I am still very overwhelmed by our tour of Egypt and want to go justice to all that we experienced and saw. I want our family and friends to know that words and photographs will never do justice to; the magnitude of size, grandeur, comprehension of age of the temples, pyramids, statues and artifacts; the beauty of the fertile fields along the Nile River, the amazement of seeing people live still as I would imagine life looked during the time of Christ, the beauty of the Mosques and the Coptic Churches, the noise, traffic, pollution of Cairo. We spent 12 days in a completely different world and enjoyed every second soaking up as much as we could.
We arrived in Cairo and were met by the Insight Travel agent who led us through the maze of passport/visa control, helped us gather our luggage and through one more passport control. As we drove from the airport to the hotel he regaled us with a running commentary of what we were seeing, facts, interesting tidbits of life in Cairo, laughter while watching our amazement of traffic in Cairo. On arrival at the Cairo Marriott he handed our bags to the porter, produced our room key, gave us our instructions for meeting with the entire group the next day and wished us well. I wish I had gotten his name. We knew that if he was an indication of our Insight Travel experience of Cairo we were definitely in for a good time!
Our first impressions of Cairo are of unbelievable traffic, horns, pollution, people, Mosques and Churches everywhere, apartment buildings that look like they were bombed out but are definitely inhabited and have scads of satellite dishes on the roofs, garbage, motor cycles (some with 3 or 4 people on them, some with a woman passenger in her robes sitting side-saddle), bicycle riders weaving in and out (some with baskets of goods on their heads). We couldn't look fast enough to take it all in!
The Cairo Marriott Hotel was built around the palace created for Empress Eugenie of France when she attended the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. It's a beautiful hotel right by the Nile River, with a large out door cafe, lovely decor inside and out, and a casino!! How happy was Les to make his contribution to whatever Egyptian charity the slot machine money goes to!!!
Being the brave soul that he is, Les suggested that we go for a walk in the evening. We walked over the 26 of July St. Bridge to a street that had lots of activity. We passed by shops, sheesha(water pipe)/tea cafes, bakeries, meat markets and hundreds of people. It was exciting and just a bit unnerving. Crossing the street is insanity! Many drivers do not put on their headlights at night, no one stops for pedestrians, 2 lanes of traffic often hold 4 or 5 lanes of cars, traffic lights are never obeyed. But, we did make it back to the hotel safely!
Back at the hotel we enjoyed a mid-eastern dinner at the outdoor restaurant. A couple of old women sit and hand make the best pita bread you've ever tasted, cooking them in an open fire oven right there. Les enjoyed his sheesha after dinner and I must admit that I tried it too. The apple flavoured tobacco goes through the water reservoir at the bottom of the pipe before coming out the pipe. It's very smooth and aromatic!
And so went our first day in Cairo, Egypt!!
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