Days 8, 9 and 10.....

But before I get into that, I totally forgot to write about the Nile-o-meter. It was the day that we went to the Hanging Church and the first Mosque( our first day of touring). I'm not sure how I missed it, because I thought it was so cool. It was built over a thousand years ago as a way to calculate how much tax to charge the citizens of Cairo. Too high or too dry and there would be no tax ( floods and droughts were national tax exemptions it would seem), but at sixteen arms taxes would be collected.....

Ok, back on track.

Day 8 was an easy day. It was Devin's birthday and the plan was to celebrate at Fagnoon, an Egyptian children's art center. There were tons of activites. The kids chose silkscreen, pottery and a water fight to finish it off..... It was awesome!!

Day 9 was also a mellow day. We went to David and Christina's golf club, Katamaya.

Day 10 was long, but fabulous. We drove to Alexandria to explore the Roman sites there. On the way we stopped at Lion World. A small zoo........ With a ton of dogs? I guess when zebras, camels, lions and tigers are in your backyard, you have more exotic fare in your small zoo..... like Newfoundland Dogs.... although we only took pictures of some Great Danes.....

I have to admit that I was happy that I didn't notice the dead monkeys hanging from the ceiling.... 

Once we entered Alexandra we got going with the sites....We started at the site of a Roman Amphitheater.

We moved on to Pompey's pillar. A Roman Triumphal column that was mistaken for the tomb of Pompey the Great (A Roman military leader) during medieval times (it was built 300 years after his death).

Next were some ancient Roman Catacombs. We weren't allowed to take our cameras in, but the guard allowed us to take some with our phones (for baksheesh).... I don't have any to post here, you'll have to wait until I do my finale post at home.

Finally we explored Qaitbay Fort (built in the fifteenth century on the site of Cleopatra's palace and the famous lighthouse, both of which had fallen into the sea during several enormous earthquakes in ancient times)......

This will be my last post written IN Egypt... I will finish the story of our journey from Chilly Calgary on the weekend. We fly out early Friday morning.....

The Adventure Continues.....

It is the 10th day of our Egyptian adventure and I probably should have posted a few days ago....  We've managed to pack in a lot more activities, probably too many to list them all..... On the day after the pyramids,  we took the kids on a sunset ride at Giza which was spectacular. We all had a lot of fun, particularly Eli. He was sad when the ride was over and asked to come back soon. I think lessons will be in our future, back at home......

Chey fell asleep on the ride... poor Alaa......His arms must have been killing him.... Unfortunately the picture is blurry, but it's all we've got.....

We had tea and Dale tried the Sheesha, but I can't find the picture (three cameras and many pictures)...

The next day we went to Garbage City and the Cave Church. People live, literally, in the garbage. They sort and recycle whatever they can.

A cat mummy... in someone's window....

 Dale found a welding shop.... first pic is a bit blurry, but you get the idea....

The cave church was built into natural caves. There are three separate churches all in caves....The carvings are amazing!!

We then stopped at the alabaster factory for some purchases.... I hope they make it home!

Then we went to the Khan Al Kalilli... We started from the Egyptian side (which I MUCH preferred, less busy and not at all aggressive) and then went through the tourist area.... which was a bit overwhelming.... the crush of people, the street vendors and shop keepers trying to lure us into their shops with compliments and bribery (we have best ____, cheapest price!), the comments about and to us (as women)..... you definitely have to be in the right frame of mind for the Khan.......

Do you see the white moped??? That moped drove right into Dale... could have easily avoided him, but chose not to..... Dale got a "Cairo Kiss" that nearly knocked him on his kisser.....I think it's pretty funny that Dale got a picture first......

We even found YARN!!!!

OK... I only made it to day 6 with this post and we're off on an evening felucca ride.... more to come later....

First days.....

WARNING!! THIS IS AN IMAGE HEAVY POST...... You've been warned.... ;)



Well, we've been in Cairo for a grand total of four days. It's been quite the experience (in a good way). Some experiences I was expecting (the traffic, the garbage in the streets, the stray cats and dogs, the crumbling facades of many of the buildings), others were a pleasant surprise. I found the traffic to be quite fun to watch, for example. It was like a dance of cars, pedestrians, donkeys, horses and various other occasional surprises, pirouetting, weaving and sashaying around, across and through the confusing mire of streets, seemingly oblivious to road lines, signs or traffic speeds (I have seen up to five cars across in a three lane road). I did cringe several times, certain that the car inches from my door was going to give us a "Cairo kiss," but it all seems to work, mostly.....

One thing I did not find surprising was the utter majesty of the pyramids. Actually seeing them in person, however, is indescribable. We caught our first glimpse the second day we were here, on our way to our first horseback ride in the desert.

One of the best parts of our visit to Egypt is the fact that, unlike most tourists, we get to SEE Egypt. We rode through a little village (complete with garbage dump and cemetery) on our way to the desert to ride.

Our second glimpse of the pyramids were ON our ride in the dessert..... How amazing is that?

I got to make a new friend

Mohammed (he is a driver for David's company) has been a fabulous tour guide. We've seen some amazing ancient Churches and Synagogue. 

A Roman Tower 

The First Mosque

And then we hit the Pyramids.... big time... Giza and Saqqara including the obligatory "riding of the camels.

Here are our drivers, guides and protectors for the day.... Mohammed and Hamdi

 We went into some of the smaller pyramids..... I nearly didn't make it (I have a fear of tons of rocks above my head deciding that five thousand years of standing is enough and now it's time to fall.......)

E

There are guards everywhere in Egypt. Security is tight... most of the time......

 

You can do almost anything if you have the right guide who knows the right people and you have enough Egyptian pounds in your pockets, including being able take photos where it is forbidden..... All of our tomb pictures were, strictly speaking, not allowed........ especially the ones in Saqqara (it's coming.... there are a LOT of pictures, we took over 1,000 in this ONE day)

I love being able to share my best friend's experiences......... She is an amazing host (she's not quite sick of us yet, even though she's pretty sure we're going to kill her... We're the energerizer bunny.... times four)....

We even became tourist attractions ourselves a few times......

By the time we got to the Sphinx it was super hot (for us... Egyptians thought it was nice and cool, I'm sure) and VERY busy....... So we didn't go inside, but I'm told the best pictures are from our vantage point anyway......

We finally made it to Saqqara (after a wonderful Egyptian meal and a visit to a papyrus museum).... unfortunately the Step Pyramid was closing as we arrived, but with some polite begging and a bribe, they let us do the speed dating version of the temple and pyramid...... but first a few of the paintings in the Mastabas (pre-pyramid burial chambers)..... the ones we weren't allowed to take.....

I loved this one... the detail was amazing... see the little dragonfly and grasshopper???

Here is the speed dating portion of our tour.........

I know there are a lot of pictures, but over the four days we have taken close to 2000 pictures.... choosing a few for this blog was uber difficult....... and it took over 3 hours to finish (a downside of Egypt seems to be slow internet in the evening.... I guess a city of over 20 million might cause that, eh??)

And there are still 8 days left........ stay tuned.......