Cairo, Egypt

We made it! All of us!. Although Erik and Lisa's flight was a couple of hours late, their pick-up at the airport was kind enough to wait for them, much to their surprise and delight. We made the trip to Cairo a day in advance and arrived at our hotel we had booked a couple of days earlier. We did some extensive research in picking the hotel, hoping to find a place that was good on the budget but clean, comfortable, and quiet for our new arrivals. Nothing makes Jet-lag worse than trying to sleep in grungy surroundings with car horns blaring and people shouting. (Cairo is notoriously noisy) Needless to say the hotel did not quite live up to the pictures on the internet and our expectations. It wasn't too bad, just in the middle of renovations! In fact, Anelia and Jeff returned from our first day on the streets of Cairo to find the door to their room open and some last minute painting and plastering taking place! The kicker, no one was in the room. It was just sitting open to let the paint dry. A little dodgy I’d say. After getting a few things sorted with management we settled in to wait for our friends. They arrived, a happy reunion took place, we supplied Egyptian sweets for their welcome, they brought chocolates and cookies for Christmas. (thanks Ms. E.) For the next couple of days, we wasted no time, (well maybe a few hours due to Jet-Lag for some of the party) hitting the Egyptian museum with it's 4000 year old mummies, the old Islamic quarter of Cairo with its ancient Mosques and Mausoleums and of course taking in the amazing Great Pyramids of Giza. The Pyramids were, of course, the highlight of the tour. As you turn your head while driving on the highway and catch your first glimpse of these magnificent and ancient structures rising up above the city you get shivers down your spine. Our new duo to our travelling circus, Erik and Lisa, christened their arrival to Egypt with a tour around the pyramids via camel. Having experienced the camel thing and wanting a little time to run around and take photo's, Jeff and Anelia declined a lift. The rest of the day we toured the Islamic quarter of town and in the evening caught and amazing Whirling Dervish performance. The dancing and music was sensational. Cairo is a very interesting city. We say interesting because although it is full of fantastic sights and amazing ancient history, the city is also packed with over 18 million people. Needless to say, the clamor, chaos and especially the smog is enough to drive anyone mad. The smog is so thick in the morning it hangs like fog over the Nile. As a result, we have to classify Cairo as an interesting city to visit but not one of our favorite capital cities. We capped off our time in Cairo with a drink at the Hyatt hotel rotating lounge which looks out over the Nile. Well, that was the plan but after being told their was a 200 Egyptian pound minimum for each person to spend we decided to retreat down to the main floor Hard Rock Café. (super cheesy, yes, but most of us had never been in one before so we thought, what the heck.). We did at least get the view from the Hyatt for 20 min. The next day we caught the 9 hour bus to Dahab on the Sinai coast of the Red Sea.

pic 1 transporting bread

pic 2 whirling diversh show

pic 3 sunset in Cairo

pic 4 Mosque in Islamic Cairo

pic 5,6,7,8 at the pyramids
pic 9 the Nile
pic 10 renovations in the hotel room