So, you want to know about Egypt?
It starts here:
Prologue and Day 1:
Friday Dec 26th
We finally left the house in the tender hands of angelfire_75 only and hour later than planned, but made good time down to the Holiday Inn M4, to find that a 'triple' room meant two single beds shoved together with one set of blankets over it - just as well we're a close family! I dibs-ed the middle, but slept badly.
Saturday Dec 26th
Breakfast was good, if expensive, even with Kyle eating for free. Slight trouble at reception over the receipt for our car-key which meant that we missed the 10.30 shuttle bus to Heathrow. Cue me stressing quite a lot about getting to the airport on time but managing to keep a lid on it.
Of course, three hours is faaaar to early to check-in, but hey, we got there, and the plane took off late anyway.
Egyptair Boeing 777 surprisingly comfortable - lots of leg room. Got to watch 'Mamma Mia!' on the in-flight movie, which passed the time pleasantly and had me in tears at the end. Load of old tosh really ;-)
First impressions of Cairo at night: busy busy BUSY. Bright stores and bazaars open until midnight. Hotel very comfortable - three single beds tonight.
Tour guide, Mohammed, approachable and knowledgable, rest of party annoying. There are four other families in the party: one single mother with her son; a family of 4, and family of 5 and a family of 6, who all seem to know one another.
Sunday Dec 28th
If it's Sunday, it must be Cairo. Check out the smog :/
A very odd, very busy day.
After breakfast and a lot of faffing by the rest of the group, we drove off to the Cairo Museum, where Mohammed told us lots of tales, some of which I knew, some I didn't, and showed us lots and lots of stuff that can also be seen in the British Museum. It was incredibly crowed, as one might imagine. We did get to see the treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb, which was magical. The sight of the golden Death Mask does send shivers down the spine. Over-heard a guide telling an American tourist that the Rosetta Stone is currently at the BM but they are trying to get it back. Good luck, guys! Another favourite bit was the tiny statuette of Cheops, barely three inches high, which is the only likeness in existence of the Pharaoh who is buried under the Great Pyramid!
The pace eased slightly when we were allowed 45 minutes to wander by ourselves, so we looked at fascinating animal mummies including crocodiles, cows, dogs and a snake, and then some ancient weaponry.
Back on the bus. Had a light lunch of falafel at a small cafe near the Pyramids, then got to go and look at them. Fairly impressive, if slightly underwhelming. There was a feeling of unreality about the whole site, akin to seeing the White House from the Mall in DC: you see these things so often on TV, and the Pyramids are so huge, that there is a strange feeling that they are just part of a film set or something.
There was a lot of getting on and off the bus to look at the Panorama, then the Pyramids themselves, then the Sphinx. Ian and Kyle took and extra trip down into the second Pyramid, that of Chephren, the son of Cheops, who reigned from 2558 - 2533 BC. There wasn't much to see, apparently, and it was very hot, but they got to do it, which was pretty cool. I wandered around the outside and took photos, and got horribly hassled by touts, which upset me more than I wanted it to.
Then back on the bus (there's a pattern forming here - we got on and off the bus 8 times during the course of the day) and down to the bottom of the hill to look at the Sphinx. Conventional archeology has it that the Sphinx was carved by Chephren, and that the face is his likeness, but more recent tests (1991) suggest that it was originally much older than him. The contraversy still rages. The damage to it was mostly caused by Mamluke and Napoloeonic troops using it for target practise, and it lost its beard to the British Museum, poor old thing. Again, seeing it was like looking at Stonehenge from 5 miles away.
After this brief viewing we were back on the bus again and whisked off to the Papyrus 'Museum' (read 'shop'), where we had a 5-minute demonstration of how papyrus is made followed by 30 minutes of people trying to sell us stuff. Ian went off in search of a working ATM, and this time returned victorious.
After a brief respite back at the hotel. We boarded the bus again to go to the train station to catch the overnight sleeper to Aswan. The train was late, but all the kids in the party seemed happy enough, all bonding over Nintendo DS games sitting on a great pile of luggage. the train was comfortable enough, although the other families were exceedingly annoying over room-sharing. (I wrote in my diary this evening that if I made it to the end of the holiday without being extremely rude to one of them, I would consider myself extremely fortunate. Dear reader, I failed!)
Tomorrow, we wake up in Aswan.
Prologue and Day 1:
Friday Dec 26th
We finally left the house in the tender hands of angelfire_75 only and hour later than planned, but made good time down to the Holiday Inn M4, to find that a 'triple' room meant two single beds shoved together with one set of blankets over it - just as well we're a close family! I dibs-ed the middle, but slept badly.
Saturday Dec 26th
Breakfast was good, if expensive, even with Kyle eating for free. Slight trouble at reception over the receipt for our car-key which meant that we missed the 10.30 shuttle bus to Heathrow. Cue me stressing quite a lot about getting to the airport on time but managing to keep a lid on it.
Of course, three hours is faaaar to early to check-in, but hey, we got there, and the plane took off late anyway.
Egyptair Boeing 777 surprisingly comfortable - lots of leg room. Got to watch 'Mamma Mia!' on the in-flight movie, which passed the time pleasantly and had me in tears at the end. Load of old tosh really ;-)
First impressions of Cairo at night: busy busy BUSY. Bright stores and bazaars open until midnight. Hotel very comfortable - three single beds tonight.
Tour guide, Mohammed, approachable and knowledgable, rest of party annoying. There are four other families in the party: one single mother with her son; a family of 4, and family of 5 and a family of 6, who all seem to know one another.
Sunday Dec 28th
If it's Sunday, it must be Cairo. Check out the smog :/
A very odd, very busy day.
After breakfast and a lot of faffing by the rest of the group, we drove off to the Cairo Museum, where Mohammed told us lots of tales, some of which I knew, some I didn't, and showed us lots and lots of stuff that can also be seen in the British Museum. It was incredibly crowed, as one might imagine. We did get to see the treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb, which was magical. The sight of the golden Death Mask does send shivers down the spine. Over-heard a guide telling an American tourist that the Rosetta Stone is currently at the BM but they are trying to get it back. Good luck, guys! Another favourite bit was the tiny statuette of Cheops, barely three inches high, which is the only likeness in existence of the Pharaoh who is buried under the Great Pyramid!
The pace eased slightly when we were allowed 45 minutes to wander by ourselves, so we looked at fascinating animal mummies including crocodiles, cows, dogs and a snake, and then some ancient weaponry.
Back on the bus. Had a light lunch of falafel at a small cafe near the Pyramids, then got to go and look at them. Fairly impressive, if slightly underwhelming. There was a feeling of unreality about the whole site, akin to seeing the White House from the Mall in DC: you see these things so often on TV, and the Pyramids are so huge, that there is a strange feeling that they are just part of a film set or something.
There was a lot of getting on and off the bus to look at the Panorama, then the Pyramids themselves, then the Sphinx. Ian and Kyle took and extra trip down into the second Pyramid, that of Chephren, the son of Cheops, who reigned from 2558 - 2533 BC. There wasn't much to see, apparently, and it was very hot, but they got to do it, which was pretty cool. I wandered around the outside and took photos, and got horribly hassled by touts, which upset me more than I wanted it to.
Then back on the bus (there's a pattern forming here - we got on and off the bus 8 times during the course of the day) and down to the bottom of the hill to look at the Sphinx. Conventional archeology has it that the Sphinx was carved by Chephren, and that the face is his likeness, but more recent tests (1991) suggest that it was originally much older than him. The contraversy still rages. The damage to it was mostly caused by Mamluke and Napoloeonic troops using it for target practise, and it lost its beard to the British Museum, poor old thing. Again, seeing it was like looking at Stonehenge from 5 miles away.
After this brief viewing we were back on the bus again and whisked off to the Papyrus 'Museum' (read 'shop'), where we had a 5-minute demonstration of how papyrus is made followed by 30 minutes of people trying to sell us stuff. Ian went off in search of a working ATM, and this time returned victorious.
After a brief respite back at the hotel. We boarded the bus again to go to the train station to catch the overnight sleeper to Aswan. The train was late, but all the kids in the party seemed happy enough, all bonding over Nintendo DS games sitting on a great pile of luggage. the train was comfortable enough, although the other families were exceedingly annoying over room-sharing. (I wrote in my diary this evening that if I made it to the end of the holiday without being extremely rude to one of them, I would consider myself extremely fortunate. Dear reader, I failed!)
Tomorrow, we wake up in Aswan.