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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Familiar Statue Of Ramses Ii To Be Moved

From Wire Reports

Since 1955, tourists arriving at Cairo’s main train station to board the overnight train to Luxor have been greeted by a 32-foot statue of Ramses II - a hint of things to come once they reached the Valley of the Pharaohs. But now Egyptian officials plan to move the statue to a square on the west bank of the Nile.

Roadway overpasses and congestion near the train station had obscured the ancient granite statue, and the new location near the Giza pyramids is expected to give the monument greater visibility while reducing its exposure to air pollution.

I’ve got a mule: New York state is taking steps toward refurbishing the Erie Canal’s value as a tourist attraction. The Canal Recreationway Commission recently approved a plan to improve the canal from Troy to Tonawanda as well as waterway links to Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain.

Planners want to spend $146 million over 15 years to make the canal ways more attractive for recreational boaters, including the addition of piers, picnic areas, shops and nearby trails.

New York State’s canal system already is one of the most extensive in the country; the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and Cayuga-Seneca Canals together stretch more than 500 miles.

Taking a dive: Getting below the waterline is becoming easier for those who don’t snorkel or scuba dive. Atlantis Submarines, the big submarine-tour company, now is offering dives at two new sites in the U.S. Virgin Islands, departing from Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas and Cruz Bay in St. John.

The dives last 50 to 60 minutes and the trips include additional time cruising the surface. Meanwhile, farther south, the company has added a vessel of a different sort to its underwater excursions in Barbados. Aboard its 40-passenger Seatrec, passengers sit six feet below sea level for 90-minute trips above colorful coral and other sea life. Information: 800-253-0493.

No picnic: A cruise in the 19th century wasn’t always a journey of joy. “Princess Patter,” the shipboard publication of Princess Cruises, relates a Queen’s Order, enforced on all passenger ships sailing from Great Britain to any of its possessions in 1849. Among the rules:

Every passenger must rise at 7 a.m., unless otherwise permitted by the surgeon. Passengers must be in bed at 10 p.m.

Passengers, when dressed, must roll up their beds, sweep the decks (including the space under the bottom of the berths) and throw the dirt overboard. After that, they can have breakfast.

On Sunday, passengers will be mustered at 10 a.m. and “will be expected to appear in clean and decent apparel.” The day will be observed as religiously as possible.

No “spirits or gunpowder” may be taken aboard.

All “gambling, fighting, riotous or quarrelsome behaviour, swearing and violent language” will be halted at once.

They probably didn’t have shuffleboard or midnight buffets, either.