo Marriott and found a  nice room waiting for us. 

We wandered around and met Caroline Fayez , our OAT Tour Leader, who gave  us some suggestions of places to wander if we felt up to it. Our first challenge was finding our way out of the hotel onto the street we wanted to see “26th of July” the day Mubarak was turned out of office in the beginning of the revolution in 2011.  Later we joined up with 12 of the remaining 14 of our group for an orientation walk in the area. On the way back Carol and I stopped at Thomases Pizza, a highly recommended pizza place not more than 5 minutes walk from the hotel.

In the morning we did our first touring at the Egyptian Museum. This was a 2 1/2 hour guided tour by Caroline that really covered the highlights of the collection. We had another hour to explore on our own and get into the King Tut Room and the Jewelry Room as well as the Mummy Room. Clearly no pictures allowed in any of these and pictures in the main galleries, while permitted are poor as the lighting is inadequate to show any more than you can find on the web. The repeated comment on the museum is that the collection is incredible, wonderful, priceless and enormous. The museum is in lousy condition, the lightning is poor and the labeling approaches nonexistent, so it requires a knowledgeable guide to help understand what you are seeing. The new museum will open in 2020 plus unknown extensions. In the mean time they are putting nothing into the old even though they plan on keeping it open.

In our rest time we walked to a nearby (?) garden  where met several locals and then took a walk to the Cairo Tower. Someday I must write a blog about using Google Maps in a foreign city with no wifi and a tired brain trying to get around. We hired a taxi for the last lap to the garden and then Google maps took us to the closest point of the grounds of the Tower while failing to note there was no access from that spot. We had to walk around 3 blocks to get to the entrance. It was worth it. The pictures from the top – some 62 stories above ground – would be magnificent if the sky were not cloudy with vapor and pollution.  

In the morning we head fro Giza and the Great Pyramid, the first we will see on this trip.

I still have more to rant about, but will attempt to refrain as I move on to more pleasant subjects. We have been so busy that I have not taken the time to write. I’m not sure anyone really cares how many dinners lunches and brunches we have had this month. Besides, I would have to get out the calendar and would be bored trying to get that all into print.

The major event was a trip to Hamilton where we had a wonderful small cousins gathering to celebrate Aunt Dorothy’s birthday. 96 is wonderful age to reach with sharp mind, and the great beauty she has carried with her as long as I have known her. We had lunch at cousin Marilyn’s home, Al is gone, with Harvey and Leslie and Arnie and Peggy. It was a fun gathering with plenty of reminiscing and sharing of pictures.

After staying the night at Marilyn’s place , we set out for Niagara on the Lake and the Shaw Festival Theater for a performance of GBShaw’s “Man and Superman” with the 3rd act “Don Juan in Hell” included. This started at 11 AM broke for lunch after the 2nd act and resumed at 2:30 finally concluding at about 5:15. It is indeed a long day of theater. And Shaw being Shaw the number of words would have filled two plays of the same duration. The soliloquys in Act 3 were so long that Shaw even had one character comment  that the length of Don Juan’s speeches were very long, twice! It is amazing that that the actors were able to deliver these lengthy lines almost flawlessly. The program notes reference the nature of this play as a marathon or grand opera. It takes stamina on the part of the performers AND the audience. We were thrilled with the performance and delighted to have had the rare opportunity to see this production in full. It was the first of 17 scheduled performances. After a light dinner in town we had a pleasant drive home.

My major time sink this month has been Ancestry.com. Carol and I did DNA testing a couple of years ago and neither of us has taken the time to do anything about it other than to look to see that we are indeed where we thought we were from with no real surprises. I have spent endless hours building the family tree on both the maternal and paternal sides of my family and assisting Carol in starting to build her tree. From my grandparents “down” it has been pretty easy although I have found a couple of cousins I did not know about and the links to many more at the 3rd cousin level who I do not have names or lineage for. Tackling the pedigree side of the tree is more difficult as there are few people around with any memory and much memory cannot be trusted without some documentation. I will need to upgrade my database access to see documents from out of the US and have been putting that off until I have a couple of months in the US to do the work. 

My only comment on the political scene is that I am sick to my stomach with the hate speech from all sides and I fear for future generations of non-white non-European stock in this country. In all my life I have never seen such raw antisemitism expressed by public figures in public venues. If the blame for whatever failures are  fantasized, is placed today on Latinos, Asians, nonwhite immigrants, how long before the Jews join the ranks of scapegoats?

I promised not to rant. . . . . . . .  promise broken, so sorry!!!! 

We had a visit from our friends from Jojoba Hills, Greg and Mary Beth. They arrived late afternoon and we picked them up at their hotel to visit our apartment and go out to dinner. Somehow I immediately slipped into tour guide mode and had to take the long way around to the apartment. Since the actual route was a straight line, it was a a bit of a meander along River Road though Genesee Valley Park and Mt Hope Cemetary (or was that Tueday?) We finally decided on dinner at The Dinosaur Barbecue, rated by most sources as the #1 restaurant in Rochester. I would argue the rating, but

not that it is the very best barbecue in the state and one of my favorites. Someday I’ll have to order something besides the brisket plate. Tuesday we I picked them up while first dropping Carol off to an unavoidable appointment. We went to Lock 32, one of several  Erie Canal locks near Rochester. After watching a couple of boats lock though upstream (west bound), we picked Carol up and headed up toward Charlotte at Lake Ontario. By now I was in full flow, spouting history and stories of Rochester like one of the seasoned tour leaders we enjoy so much in our travels. I kept surprising myself as I took turns that even i had forgotten I knew, like Boxart Street off Lake Ave to get to Turning Point Park where we walked down to the board walk along the river. Carol made it down and back up just fine.

Lunch was at The Port of Rochester Terminal building at Bill Gray’s. We were shocked at how high the water is, overflowing in places where it seemed least likely. We have been hearing the lake shore people complaining and are certainly aware of how high the lake is, but to see it was another thing. The east pier on the river is almost completely submerged. Our path took us though Durand Eastman Park, up to Empire Boulevard and down into the neck of land where Irondequoit Bay meets Irondequoit creek that is flowing from Ellison Park. I was defeated in finding parking as the public lot was underwater. From there we returnied to the apartment with some digressions to rest up for dinner.  After an hour break we headed out to Wegman’s where they needed to do some minor shopping. While we were in the store, Carol booked a table at TRATA (The Restaurant At The Armory). We avoided expressways and took some residential roads that eventually brought us into yet another park, Cobbs Hill, which was teaming with baseball players of all sizes and abilities. After dinner, which was very nice, it was collapse time for all, but first we drove around the Cobbs Hill Reservoir which was crowded with people enjoying the pleasant evening and the view of the city skyline before dropping them back at the hotel and going  home to sleep.  

The remaining must see on the list was the George Eastman Museum. We met in the parking lot and entered in time to join a wonderful docent lead tour. I have often said I could give the mansion tour having been in and around it most of my life, but Shari brought some fresh insights and I found myself enjoying the tour. After lunch in the cafe, we went through the galleries rather quickly and said our goodbyes as Greg and Mary Beth went out the door to the parking lot.

I finally stopped talking and thinking about where to next. this guiding shtick would be a lot easier if I had a planned and timed route, but it would not have been as much fun for me. If any of you readers from out o f town want to tour the places I have described, come and visit, but you had better hurry as we will be gone early September. 

We romped out of the apartment headed for Geva to hear Acoustic Alchemy. As we paused at Division St (you would have to be local to even know its there) a Jazz Shuttle appeared. The driver saw our Club Passes and opened the door to us, commenting that he wasn’t supposed to pick people up away from an assigned stop. This was the start of a day of everything going right. We got seats in the 4th row center for the group and they pinned us there with their great sound and joy. It was a shame it was first set and they had to limit themselves to the hour set time. If they appear in a venue we can get to ,we would go a bit out of our way to hear them in an extended performance. Read the City Music Blog here.

We cleared out of Geva and headed up Clinton toward Temple Building. This meant passing right by Parcel 5 which was hosting Cha Wa a group that we had no interest in hearing but couldn’t avoid in passing. We got into the Temple and settled in for some good times with Joey Defranceso Trio. Joey was front and center on his Hammond B3 Organ with an electric keyboard poised on top. The opening sounded like a group warming up/tuning up just noodling each in his own world until they brought it all together on a tight number. While we were there Joey played both keyboards, saxophone and trumpet! about 45 minutes in we beat feet to get some dinner and place in line to hear Kansas Smitty’s House Band in Kilborn Hall.

After the introduction the “back line” piano, bass, guitar and drums came out and played an opening number then out came the horns to add to the joyful noise.  They are listed as part of the Made in the UK series and come from London. They actually own their own club there appropriately named Kansas Smitty’s. You can read Jeff Spevak’s review in the linked blog for more information. We really enjoyed the show and stayed in our seats until it was clear they were not coming back out. 

We crossed the street to Max for Andrea Bachfeld & Insight. The crowds were dwindling and we were able to get seats almost immediately. However Carol and I had a disagreement about whether to stay or move to Montage for Sisters Euclid. I got obstinate because this was the first lead flute we were  hearing and Sisters Euclid was more sax, guitar etc we had been hearing all week. We stayed, but left about 45 minutes into the set to see what was happening at the Jam. When we got to the Jam the area was jammed and the noise level was so high I couldn’t hear the horn on stage. After a few minutes we decided to call it a Festival and go home to bed.

Today’s plan is NOTHING! Well, Carol is doing Reachout Radio at WXXI this morning. 

Review and thoughts. In past years I have kept a nightly tally of Club Pass venues attended to justify the $360 we spent on them. I didn’t think to do that this year, but I just went back and counted and It appears we went in to 32 venues. This is less than $6 per entrance to shows costing $30 ($35 at Kilbourn). Once again the Club Pass is a win for us. We were worried bout getting around given Carol’s ongoing recovery from the hip fracture. Although it was not always easy, we managed to get where we needed to be and get seating. The addition of Geva to the venues was a blessing and a curse. The curse being that it stretched the periphery of the Festival by at least a couple of blocks, the blessing was the addition of Wilson Hall with its 500 comfortable seats and great sight lines and acoustics. Also the comfortable lobby area with bar and restaurant was a great plus. For some the ability to cross the street and wait at Native Eats or sit in Washington Square Park without losing their place in line was an added benefit. 

There was another major change in moving the major free shows to Parcel 5 from Chestnut Street at East Avenue. For those of us not interested in losing our hearing to Trombone Shorty this was wonderful because it cleared out the area around the main venues and enabled us to move without fighting the thousands to get from one to the other. The disadvantage for some is that it spread the crowd out more and made it feel less jammed with tens of thousands. I am among those who missed Harro East as a venue. I would hope the managers and the Festival group could come to a happy agreement. I must admit that the Harro East management were the ugliest about refusing to let even a water bottle in so they could have the opportunity to sell more overpriced water. Some reported missing the Little Theater, unavailable because of a major renovation, but I am not so sure. It is a bit of a walk and in its former state it was little. 

Of the 32 venues plus free stages I attended or listened to in passing I would say I heard an amazing variety of music performed by wonderful professional musicians. I exempt the wonderful High School Bands heard on Jazz Street although some of the players surely will play professionally in the future. John Nugent is inclined to say “It isn’t who you know, it’s who you don’t know.” By opening ourselves up to groups we don’t know to styles we are unfamiliar with, Carol and I have enjoyed an ever growing variety of music we enjoy. From straight jazz standards to experimental performances utilizing high tech manipulation, from classical chamber and orchestral performances to the very occasional opera, we are open to all. the festival is a wonderful opportunity to expand our range. Not that we enjoy it all, but we listen for a while to learn what it is we like and don’t like. 

We plan on buying our Club Passes for next years CGI Rochester International Jazz Festival June 19  to 27 as soon as they are available. We have signed up to keep the apartment!