CAIRO AND THE PYRAMIDS

January 31 – February 1

Today is our Cairo overnight trip. We were up early as our time to leave was 6:45 AM, well that was not to be. The Egyptian authorities decided they had to do a health inspection. The ship was advised of this earlier and had arrived about 1:30 in the morning to try getting the inspection done so we would be on time but the port authorities would not let us in until 7:30. It was 12 PM before we got our clearance so we were 6 hours late getting away. We were told that it just about did not happen. That would have been a big disappointment for all aboard as most had made the trip just for Egypt.

Our first day was the 3 hour drive to Cairo, with the first stop at the Museum of the Pharaohs followed by our dinner on the Nile. We then went to the Light Show at the Pyramids. By this time we all needed our nights rest, however the trip was long as Egypt had won the African Foot Ball championship and the natives were out to party (Calgary's Red Mile does not stand a chance against this spectacle ).People were literally dancing in the streets, flags everywhere, horns beeping and massive traffic jams.
We arrived at the Conrad Hotel about midnight, it did not take long to fall a sleep. We had a super room with a view of the Nile too tired to appreciate it but the bed was great.

Our wake up call came at 6:30, breakfast and of and running by 7:30. First stop was the Alabaster Mosque of King Mohamed Ali. Then off to visit Memphis to see the ruins of the temple of Ptah and the fallen stature of King Ramses the 2nd. We then went to oldest cemetery of Sakkara and the Pyramid of King Zoser. It was at this site that we entered a tomb inside of a pyramid followed by going into the tomb of King Zoser. Next it was lunch at a very luxurious restaurant followed the Pyramids of Giza for our ride on camels around the sites. Never have we seen the merchants like they are here. Never look them in the eye or shake your hand, you will never get rid of them. We then went to the Mighty Sphinx for more picture taking and street merchants. Throughout the entire trip, our guide Hany gave us an in-depth commentary of Egyptian history which helped us appreciate the antiquities we saw and made sure that we missed most of the on-slot of street merchants..