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| Our hotel in Cairo |
As
we had now essentially doubled our time to see Cairo, we did not have
to get as early a start on Saturday morning as originally planned. We
enjoyed the extensive breakfast buffet again, gathered up our bags, and
left the hotel with our driver "Steve" around 9:00am. Our guide Josef
was to meet us at our first stop, which was the Citadel complex
overlooking the city. As we would see during most of our trip, the lack
of large tourist crowds was pretty obvious. The Citadel parking lot
was all but empty when we arrived, before a couple of large buses with
local high-school-age kids pulled up. The first fortifications on the
citadel hill date to the 12th century, and were built by the famous
Salah al-Din as a defense against Christian crusaders. Over the
subsequent centuries, formal walls and castles were built, as well as
the current centerpiece, which is the Mohamed Ali Mosque, built in the
mid-19th century. It is a near duplicate of the famous Blue Mosque in
Istanbul. The Egyptian king at the time contracted to have it built,
but the western builder had no experience with mosques, and found it
easier to copy what was already great. In the center of the mosque's
courtyard is a massive clock tower, which was given by French King Louis
Philippe in exchange for the famous obelisk from Luxor Temple, which
now stands in Place de la Concorde in Paris. We would see that
obelisk's empty pedestal later in the week, in Luxor. The Egyptians are
quick to point out that the clock in the tower has never worked, having
been damaged in transit from France and never repaired.
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| The Citadel and Mohamad Ali Mosque |
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| Non-Functional Clock from French King |
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| Mohamad Ali Mosque |
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| Anna and Charlotte outside Mosque |
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| Properly Covered to enter the Mosque |
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| Inside the Mohamed Ali Mosque |
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| Inside the Mosque |
As
we toured the Citadel area and mosque, we kept running into the large
groups of students. It was immediately apparent that they were enamored
of Anna and Charlotte. Boys and girls were running up to them at
times, asking to take selfies, while others were obviously positioning
themselves so their friends could snap pictures of them with Anna in the
background. It was not threatening, or even sexual, but seemed to out
of genuine curiosity. That said, Josef, went out of his way to
apologize, and started to wave off the growing numbers of kids that were
trying to do it. Anna said she didn't mind, but I sense it did make
her feel self-conscious.
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| Dusty View of Cairo from the Citadel |
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| Leaving the Citadel |
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| Inside Our Tour Bus |
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| Street Scene |
Back
in the van, we next headed to the Coptic area of the city. Josef had
proudly told us of his Christian faith the previous day, and seemed
genuinely excited to show us these sites. At the entrance to the
general area, there was a formal military checkpoint, and no vehicles
were allowed us. Josef knew a couple of the guards, and they allowed
our van to pull in and drop us off. It was nice to then navigate the
streets free of traffic and all the noise. Our main destination was the
famous "Hanging Church," or the Coptic Church of St. Mary, which dates
back to the 3rd century. It was absolutely beautiful, with wonderful
mosaics portraying the story of the Holy Family during their time in
Egypt. The inside, too, had incredible original frescoes and intricate
wood work. It was a highlight of the trip, to me.
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| Approaching Hanging Church |
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| Mosaic at Hanging Church |
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| The Hanging Church |
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| Door to Hanging Church |
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| Entering the Hanging Church |
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| Inside the Hanging Church |
Our
next stop was lunch, at a cute little Egyptian restaurant, on the
second floor, with nice views over the Nile River. The meal was huge
and, oddly enough, the highlight was an appetizer listed only as "garlic
dip" on the menu. Whatever it consisted of, all of us couldn't stop
raving about it, and we never did find anything similar through the
remainder of the trip. Anna was so enamored of it, that she asked we
return there the following weekend, when we were to be back in Cairo.
Alas, we did not make it. We also "enjoyed" the traditional Egyptian
dish of roast pigeon. While it looked nice when brought out, we soon
realized that it was 90 percent rice stuffing, as the amount of actual
meat was minuscule.
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| View From Lunch |
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| Roast Pigeon |
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| Two Dorks at Lunch |
The
highlight of the day was next, with our long-awaiting visit to the
Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which includes the King Tut treasure. I
have been hearing for several years about the new Grand Egyptian
Museum, which is being built to replace the extremely antiquated and
inferior current Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. Everything I read was
that it was to open in 2018, and even the on-board magazine for
EgyptAir had an article touting its imminent opening. Well, that museum
is nowhere near opening. We would catch sight of the absolutely
massive building, which is on the outskirts of Giza at the far base of
the pyramid plateau, the next weekend, and it looks nowhere near
completion. So, any thoughts of visiting the new museum were gone. We
were surprised, however, to discover that many items from the King Tut
exhibit at the current museum have already been boxed up for transport
to the new location, which seems very premature. Anyway, this was the
first time we would encounter true crowds of tourists, and they were
nearly 100 percent Chinese. Our guide said that Chinese have filled
some of the void left by the severe drop in Western tourists following
the revolution. That was obvious here. The line to go through security
outside the gates of the museum was very long, and then once inside,
the lines to enter the museum were even longer. We watched in impressed
amazement as Josef huddled us up and effectively inserted us at the
front of each line. He knew people at each choke point, and after some
laughter, back slapping, and quick handshakes (certainly with some money
in his palm), we were rushed through, ahead of everyone else waiting in
line. He did the same thing when buying our tickets, and then with
getting us directly into the museum, without waiting. That all
highlighted the value of a good guide, as well as our small group size.
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| Outside the Egyptian Museum |
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| The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities |
The
inside of the museum was exactly as I remembered it from both of my
previous visits, and something tells me it hasn't changed much over its
150-year history. Still, seeing so many fascinating objects, so freely
accessible, is something to behold. We paid for a special ticket, which
allowed us to tour the mummy room, which was another highlight. That
was immediately followed by the massive King Tut exhibit, which even
with many objects packed up for transport, took more than an hour to
even scratch the surface. In several areas, guides were not allowed to
speak, but Josef would pull us aside, tell us what we would see, provide
us a tip for best viewing, and then meet us again. His experience was
most evident during this part of our tour.
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| The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities |
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| In the museum |
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| From King Tut's Treasure |
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| King Tut's Throne Chair |
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| Original papyrus from Inside Tut's Tomb |
We
could have easily spent more time here, and he offered to do so. As it
was essentially a private tour, he was ready and willing to do what we
wanted. We elected to instead go to the main bazaar, the Khan
el-Khalili souk, which is a huge area in Islamic Cairo. Barbara had
spent time here before, and was eager for us to at least see it.
Interestingly, Josef was none too eager for us to spend time here. The
whole way down, he was warning us about the aggressive shopkeepers, and
kept saying that there was little to buy. Barbara seemed surprised by
this, and while the shopkeepers certainly did try to entice us into
their shops, they were relatively civilized compared to what we'd seen
in the other tourist areas, and in comparison to what we'd seen in
Luxor later in the week, these guys were lambs. We wanted to shop, but
Josef kept seeming to want to move us along. In the end, we did buy a
couple of things, but the most interesting part was in the walk, through
a myriad of tiny alleyways, each one unique in its own way. The smells
and sounds, too, were fascinating. We ended up stopping at a very old
cafe, set up along a very narrow alleyway, where we had tea and coffee,
and we also ordered shisha pipes. Josef was correct in that sitting
there and people watching, was the highlight of the bazaar experience.
While we were there, a Nubian woman stopped by and offered to give the
girls henna tattoos. Josef cautioned that they would find far superior
"henna artists" down in Aswan, where the Nubians actually live -- which
was true -- but the girls each had a hand done. It cost a dollar or
two. It was a very relaxing way to wind down the day.
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| Entering the Souk |
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| The Bazaar |
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| Bread |
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| In the Bazaar |
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| Getting Tea in the Bazaar |
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| Getting her hand henna tattoo'd |
The
sun had set by the time we left the market, but we hadn't been able to
tell, as the narrow alleyways already pretty much blocked all sunlight.
With the sun setting, however, locals had started to pour out into the
streets, and as the traffic had been light all day, it was now a parking
lot. Josef called our driver, who advised where he was and who said it
would take him "forever" to get down to us. Josef, instead, led us off
and we started to walk away from the souk. He deftly navigated us
through throngs of people heading in the opposite direction. We
ultimately had to go out into traffic -- which, luckily, wasn't moving
-- and cross over a large traffic circle, before Steve came around a
corner and picked us up, pretty much in the middle of traffic. While I
wouldn't want to repeat it, it is certainly an interesting memory.
We
were to fly to Aswan later this night, with our EgyptAir flight leaving
at 10:00pm. We got to the airport around 8:00pm. Our local tour
coordinator had offered to meet us, but we told him to not bother. We
didn't see a need, which was correct. We said goodbye to Josef and
Steve and checked in for our domestic flight. We would miss Josef. In
fact, we have all since become Facebook friends with him, and he was
offering us guidance -- and laughter -- during the remainder of our
trip. We were able to spend our wait in the domestic EgyptAir lounge,
which helped, as there were no real places to get food in this part of
the terminal. The snacks held us over until the flight. We were booked
in Business Class, which was nice, but the flight was just over an
hour. Still, even with such a short flight, we were served a warm
dinner. I wish American Airlines would go back to such service.
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| On the flight from Cairo to Aswan |
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| Our Plane in Aswan |
The
airport in Aswan was small, and the number of flights from Cairo has
dropped drastically with the downturn in tourism. We had also
officially gone from Lower Egypt (Cairo) to Upper Egypt (Aswan/Cairo),
which seems counterintuitive if you look at map, but which is based on
the northerly flow of the Nile River. We had another local tour
director from MemphisTours, who met us as we exited the bus that brought
us from the plane to baggage claim. He told us about the drop in
flights -- for example, there were are only three flights per day
between Cairo and Aswan. He did say that there is a once-a-week nonstop
charter to Aswan from Shanghai, which I found interesting.
From
the minute we exited the airport, we could tell we weren't in Cairo
anymore. There was no real traffic, and the drive to the hotel was
nearly deserted. We crossed the original Aswan dam, which was built by
the English in the 1800's. All of the traffic into and out of Aswan has
to drive across the dam on a two-lane road, and the Egyptian Army
controls access. It is considered a military site, as if the dam were
to break (or be intentionally damaged) it could flood the entire
country. The security checks on each side of the dam were legitimate
and thorough.
It was after midnight when we reached downtown
Aswan, which was all but deserted. Our hotel was located on Elephantine
Island, in the middle of the Nile River. To reach it, we had to take a
boat launch from along the "corniche" of old Aswan. Our minibus drove
us down to the launch area, where we and our bags were whisked onto a
boat, which immediately crossed the river. On the far side, the process
was repeated, and we were loaded onto a large golf cart and driven up
the hill to check-in. The hotel, a Moevenpick, was very nice, and our
rooms were already waiting for us. This was good, as it was going to be
a very short night, with a planned visit to Abu Simbel in the morning.
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| Launch To Take Us to Hotel |
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| Arrived at Aswan Hotel, and Ready for Bed |
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