Egypt Day 1

Well I have reached that point again where my blog changes from a boring blog about everyday life in London to something exciting like about Egypt.!!

After a slight hiccup on the way to Heathrow, (I went to Terminal 2 instead of 4), I got on my BA flight to Cairo. We flew over France, Germany, Austria, then right down the coastline of Croatia, past the islands of Greece then over the mediteranean to Cairo. Again we flew right down the Nile, turning south of the city to go into the airport. It was quite a spectacular flight for a night flight. Cairo is a truly massive city!

The airport was fine, but I pity the guy in front of me who had a very serious military looking guy run off with his passport with no explanation. And then there was the Americans who had their flight diverted to Saudi Arabia and were arrested (yes arrested!) because they had alcohol in their luggage!). And they weren't even supposed to be there!

Today we did the rounds of Cairo - The Egyptian museum (highlight was King Tuts tombs' treasures plus the biggest mummy collection of kings, queens, princes etc..). Then we hit the Citadel which was next to a quarry where some of the rock for the Giza Pyramids came from. In the distance we could see the pyramids, they were quite big, and apparently 14 Kms away. It was very hazy as we were looking across Cairo, so ironically thi means the best view I have had of the Pyramids so far was from a plane flying over Cairo in 1997!

The Muhammed Ali (not the boxer!) Mosque was quite impressive and better than the one I saw in Casablanca (though much much smaller). We also saw a Coptic church and had lunch (felafel sandwhiches) shouted by our tour guide. He is great and have really enjoyed him so far.

Tonight is a cruise on the Nile, then tomorrow we hit the Giza (as opposed to Geezer - though I think this is a much funnier name!) Pyramids. Probably do some camel riding or something there. plus lots of photos and excpect a blog photo I guess!

Then the overnight train down to Luxor (or Aswan, I forget), and then its just going to be a surprise because I don't know what is next for sure, but I think its a Felucca cruise on the Nile.

The hotel we are in is really nice, so I'm glad of that. There are heaps of police and military guys about which i guess shows Egypt is serious about protecting tourists, though I'm just not sure they could do much considering.

Till next blog!