Back home safe and sound

Well, all good things must come to an end. We arrived back in Milwaukee around 4:00 after having been up for 47+ hours with only cat napping to keep us going. It was a marathon series of flights and layovers in order to get back home from Cairo. All of our flights were completely filled, not an empty seat to be had!

The trip was an incredible experience. We journeyed back to 5,000 years BC and then into a very present day Egypt, with the people voting on a new constitution on the day we were departing. We were reminded that Egypt has only been a republic since 1952. Until then it had ruled by royal families of Kings and Queens!

To answer questions around safety - we never for one moment felt unsafe! The Egyptian government goes out of it way to keep tourists safe as tourism accounts for the largest per capita share of their country's income. Everyone, i.e. our travel company (Galaxy Myriad Travel), the hotel staff, the tourism police, the restaurant staff and the shopkeepers, all bent over backwards to do whatever they could to insure we had an enjoyable and memorable trip.

We made new friends with our tour group and will always cherish our time spent with them. Our guide Ibraham, was the best. His knowledge of Egyptology was excellent and he always kept things light with his jokes. Yalla yalla Ibraham! Our tour director Moe, is a first class person who slept little as he was always thinking and planning ahead for the next day's activities. He did his very best to meet everyone's requests and did an exemplary job in providing our group with the very best in hotels, food, service, sights, and sounds of his native Egypt. Moe - many kudos to you and your staff!

If you ever have the chance to visit, we would highly recommend you make the trip.

Thanks for reading our blog which we will become part of our ongoing travel journal.

Shukran,
Dave and Jan

Mosque, Citadel and City of the Dead visit

No early wake up call today - yeah! We had time to enjoy a wonderful breakfast which included a number of Egyptian specialities including Halewa (like a soft shortbread cookie) and actual honeycomb! 11:00 we boarded the bus to head to the citadel and one of the largest Mosque's in Egypt, the Mosque of Mohammed Ali Pasha.  The Mosque was mostly built by Mohammed Ali, no relation to the boxer! It is made of the Alabaster stone and the Minarets are 75' tall. We followed protocol by taking off our shoes while inside the Mosque. The citadel was built to repel the Mongolians and other invaders. It was built by Salah Al-din. The citadel is very impressive with its high walls and various fortifications. It is still under military control! The view of the city was awesome. In case we forgot to mention, the population of Cairo is over 21 million!
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for a brief overlook of the city of the dead. This cemetary is over 3 miles long and 1 mile wide! Because of very limited living space, many poor people have made their home in this area, so thus the name "city of the dead". The actual tombs are below ground and each one has a small structure surrounding the tomb, about the size of a bedroom. Very eerie to see!

Flight leaves at three in the morning, so we will be signing off for now. We have a final farewell dinner this evening at a local restaurant which features Syrian food.

View of the Citadel - a massive structure!

Outside the Mosque, again a massive building!

Note the light colored stone - Alabaster

Another view of the Citadel

The marbled floored courtyard with the Ablutions fountain - shoes off here! 

Intricate painting underneath the fountain's dome

Tomb inside the Mosque

Overlook view of Cairo

Overlook view of Cairo

View of the "City of the Dead"

Appetizer at the Syrian Restaurant - colorful and delicious!  Jani loved it!

Memphis and Cairo

Today we had a very early flight out of Hurghada into Cairo. After boarding our coach bus we headed for Saqqara. This area is an ancient necropolis with many half buried tombs, many of which are still under excavation! Upon arriving we viewed the oldest pyramid in Egypt, a "step" pyramid, built by "Zhoser". He is viewed as one of the great architect's of ancient times. We also viewed some awesome tombs, where the hieroglyphs depicted life in ancient Egypt. Stunning artwork and sculpting!

We re-boarded the bus where our next destination is one of the old capitals of Egypt, Memphis. Among other monuments, we saw an Alabaster Sphinx, a magnificent sarcophagus, and a massive fallen statue of Ramses II! We had to drive(maneuver) throughout the streets of this very old city. It was quite the experience!

On our way out of the city, we stopped at a "carpet store". This is no ordinary store! They were started by one man who wanted to be able to teach youth a trade. He trained the youth how to weave these very elaborate carpets. We learned how they do the weaving on silk, cotton and wool. Very cool!

After enjoying a very good ethnic lunch at a local restaurant, we headed into "Old Cairo".  Here we viewed a Coptic Christian church (Coptic means Egyptian) which is one of the oldest churches in the world, the church of St. Sergius. There is a crypt there and an old well where evidence has shown the Holy Family's presence at the time when they escaped Herod and lived in Egypt for three years and eleven months. Right down the small narrow corridor was the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest remaining synagogue in Egypt!.  It too, was beautiful! Due to the 1979 Israeli conflict, presently there are only 30 practicing Egyptian Jews in Egypt.  We visited another church which is built on top of three huge piers or pillars of the semi flooded Roman Water Gate and is called the " Hanging Church" for that reason.  We also saw the Church of St. George and the remains of the Roman Tower of Babylon. Within this small area of Old Cairo are numerous churches and monuments. Most buildings were thousands of years old with some being rebuilt or restored..

Last night we enjoyed two local favorites at a local diner. The main dish is called Koshary. It consists of macaroni, rice, lentils, chick peas and tomato sauce all combined into one. Very good and extremely filling! For desert we had homemade rice pudding with nuts and dates- Excellent!

Walking through "Old Cairo"

Fallen Ramses statue - huge!

Alabaster Sphinx statue - it weighs 80 tons!

"Step" pyramid

One method of travel!

A more traditional method of travel!

Fruit stands all over the city!

Traditional scene

Anyone for an orange - delicious!

Depiction in one of the tombs

A visit to the carpet school

Saw lots of these, carrying produce and crops to market

Making bread, which we had warm for lunch Yum!

Everyone loves a nice cold cola!

Streets of "Old Cairo"

Sign directing us to the old church

Ahhhh, a bit of shopping!

Hurghada

Day whatever?

Today we finally did not receive a wake up call.  Our group, numbering sixteen, was very appreciative of that!  Most are currently out by the pool or lounging by the beach of the Red Sea trying to catch some rays before we head back home to winter in a few days.  Yesterday the group boarded a yacht which was exclusively reserved for us.  It headed out to the area that was ideal for snorkeling.  Only Dave and two others participated.  Dave saw many of the same fish we saw on the glass bottom boat but definitely much more close up!  Lunch was on the yacht and consisted of all fresh fish - calamari, shrimp and sea bass, plus delicious salads.  We also stopped at Giftun island and relaxed on the beach. On our way in, we did a bit of fishing using a hand line with a hunk of fish for bait. A couple of us caught a few small, but colorful fish. Last night we went out to a coffee shop in downtown Hurghada for a taste of the night life. We had fresh fruit smoothies and Dave smoked from a Hookah. One can choose various flavored, so he chose Sweet Apple. A bit tough on the lungs!

Today is a day of relaxing by the pool followed by a tour of the city in the afternoon. Weather is beautiful! Jan is loving the sun! In the afternoon we toured the city to see how papyrus paper is made, visited a jewelry store (Egypt is known for their very high quality gold), and a leather store (also known for very high quality leather). Jan did purchase a very nice leather purse and some very comfortable leather shoes :-) Our final stops included a visit to a very old Coptic Church where the ladies all had to where veils on their heads and to the largest Mosque in Hurghada.

Red Sea Coral

Taking a leisurely swim, never mind that swimmer!

A fresh fruit smoothie- delicious!

Our yacht for the day!

Our sailing crew!

Smoking some Sweet Apple Tobacco with the Hookah

Boardwalk to the Giftun Island beach on the Red Sea

Jani directing us into the old Coptic Christian Church

Beautiful!

We celebrated the Orthodox Christmas

A view out our hotel balcony in Hurghada 

largest Mosque in Hurghada!

Entry doors to the Coptic Christian Church

Mural above the entryway

Dave enjoying a "Jamacian" at the hotel

Entryway sign and painting

Glass bottom boat and safari

Well today the day dawned with full sun and cool temps, relatively speaking. It was a glorious blue sky when we exited the hotel this morning on our way to the glass bottom boat in Hurghada, Egypt, a resort city on the Red Sea, where we are currently staying at.   We were totally in awe as the boat circled the coral reef in the Red Sea and we sat below watching all the schools of fish and other fish moving in and out of the coral formations.  At one point, Dave yelled out that had noticed a big turtle.    It was Jan's first time seeing ocean fish up close and personal and she could not stop taking pictures.  Several turned out and we cannot wait to share them with you once we get home.  Returning to the fabulous hotel, we caught some great warmth and food and then we were off to our supposed Safari.  This outing was a bit disappointing because we all had expectations of really going out into the desert and all we did was sample vehicles that do just that.  They started us out by taking a camel ride.  That was very unique.  Then we took a dune buggy ride out into the sand, followed by an ATV ride which we passed on since it was horribly windy, sand was blowing in our face, and we got chilly.  That was followed by a dinner which was supposed to be with the Bedouin (native people) and followed by a show with a belly dancer, a fellow who laid on sharp nails and a fellow who for at least five minutes spun in circles while creating other illusions.  He was the most amazing!  We were all very cold after being there for five hours.  It was our first disappointment of the trip which has been amazing overall. Our hotel is beautiful - right on the Red Sea and the weather is very conducive to soaking in some sunny rays. Tomorrow Jan is going to take a day just to relax around the hotel grounds, while Dave goes off to an island to take in some snorkeling.

Check out Galaxy Myriad Travel on Facebook for pictures of the whole group.

Colorful Coral

Colorful Fish!

A huge sea turtle!

Colorful Fish

Our submersible galls bottom boat

Ready to Ride!

Jani ready to ride her camel

Jani getting her feet in the Red Sea

Gorgeous view from the hotel beach

Balcony view!

Where's my camel?

Twirling Dancer - amazing endurance!