Final Days....

I'm rather sad about this post... It just seems wrong to be writing about our final days in Egypt from my computer in Calgary. The entire trip feels like a surreal dream.  We are all sad to have left our family in Egypt, there were quite a few tears shed in our last couple of days....... but, I digress.... Here is a description of our last four days in the City of a Thousand Minarets...

The day after our trip to Alexandria, Mohamed took us to The Citadel where we explored the Muhammad Ali Mosque, the military museum and El-Nasir Mosque. We had finally learned (we're slow learners, apparently) to avoid school groups as much as possible to avoid being mobbed by adolescent Egyptians looking for pictures with us (when we weren't being approached for pictures, we were Kinneared, it was bizarre) I really didn't mind most of the time, but inevitably, once we allowed one or two girls to start taking pictures, we would, in no time, be overrun.... One funny thing did happen on this day though.... As we were walking down the hill away from the Citadel to where Mohamed was waiting, a large gathering of several school groups started screaming and waving excitedly.... I turned to look behind us, thinking that maybe someone famous was there, but nope..... it was our family they were screaming at......

After the Citadel, Mohamed took us to the Ibn Tulun Mosque, the only mosque in Cairo with an exterior staircase on its minaret (which we were able to climb).

Our final stop for the day's tour was in City of the Dead (a large Cemetery where over 500,000 people live and work) to visit a glass blowing shop where all of the glass is made from recycled material.

On our way back to Christina's to prepare for our evening felucca ride, we stopped to look over the city. It was pretty smoggy/smokey, but the view was still beautiful

We then went on a Felucca ride to enjoy the evening on the Nile....

We couldn't get all the kids smiling nicely at the same time.... sigh..... 

The next day was our trip to Whale Valley (Wadi Al-Hitan), where hundreds of fossil skeletons have been found showing the evolution of whales from land mammals to ocean dwellers. It was a hot, sweaty, three kilometre hike..... 

Our police escort to the desert allowed Dale to hold an AK47.... for a fee.

We had a lot of fun deciding what the formations looked like.... Long Neck (aka, apatosaurus), anyone??

see Christina, I told you I wouldn't write about you staying behind in the hut to knit... oops.....

After a morning ride with Eli (look at him go!)....... we began our final day of touring which was centred around Islamic Cairo. We visited the oldest street in Cairo containing the Blue Mosque (under extensive renos, we were only allowed to take pictures through a window) and the Mosque of Khayrbek (neither of which are open to tourists). We then walked down the street to a palace that has a tunnel to the Citadel. Our final stops were another mosque containing columns from three different time periods (I'm sorry Mohamed, I can't remember the name of the Mosque) and the Tentmakers street of the Khan el-Kalili.

See how smoggy/smokey it is??? We were able to see the pyramids from this vantage point earlier in our trip.... The smog descended on the day after our sunset ride..... 

Khayr Bek Mosque

Blue Mosque, named for the tiles

 Beautiful stained glass in one of the wives' rooms of the palace and Eli checking out the view from the mashrabeya windows (used by Islamic women to view the street without being seen)

Street of the Tentmakers.

We then visited the family tomb of Muhammad Ali Pasha. Another of our non-tourist stops.... it was amazing...

This mosque is no longer used as the road fell away. We tried to take a picture of it almost every time we passed, but either forgot when we got there, or weren't quick enough with the camera..... We finally snapped a picture on our way back to Christina's...

I started our last day in Egypt on a quiet, morning horseback ride with Christina (I rode a total of five times while in Egypt) and then did a little shopping before packing and getting ready to head to the airport at 2am (Egyptian time)...... 27 hours later, we walked in our door..... and none of us can believe its over.......

I want to thank Opa and Cary for getting us to Egypt, we would never have been able to go without you. Thank you also to Christina and David for allowing us to stay in your beautiful home and share your life for a few short days. Finally, Thank you to Mohamed for being such a wonderful guide and helpful interpreter and amazing person. And, of course, Amelia, for all of her extra work around the house. 

I've set up a slide show of some of my favourite pictures if you're interested, you can also access the album by clicking on the slideshow and then clicking "view all"

Slideshow Here

I'll get a post going about the knitting accomplished on my trip after my jetlag is over.....