Egypt

Welcome!


Yes, it is true. We have done it yet again. You probably are wondering how we manage it... another marvelous trip to add to our collection.. and yes... we would love to tell you about it. We traveled this time to Egypt and Jordan. It was a lifetime dream for Gypsy; she never thought she would live long enough to make the trip. That just goes to show.. you never know what will happen. I always say that.

You know the routine by now, so let's get this out of the way... here is the Egyptian flag (admire, admire).. and a click will play the Egyptian national anthem (listen, listen).



Some of the general pictures of Egypt on this site are those I have gleaned from the internet; some are my own. Some of our own personal photos are descretely tucked away behind the little camera icon... and for good reason. Click on these if you feel adventurous!



For this trip, our adventure really did start when we had barely left home. We didn't leave till noon, which made for a restless morning, and we got to Portland and on the bus to Boston with no problem. However, in Boston, as we waited for our evening American Airlines flight to JFK to board... the flight board changed from "on time" to "delayed"... then a moment later to "canceled". We were not happy; we were downright upset and panicked.

The American agent was kind enough to do a good computer search for another flight that would get us into JFK while the window was still open for our EgyptAir connection. She said, "United", and we should collect the luggage we had already checked into American... Carousel D.

We run to carousel D... nothing... so we check out the others... which are miles apart, incidentally. Then we start asking airport employees... Carousel B... no this guy says A... Probably C...No it's D... Maybe B. Finally we track it down on Carousel D... we could have just taken a nap there and saved ourselves a LOT of running around and huffing and puffing, but we do "panic" so well.



We drag our stuff to United and are told we probably won't get a seat because there are not nearly enough for all the displaced American Airline travelers. But blessings abound... our names are in their computer... and we get two of the seats to JFK.

When we make our connection in New York.. the EgyptAir gate is in a far away building. I notice that the terminal becomes shabbier and shabbier as we proceed further into EgyptAir territory. This isn't very comforting.



The EgyptAir check-in area is like a huge bazaar... Hundreds of mid-easterners each with several carts full of about 20 huge pieces of baggage. It looks like they made a massive shopping trip to the US.. with electronics and children's toys at the top of their lists. All we need is a boarding pass.. so Gypsy goes to the head of the line and looks pitiful. It works... we get our boarding passes and off to the gate. Well.. look at this... in spite of American's "mechanics' slowdown" and all the cancelled flights.. there is our tour group ready to take off on an adventure.



After take-off, we got a meal (who can remember what it was) and then it was a long night.. about 10 hrs long. I thought it would never end. Finally they came around with breakfast... I hadn't realized that this was the Bread and Water Flight. I'm not kidding you... bread rolls and a container of water.

The arrival at Cairo airport was something of a challenge.. as was our departure from Boston. If we could do without luggage entirely.. travel would be so simple. This is a concept that Cuz and I are working on.



Finally onto our bus and onward to our hotel. Our guide introduced himself as our "babysitter", and produced a toy "clicker" that we were to respond to in Pavlovian fashion... oh dear.. this trip is going to be longer than we anticipated.

Having left New York at night... and traveling all night... you won't be surprised to hear that it was night (still/again) when we finally left for our hotel. You might think that driving through Cairo at night would be rather uninteresting. Would you be wrong! I could barely believe the evening activity on the streets, in the shops, all the people in their interesting clothing. And there were even people gathered on kitchen chairs on the sidewalk watching black and white TV.


The Mena House is a very elegant hotel. We had a nice room.. and the hotel was right next to the pyramids, we saw them from the window at breakfast the next morning. I thought at first it was a big, dark, gray cloud looming outside the window wall... No, it was The Great Pyramid! My very first sighting of the pyramids and I didn't even recognize it... Duh! I was thrilled.


The next morning, we depart for the Cairo Museum. Oh Boy! I have been looking forward to this and here it is. The museum artifacts are, as it is said, poorly displayed and illuminated.. but even so, to see these marvelous things left Gypsy speechless, how often does that happen?


We saw some of the famous statuary (Gypsy got lost a couple times but was rescued by Cuz) and the Tutankhamen treasures. The museum was terribly crowded and it was very difficult for Gypsy not to wander off. Truthfully we only saw a very small portion of the museum and already my brain was on Sensory Overload Alert.







Then we left for time on a shopping street. But this didn't work out because the Tourist Police didn't want us there. It wasn't safe... how come, have we bombed Iraq again? Who knows? Egyptians are not great disseminators of information. So we went to a papyrus store instead.. where we had fun... and then back to the hotel. There we spent the whole afternoon bemoaning the fact that we should have been taken back to the Cairo Museum to actually see something. As nice as the Mena House is, we have seen hotels before.



We did take a walk up as far as the gate to the pyramids.. we looked at the camel camp and visited with the Tourist Police.. "TP" to us. It was fun, but the museum would have been better.

The TP were everywhere. Everywhere! We had one riding in the bus with us.. they were scattered all over the tourist sites.. they were set up with metal detectors in all hotels... they were traveling on our cruise boat.. and stationed at the dock when we were moored. Every time you turned around, there was the TP. They ranged in demeanor from grim to friendly.. some wanted to be photographed, some did not... all had guns.. whether the were loaded or not, one can only speculate. I hope not, as they didn't look like a very disciplined outfit, for the most part! I think their ability in a time of crisis would be questionable.. but who knows? Maybe they are more dedicated than they looked.



In the evening, we had a lovely dinner at the home of an Egyptian family. Cuz had a little trouble changing into her outfit for the evening. Our host family had a comfortable Cairo apartment and we were provided with a fabulous meal. The food of the mid-east is wonderful. No wonder those restaurants are popping up everywhere in the US. Everywhere but Rockland, I am afraid.

The only problem was actually getting to the dinner. The family's apartment was on the 10th floor. There were 16 of us.. not counting our guide and our TP. The elevator only took three at a time. But that wasn't the problem... the elevator only stopped between floors. It took lots of ups and downs to finally get it to stop anywhere near the actual floor! I am sure we all had visions of ourselves spending the night in a teensy elevator stuck between floors... somewhere in Cairo. After dinner... we all elected to walk down the stairs.

Follow Anubis through Egypt...