3/17 & Cairo

This is our last day in Gran Sasso. It snowed again last night for a short time - but didn't stay. The people at the hotel have been very nice. Italians like to talk to people, even if we don't have a language in common. They provide vocabulary words - so now I know much more Italian than when I started.

One of my readers commented on the fact that much of my blog deals with food. That is a reality of Whitten life. This time though, I might be in trouble - so much to eat - so little exercise. I may have to stop eating altogether when I get home.

And on that note, here are all the pictures of food that I took in Italy:

And back to Egypt. We had another early morning. We had to be on the bus at 6 to go to the airport.

When we arrived in Cairo, Passant once again showed her worth. It was too early to check into the hotel. Part of the group wanted to go to a shop that sold cotton things and part wanted to go to the hotel and have lunch there. She figured out that the bus driver could drop the cotton shop group, take the others to the hotel, pick up falafel sandwiches for the shoppers and come back to the shop. We finished shopping and then had a light lunch on the bus. Chuck wanted to get some short sleeved cotton shirts. I wanted to get a tee shirt for Alec. It turned out that they would embroider a personal cartouche on the shirt and deliver it to the hotel. After picking out Chuck's shirts, they had long sleeves. NO Problem, they would shorten the sleeves and deliver them, too.

That evening we went to our home hosted dinner. The bus driver was in big trouble. He dropped us off at the wrong place. We had to walk several blocks and cross a busy street. The guard stopped traffic for us - see they do come in handy.

Notice the gold on the furniture - but not as much as Abdul's!

The next morning we visited the pyramids. They are truly incredible. It is hard to believe that people could build these massive structures more than 4000 years ago. When you see pictures, they look quite close together. That is only because they are so large. We had to ride in the bus from one to another!

One of the guys with the rifles took this picture in return for a tip. He had a special place for me to stand which would create the illusion.

Chuck & Maggi. Larry went inside the pyramid. Since it involved walking bent over down a tunnel and then being in the burial chamber where everyone becomes aware of the tons of rock balanced overhead, the rest of us passed.

Me at a view point:

This was a boat that was buried next to one of the pyramids. It was used to take the pharaoh on his last ride. After its discovery, it took 20 years to put it together. (I kept questioning this, because the pieces were really in the proper order, it was obviously a boat - what took so long? It may have been that they had to preserve the pieces before reconstructing it.)

Chuck and I at the Sphinx

All of us at the Sphinx. From the left: Larry, Maggi, Me, Chuck (hidden), Kathleen, Linda, John, Ann, Bob, Don, Penny (peeking out), Jeannie, John, Vicky, Dave & Fran.

KFC at the pyramids. They are all over, too.

In the afternoon, there was an optional tour of Saqqara, the necropolis of the Old Kingdom. We opted not to go. It was very chilly and Maggi said that she went back and sat in the bus.

That night Larry, Maggi, Chuck and I went to the Mena House for dinner. This used to be a king's palace and was really interesting to see. Passant said that we could walk and that the guards at the gatehouse would help us cross the very very busy street. We could walk - but we were on our own for crossing. (An experience we may never forget!) The dinner was great and the restaurant was "Continental" so we all had none Middle Eastern food. We took a taxi back!

There was a wedding. I was all over trying to get a good picture of the bride:

The bride and her father were escorted down the staircase by a bagpiper and drummers.

The next morning we took the optional tour of Spiritual Cairo. Here is Passant in the front of an old church. We also visited a very old synagogue in this area.

Then we drove to a mosque in the Citadel:

The ceilings were spectacular:

Lunch time again. This pigeon was going to be someone's treat. (We didn't have pigeon - but I think that many of us would have paid a supplement to have it included!) When I took the picture the girl who was sitting underneath the cage looked at me like I was nuts - I thought that she was nuts, sitting under a bird cage.

After lunch we went to a traditional shopping bazaar. It was very crowded - but India was worse. You can see the street here.

That evening we had our farewell dinner aboard a restaurant boat on the Nile.

A lovely trip! There were no problems on the way home for us. Some of the others ran into bad weather and flight delays.

3/16 Tues & Abu Simbel & Camel Ride

I almost had a disastrous day - no internet access! I finally went and played charades with the woman at the desk. She called the new employee who speaks English and we straightened it out. So here I am again. We are winding down now - Chuck and Brian are getting to go into the tunnel every day and I'm just amusing myself. I did bring some DVD's so am watching those also.

Passant told us to be on the bus at 5 am and to bring out pillows. Normally, we are in a small van and didn't see where we would be able to use pillows. Today was special, since Abu Simbel is 3 hours south of Aswan. We were in a big tour bus - just the 16 of us. We all spread out and went back to sleep since there is really nothing to see except desert.

We did see the sunrise:

The engineering feat of Abu Simbel is just incredible. I have seen pictures, but nothing prepares you for the sheer size of these temples. Abu Simbel was built for Pharaoh Ramses II and next door is a smaller temple for his queen, Nefertiti.

I had my picture taken holding the key to the door - big key - big door.

Another digression - this one on security. We have all heard the stories about the tourists that were killed here several years back. Also at Christmas time some Coptic Christians were killed. Both in Jordan and Egypt, we have had security police riding on the buses. The rule is that every group of more than 10 people has to have a guard. In Jordan, they were young men dressed in paramilitary garb, a blue camo jacket and beret and of course a gun. In Egypt, the guard is a young man dressed in a suit and tie - with a gun. I don't really know what they would do if we were attacked. I do know that I think about where would be a safe place to be if guns started blazing, because I am not sure how much training these guys have.

In Egypt there is also armed security at the sites. For instance at the top of the ridge at Abu Simbel:

I also saw them at the top of the Valley of the Kings, riding on camels at the pyramids and walking around with rifles at the pyramids. When we were in the Coptic area, the on the ground security was even more intense. Strangely, I didn't really feel any threat. None of these guys looked particularly serious at the time. Perhaps, if things were tense, they would have seemed different.

Looking past Queen N's to R's. The people look like ants.

On the way back to the bus, it was covered and shady. Looking back at a view of the lake formed by the dam. It goes into Sudan.

On the 3 hour ride back, we stopped to take pictures of the mirage. (I just thought that mirages played with your mind - I didn't realize that they could be photographed.)

Back at our hotel we rested in the afternoon. That evening was a tour of the Aswan Spice Market. Maggi & I bought galabeyas for the grandchildren. We are planning on having our own galabeya party when we get home. We were on our own for dinner that night, but Passant knew an Egyptian pizza parlor that was at the end of the market. We all decided that sounded like fun. We also got to see the celebration when Egypt won the Africa's Cup in soccer. (When there isn't any drinking the celebration is a whole lot safer.)

Egyptian pizza is made with filo dough. It has lots of good stuff inside including green olives.

Our final day in Aswan had the event that we had all been either looking forward to or dreading - the famous camel ride. Chuck and I had saved ourselves for this. In order to see St. Simeon's Monastery, it is required. Through the whole trip Dave kept asking Chuck if he was going to do it. I think that Dave was hoping that Chuck would chicken out and then he could keep him company!

To get to the monastery we rode the camels uphill for about 15 minutes. We had then chosen to ride cross country to the Nubian village, because riding a camel downhill is really unpleasant. Actually riding the camel for 45 minutes is pretty unpleasant, also. I wasn't sure that my legs would move when we finally got there.

I made a movie of John on the camel. He was the most experienced of us and makes it look easy. The most important thing is that you must lean back when the camel is getting the hind legs up and then quickly forward when it moves the front legs.

My camel guy put a rock for me to stand on so that I would be able to get on the camel's back. They are pretty tall, even when on the ground.

The first part of the trip wasn't too bad. We all made it to the monastery without much problem.

The camels rested while we had a nice tour of this ruin. At its height there were more than 900 monks. It also hosted travelers.

Then we were off cross country. We had to stop and pose for pictures. My camel guy handed me the rein while he took my picture. This made me nervous. My camel (Micky Mouse) seemed to be a bit of a trouble maker. He stretched his head around so that the mouth was very near my leg. He tried to move between 2 other camels so that I had to pull my legs in so they wouldn't get squished. Here he is neck wrestling with Chuck's camel:

Everyone was put in line for the photo session.

Here are Larry, Dave, me, John & Don:

Larry was loving this. He was taking pictures all the time. He even took them over his shoulder. Maggi on the other hand was not a happy camper. Her camel just got down on its own at the entrance to the Nubian town - I cannot believe how quickly she hopped off. She said that she would walk the rest of the way.

My method of getting off was to bring my left leg over the front saddle post and slide down. This worked really well at the monastery. At the Nubian village, my leg wouldn't move. My camel guy had to grab it and lift it over for me. Then I could slide down - but I wasn't sure about walking. Camel riding hurts in a whole different way than horseback riding!!

This camel footprint shows why camels are so good on sand:

We were happy to sit and relax while our Nubian host served us tea and told us about his life:

That's Linda, John, Penny, Don, Kathleen & Fran.

Nubian Living Room:

We took a boat back to a restaurant right on the Nile for lunch.

After our nap time, we went to the Nubian museum. This was another small one where the exhibits were really showcased. Chuck and I could spend much more time in a museum like this.

I thought this gold comb with the mother and baby giraffes was exquisite.

That night we went to an outdoor restaurant where we had grilled meat AGAIN.

3/15 Monday & Aswan day 1

While I am blogging, I am also watching a live web cam on a hummingbird nest in Southern California. The eggs are just about to hatch. http://phoebeallens.com/

Update to the info about the hotel: The older lady and her husband own the hotel. The younger woman is her daughter-in-law and works in the dining room.

Since Sunday was a sunny day, Brian and I decided to take the lift to the top of the mountain and see what we could see. We waited until 11am hoping that the crowds would thin - but no such luck. 101 people fit on the car - and I think that is what we had.

This is the reason that Chuck did not come with us.

When we got to the top, we walked around a bit, took some pictures and then headed back down, since neither one of us had gloves or boots.

Brian

They make strange little snowmen here:

When we got down, we met Chuck and decided to "dine" at the sausage truck.

This time we chose the sausage of L'Aquila. They weren't as spicy as last week's. The ones on the right that are the most cooked are ours. Chuck and I share, so we get one sausage apiece.

Back to Egypt. We disembarked at Aswan. We will do some touring and then check in at the hotel.

Our first stop was the dam. We got to see them letting some water through, but since we were on top of the dam, there wasn't much more.

The great thing about Aswan, was that we took boats almost everywhere. OAT makes us put on our life jackets - not sure why, since we didn't wear them at Luxor. Maggi and Larry modeling theirs:

Rocks in the Nile. This was what caused the name "cataract" in the area.

Arriving at Philae Temple. This is the temple of Isis. Before the building of the high dam, this temple was flooded each year, it would have been completely submerged after the dam was built. So they built a coffer dam around it and moved it to a higher island.

Some pictures of the Temple:

After the temple, we got back in the boat and went to an island for an alfresco buffet lunch.

This was the path to the WC at the extreme end of the island. This island is owned by our hotel and has lots of fruit trees.

The WC and its attendant:

At this point, I will digress and talk about toilets in different countries. The middle east is the 3rd place I have been where you were not supposed to flush toilet paper. (Yes, even very soiled toilet paper!) This is the 1st place where the toilets have NOT SMELLED. At every bathroom there is someone who gives you toilet paper and/or towels in return for a tip. You are not really paying for what you are being given, you are paying for the fact that they clean the bathrooms almost constantly and empty the wastepaper baskets frequently. In China and in India, sometimes the smell was stomach churning and the bathroom itself wasn't really dirty.

Back to the trip. After checking in, resting, and eating at our hotel, we returned to Philae for the Sound and Light Show. Passant was at her best here. She got us to the island first, so they turned the lights on just as we approached the dock. It was fabulous - totally dark and then this:

We followed the S & L through the temple:

I took a little movie of the Sound and Light show. You can hear how wonderful the actors were. Maggi and I thought that we recognized Dame Judy Dench as Isis. We also thought that we heard Maggi Smith.

Passant told us that when we came back to the seats, to join her near the back. That way, we could be the first off the island, too. She held up her OAT sign so that we could see her. Sami (the other guide hadn't been as good at instructing his group, so they weren't as quick as we were. He said they knew, but they didn't!)

Back to the Hotel. We have to be on the bus at 5 am to go to Abu Simbel, so we hopped into bed right away.