Royal Gorge Train a Real Treat

Vintage train cars ride the rails through a deep canyon carved by the Arkansas River

There's a lot of history to the rail line through an Arkansas River canyon northwest of Cañon City. In the 1870s, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe fought a literally and figurative turf war over which line would build a line along the river. The battle reached the Supreme Court, and the Denver and Rio Grande won. At one time, the busy line connected Pueblo's magnificent railroad terminal, Salida and Leadville's high-elevation station and eentually beyond to Minturn. Now, the Royal Gorge Route train uses a relatively few miles of trackage to take tourists through the Arkansas River's most dramatic canyon, but it does so in vintage style.

Coach class, open-air cars where passengers stand and swivel for ever-changing views, Vista Dome cars with lunch, dinner or wine dinner service, murder mystery trains, rail/raft packages combining a train ride upstream and a raft trip back downriver, Santa Express trains and even the opportunity to ride in the cab with the engineer are Royal Gorge options. The rail company commissioned Idaho artist Ward Hooper to create a special, limited edition poster (above left) in a retro style to match the cars and recently hired Donald Burns as executive chef. We took what amounted to a twilight "hors d'oeuvre train" to introduce both the graphic artist and the culinary artist to the media.

Among other credentials, Burns was corporate chef for the luxurious American Orient Express, and he has brought his culinary touch to the Royal Gorge route. The excellent small plates served to the media are not on the regular menu, but the route and the scenery are the same, no matter which class of service. A cute little depot with ticket office and extensive gift shop is the train's home port.

The train pulls our of the station and heads westward, paralleling the river, and soon passes the outskirts of Cañon City. The Arkansas is running really fast these days from high-country snowmelt. Even the flatwater was high, lapping over its customary banks. Our tablemates are Pueblo locals whose son works for a raft company. He told them that the swift current had been turning their "family float" trip into a fast float . 

Soon the valley closes in and the train enters the area of rock slopes and later steep cliffs, pinching down the river into raging whitewater. Authorities are warning even experienced rafters and kayakers off many Colorado rivers until they calm down, but looking down from the train was both exciting and disquieting, because running water like this can be really dangerous.  

The railroad could collect tickets at the boarding gate, airline-style, but it retains the traditional flavor with a uniformed conductor checking them on the train. He's probably making sure that coach ticket holders haven't upgraded themselves into the dome card, but he does so subtly and with a broad smile.

Artifacts along the banks include remaining sections of redwood pipe that once brought gravity-fed water to thirsty Cañon City.

We stopped for quite some time at the narrowest part of the canyon, with the Royal Gorge Bridge -- the world's high suspension bridge -- resembling nothing more substantial than a tightrope a thousand feet above the water surface.

As the train returned to Cañon City, the setting sun slotted into the canyon and made the water glow with reflected evening light.  

 

Royal Gorge Route, 401 Water Street, Cañon City; 888-RAILS-4U or 719-276-4000.

Celebration Time at Bent's Fort

The Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site celebrates its 50th Anniversary as a unit of the National Park System

The original Bent's Fort, an abobe landmark on the Santa Fe Trail near the present town of La Junta, was built in the 1840s, and for 16 years was the only permanent settlement between Missouri and what was then Mexico (now New Mexico). A monument was erected in 1912 to mark the site, the fort itself was reconstructed for the US Bicentennial in 1976 and it was designated as the Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site half a century ago.

This was a weekend of re-enactments, programs from leading historians, stagecoach rides, a trapper’s camp and a movie retrospective and more. The historians told the story of the fort and its establishment as a national park. Presenters included Merrill Eisenhower Atwater, great-grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower who signed the bill establishing the park; Cathy Smith, award-winning costume designer for “Dances With Wolves,” “Geronimo” and “Buffalo Gals;” Mark Gardner, author, historian and musician from Cascade, Colorado; Lawrence Hart, Cheyenne Peace Chief and Executive Director of the Cheyenne Cultural Center in Clinton, Oklahoma; and Dr. David Sandoval, specialist in the history of the Southwest from Colorado State University at Pueblo.

My husband and I visited the fort a couple of years ago (click here for my report), and if this had not been the Saturday of my neigborhood's annual, I would have wanted to be at Bent's Old Fort  this weekend to, especially on Saturday evening, for a 50th Anniversary Banquet and an authentic 1840s fandango with music and dance instruction by Dr. Lorenzo Trujillo and the Southwest Musicians.

The party might be over, but the fascination of Bent's Old Fort continues with wonderful interpretative activities all summer long. If you're traveling through southern Colorado, don't miss it. Bent's Old Fort is 70 miles from Pueblo, 8 miles from La Junta and 15 miles from Las Animas. The official address is 35110 Highway 194 East, La Junta, CO 81050-9523; 719-383-5010.

Images of Egypt: On the Streets of Alexandria

Scenes of everyday Alexandria and its people

Alexandria's streets come across as collage of cultures, architectural styles and creatures and their conveyances (humans, cars, buses, trucks, taxis, streetcars, carriages, horses, donkeys and cats). There is, at once, an old worldliness and a developing worldliness that imbues the city with a rich cultural texture. The city is long and skinny (a bit like Manhattan Island), stretching for 12 east-west miles along the Mediterranean cost and measures just a couple of north-south miles.

The most elegant section is near the Eastern Harbor, with a vibrant commercial district, residential areas and lovely old villas. Despite its seawall and crumbling sidewalks, the Corniche remains an elegant arc along the waterfront. The Western Harbor is the commercial port and more industrial area. A peninsula that sticks up into the Mediterranean separates the Eastern and Western Harbors is punctuated by an old fortress. The city's relief valves is its long coast, where the Mediterranean presents a limitless horizon and a blue-domed sky. Here are some random images of the city's streetscape.

Delta Dropping Its Reward Ticket Redemption Fee

An airline fee rollback of any kind is good news for travelers

I just recently committed 30,000 OnePass miles and a $500 redemption fee to upgrade from a middle seat near the tail end of the plane for a business/first seat on Continental. It's a long flight -- from Newark to the Middle East after getting to Denver International Airport, flying to Newark and waiting for four hours before taking off again. I'm waitlisted for an upgrade on my return trip. If I get it, the cost will be 30,000 miles and $350. Why? Because my eastbound itinerary is on a weekend, while westbouond is not.

Therefore, I can only cheer at the news that Delta has canned the redemption fees for Sky Miles tickets if redeemed less than three weeks before a flight -- on domestic flights at any rate.The Wall Street Journal's airline column, "The Middle Seat," compared the number of miles redeemed on its loyalty program with that of other carriers.  I don't know what their international policy is/was. I just know that this is the first word I've heard in quite some time about an airline lifting rather than imposing a fee for anything.

Let's hope Delta starts a trend.

Images of Egypt: Alexandria's Antiquities

Egypt's second city is captivating and gives off a somewhat cosmopolitan air

While Cairo is a river city shaped by the Nile, Alexandria is a coastal city impacted by the Mediterreanean. It is often called Egypt's "most European" city. No wonder. Instead of a pharonic past that stretches back thousands of years, this "new" city was founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great. Egypt's second-larged city has experienced periods of prosperity and decline. Later it was the capital of Graeco-Roman Egypt, the setting for l'affaire d'Antony and Cleopatra and a key port on Africa's northern coast.

After the Roman Empire, it was part of the Ottoman Empire, and still later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was under the French and English control -- or at least strong influence. Many downtown buildings and villas reflect a distinct European influence, with Greeks, Italians and Jews also woven into the Alexandrian fabric. Even though most foreigners left in the nationalistic 1950s and most local women now seem to choose to cover their heads, Alexandria still presents a cosmopolitan face -- perhaps because of its architectural legacy.

The Pharos Lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, once stood guard on a harbor island, now connected to the mainland. The lighthouse itself was destroyed by the 14th century by a sries of earthquakes. Archeological divers have discovered pieces of it in the water, and an underwater museum is planned. The remarkable Alexandria Library (Biblioteca Alexandrina) is a wonder of the modern information age, a contemporary architectural landmark and an important cultural institution is a surprising attraction in ancient Egypt.

Today, many visitors are day-trippers from cruise ships that dock in the Eastern Harbor -- with never enough time even to touch on the city's many museums A(lexandria National Museum, Graeco-Roman Museum, Cafavy Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Mahmoud Said Museum and Royal Jewellry Museum), let alone stroll along the Corniche or languish at a cafe and watch the Alexandrian world go by.

Midan Saad Laghloul
Statue of of nationalist leader for whom the waterfront square was named

Memorial to the Soldiers (and/or Sailors)
Located at the Eastern Harbor

"Pompey's Pillar"

Misnamed remnant of the 3rd-century B.C. Temple of Serapis

Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa
Three-level tomb complex dug to about 115 feet

Roman Amphitheater (Dom al-Dikka)

Second century, discovered in 1965 under a Napoleonic fort

Alexandria National Museum
Opened in 2003 within an Italianate villa that was built in 1929

Fort Qaitby
15th century, built on the site of the Pharos Lighthouse

Alexandria Library

Opened in 2002 with resources from fragile ancient manuscripts to fast computers

Head of Alexander the Great

Sillhouetted against a sunset sky; located in plaza of the namesake Alexandria Library

Egypt's Factory Stores: Rip-Off or Real?

The cynical visitor eyes souvenirs in Egypt

I have no delusions that the acres of small reproduction pyramids, sphinxes, Nefertiti heads, cats, lions and assorted other examples of Egyptiana peddled aggressively at every tourist attraction in the country actually were made in Egypt -- and I suspect that all but the most naive tourist knows that this souvenir schlock is made elsewhere. "Elsewhere" is most likely China.

The "factories" and "demonstrations" that end virtually every motorcoach tour day are presented as if all fine handicrafts are made right there. Because tour guides get a commission on sales whenever they deliver a busload of tourists, we were forced to visit the papyrus demonstration in a modern shopping center in Alexandria, a carpet school in Saqqara and an alabaster factory near the Valley of the Kings. Mercifully, we dodged the perfume-factory bullet.

The carpet weaving school is billed as a place where young girls are taught weaving. We saw men sitting at a handful of looms in the basement of the carpet factory in Saqqara without a girl or woman in sight. Upstairs was a room filled with carpets. It was not the only carpet factory in Saqqara either. In the so-called alabaster factory near Luxor, three barefoot men sat outdoors on mats and chipped away at alabaster, demonstrating various stages in the process of crafting something out of the raw stone. Inside was a large sales room whose walls were lined with objets d'alabastre. I saw chess sets shamlessly labeled "Made in Pakistan." I bought a little alabaster cat anyway, just as a souvenir of the day.

Souvenir Stand Near the Pyramids and Sphinx (Giza)

Stall in the Khan al-Khalili Market (Cairo)

Souvenir Stand at The Citadel (Alexandria)

Papyrus Making (Alexandria)

Owner or manager stopped me from taking any more photos

Carpet Weaving School (Saqqara)

Alabaster Factory Near the Valley of Kings (Luxor)

Another Ancient Egyptian Tomb Discovered

Saqqara yields another treasure from antiquity

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote a post connecting an upcoming King Tut exhibit at the Denver Art Museum with the discovery of the tomb of an official called Archae Amun-em-Opet near Luxor, far up the Nile, that dates back to 1372-1355 B.C. Now comes word of another significant discovery, the tomb of a royal scribe named Ptahmes in the reign of pharaohs Seti I and Ramses II (1203-1186 B.C.). This recently discovery was made at Saqqara south of Cairo, whose pyramids predate the famous ones at Giza. In fact, Egypt's first pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Djoser (2667 to 2648 B.C) is located there, as are earlier tombs, low bench-like edifices called mastabas. When I visited Egypt last year, Saqqara was on the itinerary -- and archaeological excavations were clearly going on. The top four images are mine; the bottom one is courtesy of Egypt's Supreme Council or Antiquities.

There's an interesting backstory to this new discovery, which is actually a rediscovery. Nineteenth century artifact hunters found the tomb, took the greatest treasures and moved on. It didn't take all that long for desert sands to cover the tomb. Archaeologists from the University of Cairo found it and been excavating it. Archaeologists have discovered long hallways and chapels in the tomb and are anticipating finding the main chamber and hopefully a sarcophagus containing a mummy that the original discoverers reported seeing but didn't take. Click here for more information about the tomb.

For visitors, Saqqara is refreshing. Fewer visitors, fewer buses, fewer hawkers at the entrance to the site.