April 26, 2020
These posts are part of a series superimposing the art of Irish-American painter Robert David Gauley with contemporary text from letters my great-great grandmother, Christina Meyer, sent home from a trip throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Together, they offer a vivid glimpse of travel in the last decade of the 19 th century.
Cairo, March 10, 1896
Mailed my last letter from Naples where we embarked March 4 th to cross the Mediterranean and yesterday the 9 th we landed in Alexandria around 7 a.m. and at 8 we sat in our hotel to eat breakfast and then we took a walk through the city which delighted us. . . At 4 in the afternoon we left Alexandria and arrived in Cairo around 8 p.m. The surroundings of Cairo and Alexandria are beautiful and very productive . . . In Cairo it is summer and I had to don Lena’s waist [sic] because it was so warm. . .
Day after tomorrow we will start with our trip on the Nile. Here one meets all classes of people from all corners of the earth.
Cairo, March 22, 1896:
We are through with our trip down the Nile and are back in Cairo. The ten day trip part by rail and partly by boat was very interesting. We saw many ruins which we reached by riding on the little donkeys. I thought it would be a hazard to ride but the little donkeys took their task quite easy jovial. In fact I liked the rides and we were telling each other that we would like to take one each along to America. We will leave Cairo Wednesday morning and board the steamer for our last trip by sea to Jerusalem.
