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Mediterranean trip
 | 000127
George Ernest Snowdon
In 1910 John Snowdon of the Lingdale Hotel, Lingdale and George Ernest Snowdon of the Commercial Hotel, Boosbeck both in North Yorkshire, embarked on a tour of the Mediterranean.
They sailed on the Dunottar Castle.
Using a small black leather diary, 12cm x 7cm George made the following notes of their trip.
This Diary which is now in a very fragile condition is in the safe possession of a member of our family.
Submitted by Pat Fennah and transcribed as written by Alison Small
All photographs in this section have been added and are not part of the diary.
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Dunottar Castle
 | 000165
The vessel they travelled on.
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Tuesday 1st March 1910
 | 000631
Imperial Hotel
Diary details
Excursion
On the
Dunottar Castle
1910
Notes
I left home on Tuesday March 1st at 7.05am and travelled to London where I stayed at the Imperial Hotel, Russell Square.
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Holborn Empire Music Hall
 | 000632
After tea we visited the Holborn Empire Music Hall but saw nothing startling and returned to the hotel and went early to bed, after having the lock of my ship trunk repaired.
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Wednesday 2nd March 1910
 | 000633
Avignon, Popes Palace
Next morning we left Charing Cross when we booked our luggage forward to Marseille. On the way down to Dover the most conspicuous things we noticed were the chalk rocks and the hop vines. Leaving Dover about noon, we arrived at Calais about 1.30pm. It was a sight to see the large quantity of mails that were taken aboard at Dover for all parts of the world.
Leaving Calais on a special train we travelled on to Paris very quickly until we arrived in the suburbs when the train was stopped several times and we reached Paris North about 6.45pm.
We lunched at the Station Dining Rooms and then left by special train about 7.30pm. Travelling through the night I found very monotonous, so I was about the only one who was not sleeping. The early morning was warm and beautiful and at 7.10 we reached Avignon. We noticed all the way to Marseille that the fruit trees were mostly in bloom and were very much earlier than in England.
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Thursday 3rd March 1910
 | 000634
Marseille
Reaching Marseille about 9.10am we immediately drove to the ship through a very miserable part of the town so that my first impression of Marseille was not very good. I have since been informed that this is a wrong idea as the residential and business parts of the town are very nice indeed.
Immediately we got on board we had breakfast which was very welcome and after that, having to wait for our luggage, we had an opportunity of viewing the ‘Castle’ and found her to be a very handsome, comfortable and luxuriously fitted ship. In beautiful summer like weather, we put to sea about 1.20pm with 220 passengers on-board. One of the managers on the cruise is Lord Lyveden, who is a very amiable old chap and appears to be an ideal man for the position. We lunched about 1.30pm and at 4 had a cup of tea, after which we had a cricket match on-board, our side winning quite easily. Just before dinner the sea got a little rougher and although I had not suffered from maldemer in crossing the straights of Dover, I was not feeling very well now, so I shortly afterwards went to my berth and slept the sleep on the ‘just’ till next morning.
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Friday 4th March 1910
 | 000635
Friday was chiefly spent on-board playing cricket, quoits, all board etc. and we reached Palermo early on Saturday morning.
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Saturday 5th March 1910
 | 000636
Porta Felice
We left the ‘Castle’ about 9am and landed in a few minutes at Palermo (Porta Felice). We formed ourselves into fours and took carriages to Monreale. Our party consisted of Mr & Mrs Angus Mackintosh of Inverness-shire, Scotland, my father and myself.
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Monreale
 | 000637
Inside Monreale Cathedral
On getting to the top of the hill at Monreale we visited the Cathedral. This is the most beautiful church I have ever seen, the mosaic work and gold and silver ornaments being absolutely marvellous. During the time of Napoleons' occupation of Sicily, his soldier's greatly damaged these beautiful buildings, especially the convent which is connected with this church. The convent is now practically in ruins and part of the buildings are used as schools. Before leaving Monreale we had our first experience of Italian money but for the intervention of our interpreter and guide we should have been robbed of two pounds.
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Catacombs
 | 000638
The Catacombs
On returning to Palermo we visited the Villa de Pasca and went through the gardens. In one of the buildings here, there is a representation of dampness, which goes to prove the dryness of the atmosphere. Our party of 20 were photographing by Mrs Moore, the reverend Moore's wife. The whole district round Palermo is covered with fruit trees, chiefly lemons and some of the orchards have streams of water running right through them. Palms, geraniums, camellias etc. were here, blooming with profusion.
On leaving the Villa de Pasca we drove to the catacombs and went down amongst the ‘dead men’. Here we saw hundreds of skeletons of various shapes and sizes and guide particularly pointed out to us, one old chap who died in 1790 and has still part of his tongue visible. This the guide accounted for by stating that he had never told a lie (?). Everyone seemed pleased to get out of the gruesome sickly hole and we next visited the monument erected to Garibaldi who seemed to be absolutely worshipped by the Italians.
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Grande Hotel de Palmes
 | 000639
Grande Hotel de Palmes
Our next stop was a very pleasant one after a hard mornings work. This was at the Grande Hotel de Palmes were we lunched. This is a most elaborate hotel and is greatly patronised by the English visitors.
After lunch we visited two cathedrals in Palermo and one cannot help wondering were all the money had come from to decorate and furnish these magnificent buildings, when one considers the poverty which appears to exist amongst the lower classes.
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The Royal Palace
 | 000640
Inside the Royal Palace
The Royal Palace was the next place we saw and it also is a most beautiful and immense building. Here we went through almost a whole of the rooms, including the dining, ball, reception rooms and the bedrooms of the King, Queen and Garibaldi.
From the top of this palace it is a most beautiful view of Palermo and you can look straight up and down one street which is perfectly straight and four and a half miles in length.
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Botanical Gardens
 | 000641
The Botanical Gardens
Our last visit was to the botanical gardens were we were shown a rubber tree a 100 years old. The roots of this tree were enormous and the large branches were supported by growths which had descended from the branches and again taken root in the ground, thus forming large props to hold the branches up. Here we saw many kinds of Cacti both smooth and prickly, some of them with leaves quite 9 feet long. One we were shown it was very poisonous and on being punctured emitted a white fluid similar to the fluid of the dandelion root. This is said to be a very violent poison.
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Sunday 6th March 1910
 | 000642
Meessina
The people of Palermo strikes one as being very clean and happy, the children all having smiling faces and for such a comparatively small place a population of 350,000 seems greatly over estimated until you see practically demolished houses and buildings of every description being reduced to ruins. On the other side we saw Scilla (Italy) just before passing the Pezzo Point directly opposite Meessina.
Reggio nestled at the top of the hills whose tops were snow covered. Reggio also suffered from the recent earthquake, shocks.
I attended the church service in the morning, the Reverend Canon Eves was preacher and the Reverend Turner of Jersey read the lessons. The collection in aid of the National Lifeboat fund exceeded twelve pounds.
After lunch the sea got rather rough and I stayed on-board till 4pm and had a cup of tea and then went to bed and stayed there till next morning.
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Monday 7th March 1910
 | 000643
Cape Mataplan
I went on-board about 7.30 and at 8am we sighted land on the portside. This was the Island of Sianphani on the east of Peloponnesus. We sailed steadily on and about 5.30pm we past Cape Mataplan, passing through the straights of Elephanosis between Kippera and the mainland. We sailed North East through the night and anchored at Chaleron Bay about 7.30am.
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Tuesday 8th March 1910
 | 000644
Athens
The view from the ship is charming in the early morning sun and the bay is as calm as a mill pond, before leaving the ship at 9 the sea became choppy and almost everybody in the boat was dashed with spray before reaching the shore.
We went by electric tram from Chaleron Bay to Athens and immediately we arrived there we formed parties of 20 and went with our guide to visit the sights, the following are the principle places visited.
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Places visited
 | 000645
Acropolis
Tampalosesis a beautiful place built about 460BC. Adjoining the Palace is phora or Market place where all processions used to start.
We next went to the top of the hill and visited the Acropolis, there being several ruins of temples here.
The Pathenon temple of Minerva, Propelia. We went through the museum connected with the above temple and then visited the theatre of music built about 120AD in the Roman style.
We next visited the temple theatre also Roman style where the sacrifices were held. This is called the tragedy theatre (grTrahos-goat) because goats were frequently sacrificed.
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Temple of Jupiter
 | 000646
Temple of Jupiter
We next visited the Temple of Jupiter. Here the pillars are 65ft high and built in the Corinthian style. This temple took 500 years to build. A few years ago one of the columns was blown down and I noticed there were exactly 20 pieces of stone used to form the columns.
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Hotel Grande Bretagne
 | 000647
Hotel Grande Bretagne
We lunched at the Hotel Grande Bretagne a most magnificent Hotel and then we visited the Stadium. This is the most beautiful sports ground I have ever seen. It is built of marble in tiers and was presented to Greece by a rich gentleman of Constantinople.
We next visited the museum where we saw some most magnificent sculpture. The one thing which I was pleased to see was that some angels were here represented by men. I have always previously seen nothing but female angels.
Whilst driving to the station we came across a funeral, the man in front was carrying the coffin lid in a vertical position. Then came some chanters and the priest and following them the bearers carrying the coffin. From the appearance of the corpse he did not seem to have been dead very long.
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Wednesday 9th March 1910
 | 000648
Greek Churches
We again visited Athens and went without guides. However our little party of four engaged a guide on our own and he took us to see a couple of churches. The first was a very small Byzantine Church and was very quaint. We next went through a very fine Greek Church which the King uses when he is in Athens. There were dozens of lads in the streets with tickets like banknotes stuck into bamboo canes. I wondered what these were and found they were state lottery tickets.
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Kings Palace
 | 000649
The Kings Palace
We dismissed our guide again and lunched at the Hotel Bretagne. The Kings Palace is in the same square as this Hotel, but he is not at present living there, owing to a fire about a month ago.
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Costumes
 | 000650
Dress
There seems to be scores of different kinds of dresses in Athens, some of the people, both men and women having a very picturesque look.
We tried to do some shopping but found the prices were about 150 percent above England so our purchases were very few.
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Thursday 10th March 1910
 | 000651
Constantinople
We left Chaleron Bay on Wednesday night. On Thursday March 10th we passed through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara. We had to stop at Chenor to pass the doctor and take on a pilot. The fortifications in the Dardanelles are very strong and it appears an improbability for any fleet to pass through without being destroyed.
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Friday 11th March 1910
 | 000652
Principal Churches
We arrived at Constantinople on Friday morning and went ashore on a steam tug, there being too strong a tide to use the ships boats. Constantinople is the filthiest place I ever saw or even wished to see. The streets are badly paved and full of mud in some places, the holes are quite a foot deep. The only scavengers are dogs and of these there are hundreds. Some of these are in a filthy mangy condition and enough to make one sick. Whilst in Constantinople I saw five dogs laid on the street dead and nobody ever attempted to move them. The dogs live in all kinds of filth but I was told that the young Turkish party have practically arranged to sell them all to the Germans but have postponed it for a short while owing to the Old Turks not being very favourable to any drastic changes.
We visited the Principal Churches and had to go through them with slippers on which were provided at the doors for us. These were the old fashioned slippers without any sign of heel and kept falling off. It was very good practice for roller skating.
We also visited the Sultans burial Church. Being Friday we arranged to go to see Salaamlik. This is the procession of the Sultan from his palace to the church. We arrived about 11.45am and stood at the palace gates. We saw all the soldiers arrive with their bands and take up their position on each side of the road. The Turkish soldiers are fine looking fellows. Some Turkish civilians came and stood in front of us, but the police shifted them and so gave our party a good view of the proceedings. When the Sultan came out in an open carriage, we all raised our hats and he graciously bowed to us. He was followed by his ministers in open carriages and some of the ladies of the harem came after, but of course they were in closed carriages with shutters instead of windows.
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Bazaars
 | 000653
Bazaars
In the afternoon we went to the bazaars and got robbed. They have no fixed prices for the goods and everything is bought by barter, I saw several instances where the dealer asked for five or six pounds for an article and he eventually sold it for a pound. We had quite a bazaar on-board. There were dealers with carpets, rugs, embroideries, jewellery, Turkish delight etc. and after dinner we had some good fun bargaining with them.
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Saturday 12th March 1910
 | 000654
The Bospherous
On Saturday March 12th we visited the museum in the morning and my father and I dismissed our driver and went for a walk through the streets of Constantinople. No one can credit the amount of filth that we saw unless they have visited here.
We left at noon and sailed up the Bospherous as far as the entrance to the Black Sea, a distance of about 13 miles, the land on each side is covered with villages, palaces and residences of wealthy people from all parts of the globe. There was a guide on-board and he explained to us all the important objects on the routes, pointing out all the different embassies, palaces, bays etc. We saw the Bay of BAKE where the English fleet was anchored during the Crimean War.
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Saturday afternoon
 | 000655
Florence Nightingale Hospital
We also saw the Florence Nightingale hospital with the monument in front, erected by Queen Victoria. This hospital has accommodation for 7,000 patients. While sailing up and down the Bospherous we saw hundreds of porpoises. We left on Saturday afternoon and passed through the Sea of Marmara and left the pilot at Chenak on the Dardanelles about 4.00am on Sunday March 13th.
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Sunday 13th March 1910
 | 000656
Samos
Since we reached Athens on the 8th the weather has been terribly cold and whilst we were at Constantinople, it was either snowing or raining the whole of the time. Most of the passengers are suffering from colds and no wonder after the hot summer like weather we experienced at Palermo.
This morning is a great change, being quite warm in the sun and the afternoon is beautiful. I have packed my heavy suit away at the bottom of my trunk and hope I shan’t want it out anymore on the journey.
We are now passing through the Grecian Archipelago past the Islands of Mitzlene, Khio, Samos etc. We had four services today.
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Monday 14th March 1910
 | 000657
Old Rhodes
7.30am
We are just passing Rhodes.
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Tuesday 15th March 1910
 | 000658
Beruit
The day was spent on-board, chiefly playing games, we reached Beyrout and a pretty place it appeared to be from the ship. Leaving Beyrout after sunset we arrived at Haifa on Wednesday March 16th about 6am and left port at eight for the drive to Nazareth.
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Wednesday 16th March 1910
 | 000659
Church of Annunciation
Passing through Haifa on a very bad road, we passed small villages with the quaint looking people on donkeys, camels and mules and noticed one village having what appeared to be a general washing day. They were down at a pool by water with their dirty clothes and were using both hands and feet during the operation.
Passing across the railway we soon reached the river Kishon, where Elisha slew the false profit and on our right were the Mountains of Carmel, where he offered the sacrifice as a thanksgiving. We now were passing through a beautiful fertile country, covered with olive trees and flowers, including some beautiful cyclamen and anemones and flocks. We arrived at a very fine shaded place called the plain of Hardi and had lunch which was brought from the boat. The first part of the drive had been over rough roads so that we did justice to a very nice lunch. We now passed through the village of Hagada and the plain of Jezreel and reached Nazareth after a drive of about six and a half hours. Each carriage carried four passengers and had 3 horses.
We stayed at the Hospice Casa Nova and after a wash went out to see the town. We first went to the Church of the Annunciation which is built on the site of the house of Mary. Part of the house still remains including the kitchen. The chapel of Joseph near the original carpenters shop was also visited.
The Synagogue with the conspicuous notice ‘God loveth, a church full giveth’ was also visited. The church containing the stone tablets on which Jesus is said to have had his dinner was also seen, then the ‘To all of Mary’, Greek Church and back to dinner.
After dinner we had a quiet walk and went home to bed, very pleased to get away from the continual cry of Backsheesh.
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Thursday March 17th
 | 000660
Nazareth
We set off at 8am to drive to Tiberius. Passing through Renek we reached Cana. I visited both the Roman Catholic and Greek Churches which both claim to be built on the site of the house where Christ turned the water into wine at the wedding breakfast.
At the entrance to the village is the well were the water is supposed to have come from. We passed on to Utyeh, where we lunched, through the veil of Galilee belonging to Baron Rothchild, past the mount of the attitudes, the scene of one of the greatest battles during the crusades and descended to Tiberius.
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Magdala
 | 000661
Magdala
The last eleven or twelve miles had been through a country with no roads, simply across fields with ruts in some places quite a foot deep and stones weighing anything up to 5 or 6 stones in the way.
We went to our ‘tent’ where my father, Dr. Williams and myself had arranged to sleep and after a wash went for a sail on the Sea of Galilee. We went to Magdella and could see on the shore Capernium and Bethsaida. Sleeping fairly well in our camp, despite the howling chorus of numerous dogs, we left next morning to cross the Sea of Galilee in boats to Semakh a distance of about 7 miles.
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Friday 18th March 1910
 | 000662
Old Jaffa
We walked down to the River Jordan from Semakh and returning to the station got ‘all aboard’ the train and set off for Hypha by rail which we reached about 3.30. Leaving Hypha on Friday night we reached Jaffa on Saturday 19th March 1910.
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Saturday 19th March 1910
 | 000663
Jerusalem
Leaving the boat we went on shore and visited the house of ‘Simon the Tanner’ with whom St Paul lodged when he saw the vision.
Passing through the streets amid dozens of little pick pockets we reached Jaffa Station and set off for Jerusalem about 9.30 after buying a basket of ‘Jaffa’s’ for a shilling. The train went through beautiful orange groves for a long way but after a while the district was merely one mass of rocks on each side of the ravine through which the railway is constructed. We passed several small villages and stations but the chief point of interest seen on the way was ‘Samson’s Cave’ which was built up on the mountain side. Reaching Jerusalem we lunched at the Hotel ‘Fast’ and in the afternoon drove to Bethlehem passing on the way the pool of ‘Gehot’ where Solomon was elected King. The plain of Rephaim where David slew the philistine , the well of the ‘Star’ on which the ‘Star’ is said to have stopped and led the three wise men to find Jesus in the stable. Passing Rachel’s tomb we reached Bethlehem and proceeded direct to the Church of the Nativity. Built on the site of the stable where Christ was born, this church has separate and distinct parts belonging to the Greeks, Copts, Armenians and Roman Catholics and Syrians. We saw here various forms of religion taking place, much chanting, bowing and kissing of the various parts, chiefly the floor of the manger.
The Tomb of St Jerome and his cave where he translated the bible from Hebrew to Latin was shown to us in the church. We also saw the cave of the innocent slaughter. Josephs vision cave where he sees the vision telling him to take Christ to Egypt. There were a large concourse of people here today as it was the feast of St Joseph. The night we spent quietly and on Sunday 20th March we drove to Jericho.
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Sunday 20th March 1910
 | 000664
Jericho
It was very hot today and passing through Bethany we drove on to the ‘Good Samaritan Inn’ where we rested the horses and had a drink ourselves. This drive was through the mass of Limestone Mountains with little or no vegetation. We saw the cave of Elijah where he was fed by the ravens and after about five and a half hours we reached Jericho.
Before Lunch at the Jordan Hotel we drove round through a very fertile valley to the ruins of Old Jericho. Here oranges, bananas etc. were growing in profusion. After lunch we drove through a district of nothing else but baked mud, down to the ford of Jordan, which river was full of mud also. We saw the tree of Gilgal where the Israelites camped after crossing the Jordan. We now drove on to the Dead Sea which tasted very bitter and is the lowest part of the earth. In the evening we had a walk around Jericho and at 6 next morning we left to return to Jerusalem.
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Monday 21st March 1910
 | 000665
Tomb of Lazarus
We had a big walk up the hill and traversed the same road till we reached Bethany, where we visited the tomb of Lazarus and the house of Martha and Mary. After lunch at the ‘Fast’ we went to see the Church of the Holy Secur where the five religious parties have their separate parts, as at Bethlehem. We now went to the Jews wailing place and after dinner had a visit to some of the shops and bazaars.
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Tuesday 22nd March 1910
 | 000666
Garden of Gethsemane
We walked through the city and visited Cotton Street, where Christ drove the money changers, saw the house of Pontius Pilot and next went to the Mosque of Omar. This is a beautiful Mosque and is built in the rocks in the highest part of Jerusalem. In this rock is a hold through which the blood of the sacrifices offered by Solomon, used to run down into a vault and so into the valley of Jehosephat.
In the vault a week ago a Mohammed was praying when two Armenian ladies descended and he thinking that they were making fun of him fired at them with his revolver, shooting one through the eye and the other through the legs. They were taken to the hospital, he was arrested. This affair has caused a great sensation among the ?????????. We next visited the second Mosque and also went down into the cellars which used to be used as stables and are enormous places.
After lunch we drove and saw the Garden Tomb of Christ, which place is claimed by General Gordon and some other authorities as the real sepulchre. We next visited Solomon’s quarries which are on an immense scale though not used. Next we saw the Tomb of the Kings and the way the graves were hewn out of the rocks was simply astonishing and was certainly worth a visit. Afterwards we ascended the Mount of Olives whence Christ is said to have ascended to heaven and also visited the Garden of Gethsemane where Judas betrayed him. We spent the evening in the shops and bazaars.
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Wednesday 23rd March 1910
 | 000667
Hotel Belavista
A storm was raging today when we left Jerusalem for Jaffa and the sea was so rough that we could not go off to our ship. Our party stayed at the Hotel Belavista, where we were not very comfortable.
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Thursday 24th March 1910
Still stranded at Jaffa, the sea is very rough and this port is claimed to be the worst in the world.
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Friday 25th March 1910
We left the Hotel at 8 in the morning to go on-board but the harbour master refused to give permission owing to the state of the seas. However in the afternoon about five o’clock he was induced to give consent although Mr Parowne and Lord Lyveden had to sign a paper saying that they took all responsibility. We however got safely on-board and immediately left for Port Said instead of Alexandria as we expected, where we arrived about 4am on Saturday 26th.
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Saturday 26th March 1910
 | 000668
Eden Palace Hotel
There was a tremendous lot of ships in the harbour at Port Said. We left by special train to Cairo at 8.45am. We went alongside the Suez Canal as far as Ismailia and then branched on the right passing on our way Telelkabier, the site of the great battle of that name. The largest town we passed before reaching Cairo at 1.15 was ZagaZig. The country we had come through was beautifully fertile and the irrigation was splendid, there being canals every few hundred yards. After lunch at the ‘Eden Palace Hotel’ we drove to visit the Mask of Sultan Hassan. This Palace took 3 years to build at a cost of £300 per day and is a tremendous structure. It was partly destroyed by Napoleon and one of the minorettes still contains a canon ball which is said to have been fired by him. Sultan Hassan was buried here, it is said that he ordered the architects arms to be cut off so that he could not build another similar Mosque. The Dome is 190 feet high and the carved woodwork is magnificent in all the corners of the chamber containing the tombs.
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Mosque of Mohammed Ali
 | 000669
Mosque of Mohammed Ali
We then went to the Mosque of Mohammed Ali and the view from here was splendid. The whole of Cairo could be seen and a good view of the Pyramids of Ghizeh and Sakkarah were plainly visible also several windmills built by Napoleon during his campaign for grinding corn. Mohammed Ali is buried here. It is now lighted by electric light and is a very fine Mosque indeed. Our next Mosque was the University Mosque. This Mosque is really a large college and contains 12,000 pupils and 600 professors. We entered in the usual manner by putting galoshes over our ‘boots’ and found the pupils in bare feet sitting on the floor in groups varying from 2 – 6 studying. The row was awful and how they managed to study with people walking about the same as we were is amazing. Some of the students were fast asleep. After visiting a large bazaar we returned to the Hotel for dinner. A walk through the street concluded a very nice day.
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Sunday March 27th
 | 000670
Cairo
We arranged to visit Sakkarah the previous evening and at 9.15 got on-board one of the Anglo American boats near Kast-el-nil Bridge to go up, it was a glorious morning and the sail up the river was fine. We passed many interesting places including the place where Pharaoh’s daughter found Moses in the bulrushes. About 11.30 we had lunch which we had brought with us from the hotel and arrived at Bekiochon about noon. We walked from here across the sandy desert to a ferry and crossed over to the village. We here mounted our gallant steeds and went off to Memphis. There are two large statues of Ramses II here, one of granite and one of limestone. There appeared to be about 200 people excavating here for more relics of the bygone days. From here we went on through Sakkarah and across the desert to the Pyramids and tombs. On our arrival our donkey boys made a raid on us for ‘Backsheesh’ to buy cloves to feed the donkeys. They got Backsheesh but the donkeys got no cloves. We visited some tombs of Tara which had been dug out of the sands and then walked on to the tomb of the ‘Sacred Bulls’ . This is a very large place and contains 24 tremendous granite tombs in which the ‘Sacred Bulls’ have been buried. These stones have all come from ‘Haswan’ 583 miles away, and when one remembers that they were built 6,000 years ago, one wonders however they got them down there and into the vaults. After getting back to Bedrechein and some arguments with the donkey boys, because they had not got sufficient Backsheesh, we again crossed the ferry and joined our boat reaching Cairo about 6.30 in the evening, after another glorious day. A walk after dinner and then bed was the windup.
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Monday 28th March 1910
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the Pyramids
We drove off early to visit the Pyramids and Sphinx at Ghesia about 6 miles out of Cairo. These are tremendous in size, some of our party went up to the top of the largest Pyramid but we went inside, and the way up here is exceedingly difficult. You are not allowed inside here without 2 or 3 guides for each person. Some stout people want half a dozen. I had 3 Arabs with me and my ascent and descent to the tombs were very fair. There is little or no foothold and the Arab has hold of your hand in front and one at the back. The other chap I suppose is there if he is wanted and to help to share the Backsheesh. After lunch at the Mena House Hotel, which is a beautiful place, we returned to Cairo. We had to wait three-quarters of an hour to the Kast-el-nil Bridge, as part of it was open to allow the shipping to pass through. We now visited the museums and the principal items in view were statues of various sizes and ages and mummies of the Kings and Queens, sacred sheep, goats, crocodiles etc. and jewellery. In the evening we visited the shops and bazaars.
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Tuesday 29th March 1910
Returned to Port Said again, noticed large amount of shipping. Left Port Said at about 3.30pm.
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Wednesday 30th March 1910
On-board with beautiful weather. The day had been spent by games, including the new one ‘Bean Bag’, there was an auction sweep sale tonight and a concert, but I spent the evening playing bridge!
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Thursday 31st March 1910
Beautiful morning, we are passing Crete now 8.30am and the snow covered mountains look magnificent in the sun.
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End of Diary
End of Diary
Backsheesh: A relatively small amount of money given for services rendered. |
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