Wednesday, March 27–Bob and Helaine we were picked us up at 11:00 to take us to the airport. I gave them a quick tutorial on how to drive my car since they are going to leave it at the airport when we come back, and then we went to Schlotsky’s for lunch before going to the airport. We flew United and the plane was on time to Houston, where we are sitting in the Polaris United Lounge waiting for our flight to Frankfort. We made it to the flight, but the plane has problems with the electrical system and is flying anyway. Apparently we won’t have the entertainment system and won’t be able to charge our electronics. We were about 45 minutes late leaving, and we’re concerned about making our connection partly because the agent in Jackson told us that we would have to pick up our bags in Frankfurt. However the stewardess assured us that we would not have to do that. Our supper on the plane was delicious, and the beds were comfortable. I did ask for an extra blanket and was nice and warm. Unfortunately my back and hip were pretty uncomfortable and I only slept about two hours at a time before needing to get up, but still managed about six hours of sleep. Tom seemed to be asleep every time I got up so I think he slept more.
Thursday, March 28—We arrived in Frankfurt only a little late, but had to change terminals from Z to B and the walk seemed to take forever before we finally arrived at a train for a short trip. We were in plenty of time for our flight although it was already loading. We changed from United to Lufthansa. This was only an almost four hour flight, but we had another really good meal—even better than United’s. When we arrived in Cairo, we were met by Abdul Asia even before we got to the luggage carrousel, which I had not expected, but it turned out that he was not our driver, but a representative of the hotel and immediately registered us in the hotel right at the airport. He walked us through buying our visas at the bank and the various checkpoints with the passports. Basically, he mostly just held the passports up and we were through. He was obviously known. We discovered as we talked that he was not our driver, who I had been told would meet us outside the terminal and who did. Unfortunately my suitcase did not make it. We were particularly happy to have Abdul because he walked us through the process of arranging for finding it and having it sent to our hotel. In the process we discovered that I had made a reservation in the wrong hotel! They are both Intercontinentals, but not at the same location. However, the one to which we are going tonight is quite nice and it did send Abdul! It’s also connected to a very large mall. We met our driver, Abrahim, as planned outside the airport although Abdul also walked us to the car. There were hundreds of men standing around outside the airport, but our car was relatively close. The traffic was really thick and would have been difficult for anyone not accustomed to it since there didn’t seem to be anything resembling lanes in much of it. Abrahim kept us entertained with an interesting commentary and wanted us to hire him to drive around more. He gave us a card. When I started to tip him and asked whether he had rather have US dollars or Egyptian pounds and he said the Egyptian money wasn’t good. It’s a good thing that our tour director told us to bring many US one dollar bills. We reached the hotel, went did to our room, showered, and were in bed by 10:00. We slept until 8:00 the next morning, and I think I was only up once during the night.
Friday, March 29–
We didn’t go down for breakfast until around 9:30, but found it fascinating. The hotel itself was beautiful.
There was tremendous activity in the breakfast area with a lot of food— Egyptian and some that was more European. One of the most interesting things to me was a honeycomb placed at an angle so that the honey dripped down into a dish from which you could use it. It was delicious! Back in the lobby, we went to the reception desk and asked for a late checkout. We then returned to the room, packed, and headed for the very large and elaborate mall.
As we were leaving the mall I saw some necklaces in a kiosk labeled Oasis Stones and we bought two. They were supposedly handmade by the owner. The green stones were jade and the red stones were Morgan—whatever that is.
Back in the hotel, we picked up our bags and checked out. There was a little confusion about our ride to the hotel in which we were supposed to stay because we paid for it at the reception desk, but the note we had said we had not paid. I went back in to ask about it, the driver came after awhile and knew that we had paid. He drove us to the other hotel and Tom tipped him $2, which we’ve been told is enough. I don’t think that we brought enough $1 bills! At this hotel we have a balcony and a view of the Nile. There is also a view of the pyramids although we could not see it this first evening because of the haze. There was a wedding reception on the terrace below our window. Other people arrived today so there was a Happy Hour at 6:00. Dinner was on our own and we tried the Italian restaurant in the hotel which was not as good as we’d hoped.
Saturday, March 30–Even though we’ve slept a lot, we overslept this morning. We had to meet the group at 10:00 for a welcome by the group leaders, and slept until 8:30 so we didn’t have much time for breakfast.However, we did make it. It was nice to be able to watch the activity on the Nile from our window.
After extensive welcoming, a talk about hieroglyphics and history, we had a quick lunch at the hotel. Tom had lentil soup, and I had lox on a bagel. The bagel was so big that I took the insides out of one half of the bagel and added them to the other half. We met at 1:00 to drive to the Egyptian Museum, which was fascinating.
Mohammed (Big Mo) guided us through some of the most interesting things and then gave us a little time on our own. He explained the replica of the Rosetta Stone with hieroglyphics at the top, a sacred writting in the middle and Greek at the bottom. Unfortunately, the original, like many of the Egyptian artifacts is in the museum of another country.
He explained the boxes within boxes that held the four organs removed from King Tut when he was embalmed—the lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach. Only three of the four alabaster containers was present.
The heart was not removed because it had to be weighed at the final judgement to determine whether he had been a good man or not. These organs were wrapped in linen and the placed in alabaster jars which were placed within a series of very decorated boxes—each larger than the one placed within in—for a total of about six boxes. On our free time Tom and I chose to visit the Royal Mummy room and saw the mummies of about 20 mostly pharaohs. For more museum pictures click here. We went back to the hotel with time to rest before Happy Hour at 6:00 and then an included supper at the hotel. We had delicious sea bass and flan for dessert.
Sunday, March 31– We,were up at about 6:30 to eat breakfast at 7:30 and meet the group at 9:00.There was less haze this morning, but we still couldn’t see the pyramids.
We drove to Fatima Cairo or Medieval Cairo where we walked down Moët street, one of the oldest streets in Cairo, to one of the oldest mosques in Cairo. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun is the oldest mosque in Cairo that is still in its original form. It was commissioned by Ahmad ibn Tulun in 876AD and completed in 878/879. The pictures show looking up and down inside the domed area. For more pictures of the mosque click here.
We also walked to the Gayer Anderson Historical Art Museum, which was next to the mosque.. For more image of the museum, click here. This was a house occupied by an Englishman who was very much appreciated by the Egyptians because of his good works while he lived there. This house was fascinating since it was built long ago by a rich Cairo butcher. Among other things it had a secret room behind a cabinet that pulled out. Occupants of the secret room could see into the ceremonial room without being seen.
There were also walkways above and around the ceremonial room so that the women could watch what was going on without being seen.
We were able to go to the roof of the museum:
In the streets outside the museum we saw several dogs. This was a common sight.
We drove to the Khan el-Khalil bazaar, which was streets filled with all kinds of shops inside an impressive wall.
Click here for more images of the streets and the bazaar. I think we were told that there were about 120 acres within the wall. While driving there Mohammed told us that Egyptians considered that red, yellow, and green stoplights all meant “go”, but that red ones meant “go fast”. He also quoted the saying “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” to say that Egyptian drivers had many enemies. We had lunch together.
We didn’t buy much at the bazaar because Mohamed had told us that most of what was on sale we could get cheaper and of better quality farther south. We ended up at a college shop where Mohammed demonstrated how to smoke a hookah and bought us each a drink.
I did buy a head covering there for two dollars. We returned to the hotel for a rest before a talk about modern Egypt at 6:00 and Happy Hour again until 8:00. Tom thought he had lost his jacket, but found it when we returned to the hotel. He had rolled it up and put it in his suitcase. We had dinner at a Lebanese restaurant in the hotel and enjoyed it, but had much too much food.
Monday, April 1–We met again at 9:00. We were up a little earlier and had plenty of time for breakfast. The haze was gone enought that we could see the pyramids from our room this morning.
Today we were going to Sakura and Memphis. We had police protection every time we went anywhere with at least one car in front of or behind us and an armed patrolman on the bus.
We drove through interesting streets.
Our first stop was at the step pyramid which was built to honor King Djoser of the third dynasty. While there Tom talked with a man and had his picture taken with that man—for a few dollars. Everythiing costs here!
We entered the celebration grounds which held the pyramid through a somewhat reconstructed gate which had once been one of fourteen—there were fourteen tribes—but was the only one left. This was supposedly the world’s oldest major stone structure built to honor King Djoser of the third dynasty.
All of these ruins had been covered by sand so that only about the top three levels of the pyramid showed. Each gate had fourteen niches or seven on each side and in each of the niches were three alabaster statues. The high priests and governors would enter through these gates to watch the leader prove his strength and courage by killing a bull by himself. The pharaoh had to do this periodically. Mohammed’s theory was that he did it every five years. When he became too old to do it he appointed someone to take his place—a son or another champion such as the head of his army. Around the pharaoh’s pyramid we’re tombs of some of his favored people. Standing around the burial grounds were the usual men trying to sell things and also horses, donkeys, and especially camels waiting to have us pay to take their pictures. When we left the pyramid area we drove a slight distance to’ the tomb of one of the dignitaries and went in. It was an honor for someone to be buried near the pharaoh, and only the highest dignitaries were.
Their we saw some very finely carved bas reliefs indicating people and supplies being carried into the tomb. I say “bas relief”, but these as many of the carvings were, were a deeper carving. There were carvings of people fishing and showing many different kinds of fish. There were hippos and crocodiles, which were both considered evil gods, fighting each other. In the burial room there was still more color than in any of the other rooms. The tomb actually had been about twenty feet under the “burial chamber” and entered through a secret door in the well. The well was present in order to have water for purification. There was a special fake door in the tomb for the spirit to come through when it reentered the body through the nose. For more images of the Sakkara area click here. On leaving the tomb we went to a small museum for a famous architect of the tombs, and then we went to lunch at an outdoor eating place near a very large swimming pool. It was supposed to be a resort.
It was a buffet and good enough. We drove through the streets.
After eating, we drove to Memphis where we saw the second largest Sphinx in Egypt, many artifacts that had been found, and two large statues of Ramises II.
One was standing, but the larger one was prone. We have learned that the pose with the left leg forward indicates that the person was military and very powerful.
It weighed 80 tons, and had lost its legs, but was beautifully carved—especially his smile. We left Memphis and returned to the hotel. For more images of Memphis, click here. It’s interesting as we drive through the city to see the many concrete appearing buildings that are either not finished or vacant. We understand that some were devastated during the Arab Spring, but it appears to be more than that. Mohammed has told us that up until recently if a home was not finished, the owner paid no taxes on it so many people didn’t finis their homes. This evening we had a home cooked meal and it was delicious. Our hostess was a Coptic Christian and she and her children spoke French. She taught French in a kindergarten. She had a 29 year old son, a 20ish daughter, and a 12ish daughter. They were all very personable and talkative. It was the best meal we’ve had.
Tuesday, April 2–This was a day of travel. We had a private plane for just us to Aswan, but we still had to go through all the security checks. We still have our police escort wherever we go. Breakfast was at 5:30, which was thirty minutes before the breakfast room usually opened, and we left the hotel at 6:30. We had to put our big bags out at 5:30, and they were prompt about picking them up. We had to check that our bags had made it to the bus, and we didn’t see Tom’s when we reached the bus, but found it on the other side of the bus. Our drive took us past some very elaborate houses.
There were several checkpoints at the airport, but Mohammed, Hussain, and Osama walked us through all of them easily, and we reached a waiting room only a little after 8:00 for our plane to take off at 9:00.
It was about an hour and a half flight, and two male flight attendants managed to give us a snack in that time. As soon as we landed, we drove to the Aswan High Dam, which was built in 1987 with a lot of controversy because it flooded many artifacts and remains.
Click here to see more images of the dam area.The temples we are to see tomorrow had to be moved out of the path of the rising waters. We also looked at the British dam which was built in the early 20th century before the Aswan dam. There is a lot of security around the dams because a failure of the Aswan dam would be catastrophic. We were told not to take pictures of the military. Then we drove to our ship, the MS Neferti, to have lunch on the boat and to unpack before meeting at 3:30 for a ride on a felucca.
This was a sailboat that held about 25 people. There were young boys paddling around on very small boats like a surf aboard who would catch hold of the sailboat and sing songs in several languages—according to Mohammed, this was to welcome us, but also for a tip. At the end of the ride, our “captain” entertained us with a Nubian song and some of our travelers joined him. He then unveiled the items he had for sale. I bought a small elephant and a couple of necklaces, and Tom bought a jointed crocodile.
For more images from the felucca ride, click here. Across the river we could see holes in the hills that were tombs.
After the boat ride some people joined Big Mo for a walk to the nearby spice market, but Tom and I went to our cabin to rest. Our cabin was upgraded from the second deck to the top deck, and we are right at the head of the steps and the first cabin from the swimming pool. The slimming pool is more like a large hot tub, but right now there is not enough water for it to work. They never put more water in it. We met in the lounge at about 6:15 and then went to supper. Supper was served from a menu and was very long. It was nearly nine by the time we returned to our cabin. Tom was not feeling well, but Hussain sat at the table with us and we had a very interesting conversation about Islam which seemed to pep him up. As we went to bed, he still planned to go to Abu Simbal tomorrow. We did not go on the walk to the spice market since we were both tired.
Click here to go to information published in GCCL pamphlets.
Wednesday, April 3–During the night I realized that Tom was not sleeping much so I was not surprised that he didn’t feel like driving three and a half hours each way to see something. I was up at 4:30 to be at breakfast at 5:00 and ready to leave by 6:00. I wasn’t going to take a jacket, but someone pointed out that the bus might be cold so I went back for a sweater. We were given a snack bag for the trip. The drive to the temples is three and a half hours so we didn’t get there until about 9:30. It was through real desert with many black “pyramids” in some places.
Once there, we had our tickets from Big Mo and walked down a wide, sloping road to the temples. There are two of them—one for Rameses II and one for his wife.
Both of these were moved up and back to avoid the flooding from the Aswan dam. It took about four years to fill the lake after the dam was built and about four years to move the temples. The mountain into which they were moved was also built. The moves cost $41 million and was done with the help of 51 countries. Somehow after entering the complex I managed to lose my ticket, which I was supposed to need to get into the two temples. However, Mo told me to just walk in as if I had a ticket. I did, and no one asked me for a ticket. For more images of Abu Simbel, click here. We had a show of Nubian dancing this evening on the boat.
Our cabin steward was very creative with the towels.
Click here to go to information published in GCCL pamphlets.
Thursday, April 4–We didn’t have to leave until 9:30, so we were able to sleep a little later. Our first visit was to the Philae temple, or the temple of love as Mohammed called it.
Philae is the name of the island it is on, but it’s really Philae II because the island on which the temple was originally is almost totally submerged. The temple was moved up and back to its present site and is downstream from the Aswan dam and Lake Nasser. This time on the Nile we were in a motorboat rather than a sail boat.
We could see more of the deep carving that is so impressive. This complex began in the 26th Dynasty We laearned that there were 30 dynasties. It was added to through the Roman period when the Emperor Hadrian built a pavilon near the water. Pilgrims from around the Mediterranean worshiped ISosis here, and it was one of the last places for the ancient Egyptian religions since it was only closed by Justinian in AD 550.
There also was a Mausoleum of Aga Khan on Elphantine Island, which we sailed near..
After our visit to Philae, we returned for lunch at 1:00 and the beginning of our cruise.
We sail to Kom Ombo. After lunch Tom took a nap, and I went to the tiny swimming pool to do water aerobics. It was so cold that it took me about 15 minutes to get in! I went back and showered before we headed for the Kom Ombo temple. This was a much later temple built by the Greeks or Phoenicians about 140 BC, but honoring the Egyptian gods. It’s actually two temples and is Egypt’s only double atemple. It is dedicated to Sobek, teh crocodile god, and Haroeris, the great, winged solar disk. Everything is perfectly symetrical and doubled.
Mo pointed out the perfectly cut stones that fit exactly.
We stopped at the Crocodile Mummy museum on the way back to the boat. For more images of Kom Ombra, click here.
Whenever we walk there are very persistent Egyptian men and boys trying to sell us things. The security guard who was with us today did a good job of discouraging them on the way to the temple, but not on the way back. Later in the trip we learned that the way to handle them was to completely ignore them and just pretend to be deaf. At supper we learned that a member of our group had died today. The evening activities were cancelled. We returned to the room to go to bed. I’ve begun to catch Tom’s cold.
Click here to go to information published in GCCL pamphlets.
Friday, April 5–We arrived in Edfu where we visited the temple of Horus, the falcon god and god of the sun and planets. This is Egypt’s best preserved temple. We went to the temple by horse and buggy. The horses were very thin mostly and looked almost starved in some cases, but the people aren’t that much better.
For images of street scenes on the way, click here. Thirty eight columns are around the court, and a statue of Horus guards the entry. Every surface is covered with Hieroglyphics that describe offerings to Horus is the courtyard is a Chapel of the New Year. Paintings on the ceiling show a solar boat sailing returned to the boat and sailed again. There are 38 columns around the court and a statue of Horus guards the entry. Each year the statue of Horus would be carried from the courtyard to the roof to be charged by the sun.
For more images of the Edfu temple, click here. The only excitement during the afternoon was going through the Esna locks. For more images of the Esna locks, click here.
Click here to go to information published in GCCL pamphlets.
Saturday, April 6–Today was anther “highlight of the tour”. We went to the Valley of the Kings where we saw inside three of the tombs plus inside that of King Tut for which we had to pay extra about $18.
For more images of the Valley of the Kings, click here. Tut's tomb didn’t have the length and complexities of the others because he died so young. His tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 who had been working with funding from an Englishman named Shepard. Shepard had given up on finding a tomb right before the Tut tomb was found. It was the only tomb found that was totally unspoiled by grave robbers. This valley is on the west side of the Nile because the sun goes down in the west so that west is considered the side of death and east is the side of life. There are at least nine tombs here. They are in a valley between some hills and into the hills and are spread out. Unfortunately we weren’t supposed to take pictures inside the tombs—some people not in our group did. We visited the tomb of Ramses, which has well preserved hieroglyphs with scenes from the reigns of Amenhophis III and Akhnete. We also visited the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, a very powerful female pharaoh. As we left we stopped for a few minutes at two large statues of Amenhophis, the Colossi of Memmon.
They are all that is left of a temple to Amenhoptep III, but later the Greeks decided that the statues represented Memnon, their hero. We then went to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s strong women pharaohs. For more images of Hatshepsut’s temple, click here.
We had lunch with a farm family and after lunch we went behind their house and saw their cow, chickens, and the oven in which they baked the bread we ate. Almost everything we ate had been raised by our hosts on their five acre farm—this is the typical size of farms. They also made baskets from palms.
After eating we took a very short ride across the Nile from the west bank—side of the dead—to the east bank—side of life—in a motorboat. These motorboats seemed to just wait to ferry people across the eriver. We had riden in the bus over a bridge to get to the east bank . On board, we sailed to Qena.
Click here to go to information published in GCCL pamphlets.
Sunday, April 7–We were able to sleep a little later today because we didn’t leave until 9:00. There was a short bus ride to the temple of the cow goddess. This was where she married Horus and gave birth to her four sons. There was a ceiling depicting the goddess Mud giving birth to the sun, which supposedly she did every day. Only a small part of this temple was built by the Egyptians. Most was built by Greeks. Cleopatra 7, the famous one used this, and she built a swimming pool. There was a well from which to fill the pool. She cleaned herself in three substances-milk, wine, and water. For more images of the Cow goddess’s tenple, click here.
We visited a small temple that was supposedly the birthing room for the cow goddess. There was a lot of the deep carving here. Unfortunately there was also a lot of vandalism. At the end we climbed a long flight of shallow steps to the roof of the main temple where we had a view below. We had about 30 minutes to get back to the bus, but most of us went straight back. We had to pass through vendors, but they were restricted to one area on the exit route. On the way in we stopped to visit with a man cutting up a very prickly plant that is dangerous to children’s feet, but that camels will eat. On the way out, Tom stopped to ask for a piece. The man gave him a piece and then asked for money so Tom gave him five pounds which is about a quarter. I went swimming again after lunch. Actually it’s not swimming, but doing what I could remember of water aerobics. The water is still very cold and the pool is tiny. We had a belly dancer and a whirling dervish for entertainment tonight. We enjoyed sitting on the balcony and watching the Nile. For more Nile images, click here.
In the evening there was a belly dancer and a whirling dervish in the Activity room. I don’t think that the belly dancer was what any of us expected.
Click here to go to information published in GCCL pamphlets.
Monday, April 8–We didn’t go on the optional hot air balloon—mostly because of having to get up at 3:00 to go! Apparently it was a really nice experience with about 20 people in each gondola. We took buses to the Karnak temple, which was huge. It was at least one half mile from the entrance to the back of the temple. This temple was connected to the Luxor temple.
Our boat, the Nefertiti, was right across the street from the Luxor Temple.
We could still see some of this road, but not the entire thing. One of the gods lived at the Karnak temple and his wife at the Luxor temple so he used this road. It was very hot and after touring with Mohammed, Tom and I both wanted to return to the bus—as did most of our group. Tom did find a mug and a nice scarab to buy on the way back. We returned to the room at 11:45 and I had a massage scheduled for 12:00. Carlos gives a very good massage! When the massage was over, I took a quick shower and washed my hair and we were only a little late for our 1:00 lunch. Neither of us is feeling particularly well, and we aren’t very hungry. We rested and packed during the afternoon and skipped the tour of Luxor temple. We deposited the crew tips, filled out the evaluation, and generally wound up what we needed to disembark tomorrow. There was a farewell dinner, and the crew put on a short show with a slight of hand act, a skit, and some dancing, for us before we headed for bed.
GCCL: The Karnak Temple complex is a series of temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. 30-pharaohs contributed to the construction of Karnak. The site reached a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. The largest and most important ate the Great Temple of Amun, and a massive structure begun by Pharaoh Ramses II (ca. 1391-1351). Karnak, translated as “The Most Selected of Places” was the main Egyptian religious center during the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad who worshiped the god Amon. Karnak is an open air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is one of the top tourist magnets in Egypt. Arabic Language: Arabic is a Semitic language, in the same family as Hebrew and Aramaic. Around 260 million people use it as their first language. Many more people can also understand it, but not as a first language. It is written with the Arabic alphabet, which is written from right to left, like Hebrew. Since it is so widely spoken throughout the world, it is one of the six official languages of the UN, alongside English, Spanish, French, Russian, and Chinese. Many countries speak Arabic as an official language, but not all of them speak it eh same way. There are many dialects, or varieties of a language, like Modern Standard Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Gulf Arabic, Maghrebi Arabic, Levanatine Arabic, and many others. Some of these dialects are os different from each other that speakers have a hard time understanding the other. Most of the countries that use Arabic as their official language are in the Middle East. They are part of the Arab World. This is because the largest religion in the Middle East is Islam. The language is very important in Islam because Muslims believe that Allah (God) used it to talk to Muhammad through the Archangel Gabriel (Jibril), giving him the Quran in Arabic. Many Arabic speakers are Muslims, but not all are.
Tuesday, April 9–This was a travel day in that we left the MS Nefertiti In Luxor and flew back to Cairo on another chartered plane. There was a picture of the Avenue of Sphixes/
Unfortunately we still had to leave early which meant getting up early, but we saw more of the countryside. Click here for images. We were checked into the same room we had had earlier in Cairo, which was nice because we had a good view of the Nice and sometimes the pyramids depending on the haze. Neither of us is well, but Tom seems to be recovering faster than I am. We had time to rest before a motor boat ride on the Nile to see Cairo from the water.
Tom and I wanted to walk to a KFC, but we didn’t find it. We were waylaid by a young Egyptian man who took us to a shop and where they tried hard to sell us things. After that, we went back to the hotel and the Lebanese restaurant. We each ordered soup and fish. They were good, but my appetite is completely gone.
Wednesday, April 10–As Mohammed kept saying, today was to be the “highlight of the trip” because today we went to the pyramids in Giza and had a chance to ride camels. Mohammed warned us that although we could enter the big pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, there was nothing to see and that the walk was strenuous with parts of it very low. He was right. Tom really wanted to go in so I went with him, but I only made it about halfway and wished I hadn’t done that. I took my sticks and was sorry that I had them. Tom and a couple of others went all the way to the burial chamber at the top. This pyramid was probably built about 2600 BC. There were two other large, but smaller than this one, and three small ones for Royal wives.
Tom said the burial chamber was a really big open space, but the last part was so low that he had to crawl. While he was there, Perry Houston from our trip also made it. He had a camera and was able to take pictures of himself and Tom. For more pictures by Perry Houston from inside the pyramid, click here.
waited for him to come out, and by the time he emerged there was only time to look at the hole from which the sun boat came, but not time to go to see the boat itself, which had been restored piece by piece after being taken from the hole. We then had a chance to “ride” the camels. Basically, we got on them, rode a few yards had our pictures taken, and got off. I tried it. Tom didn’t partly because he was tired from the pyramid.
I didn’t find the camel’s gait unpleasant or particularly rough, but when the camel stood and then when it knelt back down was a little difficult, and I had to lean way back to keep from falling. We then went to see the Sphinx. It didn’t seem very big until we were right next to it. We were told that when Napoleon first saw it, it was covered with sand up to its neck, but now it has been excavated so that we could see its paws.
We had lunch at a nice restaurant where we could see the pyramids. The new museum was not open so we didn’t see it. It doesn’t look anywhere near being open. We went back to the hotel and rested before anther Happy Hour where we made supper from the snacks. I still have no appetite and the scales in the hotel show that I’ve lost about three kilograms.
Thursday, April 11–This was our church, synagogue, and masque day. Mohammed had warned us to wear clothes that covered our shoulders and knees. We packed our bags and had them our before leaving.
We walked into a section of Cairo called “Old Cairo “ where we started by visiting a Coptic Christian church, theChurch of St. Sergio’s where supposedly Mary, Joseph, and Jesus stayed for three months during their thJree year flight into Egypt. We saw the somewhat hidden place in which they stayed. I was able to buy a nativity scene made out of camel bone there for Pat. We then went to the Hanging Church which was built on top of a fortress. Our next stop was a Jewish Synagogue. Apparently the Jewish community is almost gone, and those who are left are mostly old. My cough is not getting better, and much as I hated to do it, I stayed on the bus when the group visited the Citadel and the mosque there. It was an enormous structure built by Saladin at the time of the Crusades to defend against the Crusaders. I really needed to use the restroom by the time everyone returned, but Mo said that it would be only ten minutes to the restaurant, and asked if they really needed to unlock the bus bathroom. It was more like 20 minutes! had a buffet lunch at the Citadel View Restaurant,, which was a very nice place. Unfortunately I still have practically no appetite. We then returned to the hotel where we rested and packed for our departure tomorrow. At 6:00 we had another Happy Hour and then our farewell dinner at the Day and Night restaurant. The program directors handed out sheets with email addresses.
Friday, April 12–We are traveling to Alexandria today by train. Our bags had to be out by 6:00. Tom had his out at about ten till, but by the time mine went out at five till all the bags had gone. I told Mohammed and my bag was picked up. The train station was impressive.
The train itself was comfortable with a lot more leg room than any of the buses.
It was only a short ride to the train station, and because it was Friday, the Muslim day of worship, the traffic wasn’t bad. At the station we were amazed to see how many bags one man could transport on a baggage carrier. There are 25 of us on this extension. Our big bags were checked, but we kept the carryons with us. The train has much more legroom than the buses and seems comfortable. It was an uneventful ride of about three hours with no stops. When we reached Alexandria, we got on a bus and went to a fortress built on the site of the old lighthouse. This was the Qayet Bay Citadel and was massive.
It was built in the 15th entry acing the Mediterranean to protect against Turkish invasion and has had renovations in the 20th century. We walked around the outside including the fish market and then went to lunch and then to the hotel to check in.
We had supper with the group in the hotel in a restaurant in the basement level.
Saturday, April 13—After breakfast we went to the Catacombs of Kom el Shuqafa which were fascinatiing. There was also the very large head of Mark Anthony.
We had to walk down two levels on a circular staircase built in the sides of a round well. Supposedly this had been found when a monkey fell down the well and disappeared. The catacombs had many individual niches for burial and was somewhat like the catacombs in Rome. They are considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. After the catacombs we went to the National Museum, which was a relatively small museum with displays from the ancient Egypt and also from the Muslim and Coptic worlds. Everything was particularly well displayed and easy to see. After the museum, we went back to the hotel before going with the group for dinner. Tom and I rested. I was feeling really bad, and asked Mohammed to get a doctor to look at me. He came with a doctor at about 9:00 that night and the doctor found that I had fever. He gave me a couple of shots and prescribed some medicine, which Mohammed ordered and had delivered to the room. The medicine was less than $10, and GCT paid for the doctor. The doctor told me to rest the next day rather than go on the tour.
Sunday, April 14—Tom and I both stayed in the hotel and rested so we missed seeing the Royal Jewelry Museum and the Library of Alexandria. We had lunch of soup and then had dinner on our own in the dining room the group had been using. Both places were slow, but we did get food. Tom left his glasses and went back to look for them. At first they hadn’t seen them, but after he returned to the room, they called from the restaurant to say that the waiter had found them under the table.
Monday, April 15—We had to be up to get on the bus to return to Cairo at about 8:30. This was supposed to be about a four hour bus ride, but it ended up being around 3:00 when we reached the hotel because we made an unscheduled stop at a Coptic Monastery.
The head of the Monastery talked with us about the Monastery and gave us each a cross. This was a monastery that had been built hundreds of years ago and had been used to shelter Christians. It had a high wall around it. I was unable to stand throughout the entire visit and asked to return to the bus before the visit ended. We had lunch at a restaurant along the road.
After we returned to the hotel we had our farewell banquet. Most of the others were leaving for the airport sometime during the night.
Tuesday, April 16—Tom and I were lucky because our flight didn’t leave until afternoon so we didn’t have to leave in the middle of the night as almost all of the others did. We stayed in the hotel until check out time although we put our bags out even before the 11:00 that we had been told. We stopped in a bar in the hotel for a Coke—actually a Pepsi—and a very large croissant that we shared. The wait persons were very attentive and helpful. Mustafa was the waiter and he wanted me to write a review saying that he had done a good job. It took three of them to get to the place in Trip Advisor where I would write the review, but they seemed to have a good time doing it. We were picked up by Ahmed from Grand Circle. He managed our luggage on a cart, and we walked across the skyway from the hotel to the airport. Once at the airport, we had a little trouble finding the right line in which to check in, but found it and were on our way. We had extra time so we went to the Lounge to wait after we’d gone through customs. Our flight was on Luftansa, and it was a little late, but it didn’t matter to us since we were spending the night in Frankfurt and had no connecting flight. When we reached Frankfurt there was no customs. We picked up our bags and took a taxi to the Miramar Hotel where I had made reservations. It was just a block from the Dömer, a rebuilt center of town. Our room was small, but had all the necessary equipment and we were very tired so we went right to bed.
Wednesday, April 17—We had breakfast in the hotel and then spent a couple of hours walking around the Dömer area before taking the taxi back across the Main River to the airports
It was raining slightly and the woman at the desk of the hotel lent us an umbrella to use. We stopped for coffee and tea in one of the coffee houses and then walked around some more. I found an elephant I like in a fine tea shop, and Tom found a mug. We enjoyed the area and especially the cleanliness. We even saw one of the street sweeper machines as we walked. At about 10:30 we went back to the hotel, picked up our bags, checked out, and took a taxi to the airport. The woman at the desk had already called a taxi for another visitor and told us to take that taxi, which was already there but was early, and she called another. There was a little trouble going through security because I forgot to take my liquids bag out so they ended up searching the bag. When we had finished we found our gate and then went to the lounge to wait for boarding. These lounges are one of the best parts of going in business class! The flight was about eleven hours and although we were able to lie down it seemed a long time. Tom was able to sleep more than I did. We reached Houston, picked up our bags, went through all the checkpoints and rechecked our bags with very little trouble. Then we were able to go to another lounge to wait for our flight to Jackson. We reached Jackson at about 9:30 pm and were lucky that our bags were about the first to arrive. We picked them up and went to the parking garage where we had no trouble finding my car that Bob and Helaine had left for us and drove hod