Youssef Rakha captures Egypt's foremost summer destination away from the beach For Cairo dwellers, the journey to Alexandria -- usually a one-day affair, at most a long weekend -- remains a special ritual; most have given up the beaches of their childhood for more exotic, less ruined Red Sea shores; and they go, whether for business or pleasure, straight to the city centre. Many drive to the city but others, the more nostalgic perhaps, maintain the old middle- to upper-class tradition of going by train, a journey that takes from two to four hours depending on the iron horse in operation and the number of stops it is scheduled to make on the way. Today the small hotels and pensions off Raml Station afford the possibility, a very rare thing in Egypt, of clean affordable lodgings. Like much of downtown they also offer a glimpse of the city's faded grandeur, while having the advantage of overlooking the seashore -- Alexandria's famous Corniche. Such places thus give you the opportunity to view the city from above: the most fascinating perspective on the combination of colonial architecture, horse-drawn carts and automobiles that forms the substance of Alexandria's street life; from the seclusion of a small balcony: people watching. And then there are the insides of the buildings to take in: the arches, the stairways, the impossibly high ceilings; the modest balconies looking out onto the sea; the book racks reminiscent of Athens and the Art Nouveau decorations; wherever you look, some aspect of history or geography... But no matter how much time you spend inside and no matter how far and wide you end up roaming the city, it is the Corniche that remains your principal point of interest, your reference and objective, and the site of many a long, long walk -- west to the old city, east to the new. At sunset. Or sunrise. Further west, on the outskirts of Bahari, where the gulf carved out by Alexander the Great gives way to the open sea, the little fishing boats are moored below the prospect of the Qaitbey Citadel; and water birds flutter past at ever closer distances. A kind of paradise lives on. Further east along the promenade, the horse-drawn hantour -- more of a tourist attraction than a viable means of transportation nowadays -- shares space with the ubiquitous microbus. Whole stretches of the stone promenade remain more or else free for pleasure-seeking couples. But on nights when there is heavy traffic along the Corniche, from the other side of the road Alexandria appears almost identical to Cairo: a swirl of feet and tyres coursing through the artificial light. The main difference being: there are cafés in Alexandria where you can sit and watch. Among the more famous of these is the Trianon, the café-restaurant of the Metropole Hotel, the windows of which reflect the main square of Raml Station -- no longer, by the way, a station -- dominated as it remains by the statue of the early 20th-century statesman Saad Zaghloul. Zaghloul is a national hero who fought for independence and his exile by the British was the trigger of the 1919 Revolution, the first major event in the history of modern Egypt. Like many heroes -- the musician Sayed Darwish, for example -- he came originally from Alexandria. Today his statue is at the centre of the square, and a main downtown street -- the site of the famous Greek restaurant Elite, off of which lies the apartment in which C P Cavafy lived -- is named after his wife, Safeya Zaghoul. Artists like Anna Boughigian, an Armenian by birth, have always included his statue in renditions of Alexandria: he seems to define it. So does the tramway, a painfully slow means of transportation that passes through the centre of town. It is by tram that you should go to Bahari, the old town overlooking the open sea, where the boats are manufactured and the best seafood served. Its windows afford a glimpse of the Abul-Abbas Mosque, containing the shrine of one of Egypt's most famous Sufi masters who, in line with his birthplace, back in Andalusia, is named El-Mursi. Occasionally, even among the implements of contemporary life deep in the heart of Bahari, you will come across something that reminds of how special Alexandria is, and why it is still worth a visit for its own sake, not just for the sake of the sea...
