What a day we had today!!!

Salaam alaykum as they say in Egypt,

What a day...we thought our tour started at 5 a.m. and found out when we got back to our room after dinner we actually had to be in the Queen's room at 3:45 a.m. I'm including Ken's script on his trip as we took separate trips....I'm so glad he did decide to go afterall...I think he is too. So, we take a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to the pyramids and they are all they say...mysterious, huge and beautiful. The amazing thing is you would think you'd travel quite away into the desert to see them, although they are right outside the town of Cairo. The first pyramid was built 2570 BC and took 200 years to build. It is just mindboggling to try to figure out how they moved 2,300.000 blocks of limestone weighing 2 1/2 tons each to put it all together. And all of that without computers, nails or cement!!
They were supposedly tombs for the pharaohs yet they have not found any mummies inside.

I walked all around one of the pyramids and took pics from every corner...I'm planning on comparing to see the difference!! There were so many people, children included looking to take your money...like the guy who wrapped a scarf around my head...I kept saying no money and he kept wrapping!! Then a security guard told me of a great pose for a pic and he took it...his bud said "you pay him?" You couldn't do anything without a handout!!! They would offer you a camel ride for $20 and once you got up they'd want another $30 to let you down. I did not fall for that one!!

And the little kids were so homely looking asking for money and bargaining with us...at one point I had a whole group of school age children approach me and their favorite question is "What is your name"...at first I thought they were asking for money and then realized they were on a school trip so I started clapping and they all joined in so there we were all singing and clapping...until their teacher pulled them away....probably saying in Greek..."that crazy American lady"! It just was so fun to interact with someone who didn't want money!!

We then visited the Sphinx which was amazing as it was carved out of a rock. On the way to our next stop we visited a mosque..yes, another one but it was pretty cool. We drove down a street in Cairo that had the first church, first synagogue, and first mosque.

Afterwards, we stepped aboard and experienced the colorful and fascinating sights of the magnificent Nile River on a floating restaurant. We took a gentle cruise as we had lunch and were entertained by "folkloric presentation and belly dancing". The belly dancers looked more like someone from Hooters!!

We have been so fortunate throughout this whole trip with the weather. I can't even remember when it last rained and it has been so warm during all of our tours. We sure have lucked out as it could make alot of the tours pretty nasty if it was cold or rainy.

And now Ken and his day...
4-13-10 Tuesday (anchored at the mouth of the Suez channel)
My original plans where to stay on the ship and observe the 100-mile Suez Channel transiting trip. However, the night before, I receive a call from the tour desk indicating there was still space open on a tour going to Cairo (Pyramids and the Sphinx). Even though the bus ride to Cairo was 2 hours long, anything had to be better than the infamous “camel ride”. So, at 2:30 in the morning I pulled my sorry butt out of bed dressed and was in the tour queue by 3:30AM.
Some 400 passengers took a number tenders (shuttle boats) to shore where we boarded our buses. .The Pymards of Giza are massive,,,, bigger than you can imagine. The Sphinx is also one of the 7 wonders of the world and make you ask, who, what, where and why??
The Cairo guide has his master degree in archeology and made the trip incredibly interesting. Aside from the history, the poverty (and traffic) in Cairo was overwhelming.
Kids working at 10 years old, bathing in filthy channel water and living in unbelievable conditions. Because of the usual traffic “grid lock” we and the other 10 Canard tour buses where very late leaving Cairo.
We where almost 3 hours from Port Said (the top of the Suez Cannel) the entrance to the Mediterranean. We where to depart Port Said at 7 pm (on a very tight schedule as dock space is at a premium because of the Suez ship scheduling). As a result, they gather all the late running Cunard tour buses at one spot on the outskirts of Cairo and under a special police escort took us across the county to the port to try meeting the departure time. Truck traffic on the Egyptian highways is very heavy. Even under a high speed police escort, traveling at 60 to 80 mph, this 10 Big Bus convoy was late arriving in Port Said. Most of the trucks we forced of the road gave up the “Egyptian hand salute”…We board Q.V. at 9PM (remember we have up since 2:30am) wiry.

Saal ma'is salaama,

janet and Ken