Nov 6: Back to Cairo

We flew from Luxor back to Cairo this morning.  Our bus in Cairo was delayed from leaving the airport, awaiting a "security car" to drive with us.  

 Some mosque scenes driving thru Cairo




While we are continually assured we are perfectly safe, we have been accompanied everywhere by a man with a machine gun and then today by the security car.  I have not felt threatened in any way (other than very aggressive vendors in the markets outside every temple) but it's kind of reassuring to have some firepower with us just in case.

We checked into the Four Seasons Cairo, "the nicest hotel in Cairo", 19th floor with a Nile view


 



 The hotel gave us a belated anniversary greeting

We had a rare afternoon off, so I used the time to catch up on this blog...the internet on board the ship was so bad that I had fallen behind.  We had to get a COVID PCR test so we could re-enter the US in a couple days, so they came to our rooms to do that (and stuck those swabs WAY up our noses!)

We had a wonderful dinner at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel with traveling friends Mike and Patty (Chicago), Terry (race car driver from Lafayette, CO) and Noel.




A little pricey...for example, $6 just to keep our water glasses filled with bottled water, but very delicious!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nov 1: Giza Pyramids

Image
After over-eating at another breakfast buffet, we took a short bus ride to the Giza Pyramids, which are the ones visible from our hotel room balcony.  These date back to 2550 B.C., and were the burial places of three pharoahs:  Khufu (largest pyramid), Khafre (middle pyramid), and Menkaure (smallest).     The Great Pyramid is the oldest and largest of the three, and is oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. Its height is about 420 ft built mostly of limestone and granite (the stones averaging 2.5 tons), and was built over 20 years. The middle pyramid shows a sheathing (an extra layer of stone) at the top...all three initially had this, but was mostly peeled off for other construction over the years, as wood is almost non-existent here.    We had the opportunity to climb up a narrow, steep, and short passageway (I actually had to crawl on hands and knees at one point, I foresee a sore back tonight!) goin...
Read more

Nov 7: more temples and pyramids, Coptic Christian church, museum

Image
We rode the bus south of Cairo to the Sakkara archeological site.  Many years ago, the area was flooded by the Nile and was made fertile by the silt, now growing lush palm forests right on the edge of the Sahara Desert Here we saw a several pyramids, both onsite (including this one that we actually went down into) and this "stepped" pyramid which is the oldest rock construction in the world     There were other pyramids in the distance in all directions, built over 4000 years ago ...our guide said there are about 150 pyramids so far discovered in Egypt, and more are being discovered all the time, they have just been covered up with dirt, sand, and debris over the centuries.Any hill of sand can someday reveal a pyramid.  The Valley of the Kings we visited yesterday is the more famous area, but our guide said Sakkara may become even more famous.  Just today, a new tomb yielded a trove of treasures that he was advised of.  It is largely an issue of funding the...
Read more

Nov 5: Valley of the Kings and Karnak/Luxor Temples

Image
Some of our group (Jerry, Steve and Sarah Howell, and "Doc" (sight-impaired)) got up around at 4am to take hot air balloon rides and watch sunrise  over the Valley of the Kings west of Luxor, Egypt.  That was too early for us, so the rest of us traveled by boat to the west bank of the Nile and went by bus to the Valley of the Kings.  This was a place I was supposed to visit in March 2020 as part of my cruise with Jerry from India to Italy but cancelled due to COVID.   For 500 years from about 1600BC to 1100BC (1000 years after the building of the pyramids), the pharaohs and nobles of Egypt had tombs instead of pyramids built for themselves as they passed from mortal life to eternal life.  Tomb robberies occurred even in ancient times, so the isolated nature of this desert valley on the west side of the Nile river was selected for hidden underground tombs. Here is a 3D model of the valley and maybe you can see below the terrain how the tomb chambers extended...
Read more