The hotel is a bit jaded. It used to be the Novotel many years ago but is certainly not new now. When I arrived at about 11:30 my room was not ready. The implication here is that all the "superior Nile View" rooms were in use on the previous night. This I doubt. After waiting for half an hour or so I checked my bag into the luggage room and set off for the museum. It was quite warm, around 30C, with little wind but some dust in he air. Walking along the corniche is fairly easy. It is all at one level except for the few yards outside HSBC and the 2 steps down outside the museum. There was the usual hassle of taxi, caleche, motorboat, felucca ... which I gritted my teeth and ignored. At the museum the red carpet was all laid out for me (or more likely for His Excellency the Minister of Antiquties).
I hate the staircase down into the museum. There is no concession for the disabled. No lift, no ramp and not really a very good handrail, I will face this staircase 12 times over the next days. The lecture theatre was filling nicely and the air conditioning was working well. Most people thought it was too cold, but I was quite comfortable once I had settled into a central aisle seat. The theatre holds about 200 and became about half full.
After the afternoon's proceedings I walked back to the hotel. I have a good room on the 5th floor overlooking the Nile. But the desk is not a suitable height for computing and the other tables and chairs are worse. So I went down in search of refreshment. Stella is 55Le throughout the hotel, which is an absolute ripoff. All other drinks are also double the prices on the West Bank. A small bottle of water is 15Le.
The only table downstairs that was conveniently near a power socket was in the karkedah bar, next to the pool table. Not very good, but I started processing some pictures. I ate that evening in the Chinese restaurant which is across the garden from the hotel. Again not suitable for the computer. The food was expensive, but of reasonable quality. And the nearest bathroom was back across the garden, through the main hotel restaurant, across the foyer. Really not very convenient!
With no tea or coffee in the room (a kettle, sugar and a couple of sachets of guava infusion are provided) and no free wi-fi I was less than completely gruntled. More general blogs will follow over the next few days, but I doubt if i will have time or facilities to report on the conference until after it finishes.