Part I - Cairo
We arrived late on the first day and stayed at the Semiramis Inter-Continental Hotel in Cairo. With an early start on the following day, we visited the camel market for a ride on camels. My new man did not feel good and threw up on the street due to the ugly smell of camel pats, and forced to miss the activity. What a shame! It was bumpy and funny, but I found it annoying when the camel drivers tried to hassle us all the way back to the bus for more tip.
After a short camel ride, we visited the Plateau of Giza. Here stood the largest and most famous of Egypt's many Pyramids, Cheops (Khufu) ruled 2600-2576BC. It was built during the IV dynasty and stood 450 feet high, built out of over 2 million blocks of limestone. We climbed all the way up to the Burial Chamber inside the Pyramid. It was great fun but it gave me muscle pain on the following days as I had to walk like a duck along the narrow passage way to get to the top. We also had the opportunity to view the enigmatic figure of the Sphinx (still a mystery of Egypt) within 100 feet. Amazing eh!
Right before lunch, we visited the Papyrus Museum, it was good to know how these people turned a plant into a piece of paper that I thought I would never do it myself. We ended up with buying some papyrus hand paintings which we would probably leave them in the storeroom and never look at them again! We skipped the afternoon optional tour to Memphis and Saqqara as my darling husband wasn't feeling too well after throwing up at the camel market. We sat by the hotel pool for the rest of the afternoon and relaxed under the sun. It was about 28*C - nice and warm!
On the 3rd day, we had a morning visit to the fine collection of Egyptian Antiquities at the Cairo Museum. This included treasures from the Old Kingdom (2700-2270BC), works from the site of Saqqara including the magnificent statue of King Djoser (2nd King of the III dynasty), works of arts from the Middle Kingdom (2133-1785BC) and the fabulous gold treasure of King Tutankhamun (New Kingdom XVIII dynasty 1347-1339BC). The Museum is so big that it would take us at least 3 days to see everything!
In the afternoon, we chose to have some time off instead of going on an optional excursion to the Citadel, Mosques and Bazaar. We took the chance to try out some local food at the Cairo Felfela Garden, a vegetarian restaurant founded in 1963. Surprisingly, the best restaurant in Cairo started off as a vegetarian food bar. We were very satisfied with the Egyptian meal and would like to learn their secret recipes!