Message #136308

[Bianca]

Back then, the trip to Luxor, 400 miles south of Cairo on the east bank of the Nile, was a long train
ride. For us it was a fast flight and an uneventful trip except when four helpful Egyptian passers-by spontaneously whisked Adamson, wheelchair and all, right over the hood of a parked car blocking our path. "That wouldn't have happened in England," gasped a surprised Adamson.


Adamson soon got used to such spontaneity. Although Egypt has none of the special facilities that disabled persons enjoy in the West, there were always plenty of willing hands to hoist Richard up and down steps, through revolving doors, in and out of taxis, on and off planes and boats and, had he wanted it, onto the back of a camel at the Pyramids.


Now and then there were problems. On the Nile ferry there was trouble with the owner when over-
eager helpers dismantled a door on the boat to squeeze Adamson's wheelchair through. And we made
a less-than-graceful entrance to the Old Winter Palace Hotel at Luxor; we took the freight elevator rather than try the sweeping stone stairs. But to Adamson this was nothing new. When he arrived at the Winter Palace the first time, at the end of October, 1922, his travel-stained soldier's uniform and battered holdall raised so many eyebrows among the wealthy guests that the management quickly hustled him to a "room at the back."


In 1981, however, it was Adamson who was the celebrity and the rest of the guests package tourists, so he got a large suite overlooking the Nile, and that night, sitting in the time-worn bar, he again began to reminisce. "There was a fight in here one night involving Lawrence [of Arabia]. An Egyptian was stabbed, but it was all hushed up. Lawrence was always getting into fights. He couldn't stand losing. Used to cheat at everything. He even cheated Lord Carnarvon at billiards," Adamson said disgustedly.


The billiard table has long since disappeared, the manager said, and the whirling roof fans have been replaced by modern air conditioning, but the rest of the hotel, with its high ceilings, marble corridors
and floors strewn with oriental carpets, remains basically the same as it was when, the next morning, Sergeant Adamson first met Howard Carter.