Hermopolis!

I woke up Thursday morning to this view from the balcony of our Hermes Hotel room! Oh my!!

Room 319-Balcony View ~ The large room to the right is the Ball Room/Rehearsal Room

I haven’t given a lot of thought to the Mediterranean Sea to this point in my lifetime. I knew it was there. I’d seen the pictures. It is an amazing thing to wake up and find myself living in those pictures! When I first saw the Grand Canyon, I said out loud, “It looks just like the pictures!” I realized that, all along, I thought the pictures had been “doctored.” The same is true for the Mediterranean! The blues are just as blue as the pictures.

Now take a good look at that grass. That is the only grass I have seen here. 😎

Turning around, here's our room--Jeshua and I are rooming together--how fun is that??? Plus we have an entryway with an enclosed closet including a bank of drawers and a nice, albeit slippery, bathroom. Everything is tile...no hand holds or non-slip mats, plus the tub is one of those neat deep European tubs, which takes climbing gear to get into. The shower door only covers half the tub--doable, but a little strange.

Perfect for us!

The tub is deeper than it looks!

The toilet seat is as squared in the back as the lid. Notice the little covered trash can. We know what that's for!!

We were eager to see what the breakfast buffet would look like...lots of pastry type things that are not sweet--kind of blah, but in nice shapes. Both a savory cheese and a savory spinach filo dough "casserole", each cut in squares. Poached eggs (yum) with very unusually orange yolks, little hot dog sausages, whole fruit or canned peaches and pineapple rings...coffees of all sorts. Some yogurt, cold cereal, tomatoes and olives, of course!

My first breakfast. The cheese, underneath the ham, is locally made and fantastic!

Our view from the front outside dining area.

Our next task of the day was rehearsal for Rosinni's Stabat Mater, which was in a rehearsal hall up off of the main town square. So off we went. Stabat Mater is a work about the anguish of Mary at the death of Jesus...good words in an English translation, but the music is not very "catchy." 😉

View from the front steps of the hotel.

Turning right at the bottom of the steps. If you wander to the left of the buildings you are on the harbor walk. Straight down the little street curves you around into the heart of town.

The town is made up narrow marble block paved streets and what we might call alleys, but are just smaller streets. Some of alleyways turn from flat streets to sets of steps going up the the next level. Shops and cafes abound with lots of outdoor seating.

Most buildings have these solar water systems...saw a shop that sells them. They are called HoWat, which in English, at least could stand for Hot Water. 😃

Into the rehearsal hall and 150 singers from 5 choirs get organized into sections and rehearsals begin!