Egypt (1 of 2)

The last few days have been a blur--a good, very good blur, but nonetheless...

Sea Days--wonderful and relaxing. We are enjoying our Balcony immensely--sitting out there quietly enjoying the Mediterranean coast by. We had a Formal Night--everybody got dressed up and it was great.

We sailed into Alexandria a bit late, because of fog, but our group tour met on time and off the ship we went. We met our guide (Eslam) and driver and piled our luggage and ourselves into the 11 passenger van and off we went towards Giza.

The drive down was interesting in a few ways. Eslam was a young Egyptologist who had just got engaged and really knew his stuff--he gave us an entertaining and brief history, geography, sociology, etc. of Egypt. Our driver was wizard--just suicidal enough to get us safely down the roads, which were not too bad--better than Winnipeg's in the springtime, but were filled (think rush hour) with traffic going faster than the speed limit--considered to be a suggestion--and piloted with drivers more suicidal than ours. They have a bad accident rate here. Lots of dints and scrapes in the vehicles--most drivers have their side mirrors folded in (or broken off) because they don't use them anyway--just beep and go into the nearest space that appears, big enough or not. And the countryside--a mix of sand and irrigated land and people and homes everywhere in walled off or hedged-off lots. Some pollution in the cities but not too bad otherwise. As a 3rd world country, it is "messy", though, in most respects.

After about 3 hours, we left the rolling sandy landscape and got into some more rough stuff and then the pyramids appeared. Totally marvellous. We climbed about 15meters up the Great Pyramid on a path towards the original entrance--which is now blocked to tourists. After some time clambering around, we got back in the van and drove around the other 2 big pyramids to a bit of desert and a camel ride. They are big and when they get up with you on their back, it is a bit of a ride. We were on them for about half an hour--I have a lot more respect for T.E.Lawrence (of Arabia). It was a real Wow time to be riding camels looking at the pyramids. Then, a walk to the Sphinx, which is really quite a mysterious masterpiece in its own right.

After lunch at a buffet place, we went first to an outdoor museum exhibit with a large statue of RamsesII at the site of the ancient city of Memphis and then to Saqqara, the site of the first "step" pyramids in a complex. Here we went into a royal tomb which had heiroglyphics throughout on all the walls. A few joined rooms, all empty and small, and underground--but not under a pyramid. But 5000 years old...!

We checked into the hotel and then went for an evening supper cruise on the Nile. Sadly, it was rather tacky.

Back to the hotel where we begged and borrowed a computer with Internet Access so we could find out that our newest Grandchild, Sophie, had just been born, less than an hour before. Welcome to the world, Sophie!